I just threw a couple pics of it up on my Cardomain site.

Here

"well the engine is definitely junk. I get about 150 - 155 pounds of compression in all cylinders EXCEPT #1, which is about 125. I was driving down the highway and it started "bucking" and just running really bad, the plug on the #1 cylinder is badly fouled from an oil leak (probably rings not sealing) Replaced the plug and it runs fine, but I know it's only a matter of a week or 2 till it fouls up again. I go through about a quart of oil every 100 miles."


The thing I STILL can't figure out is where all the oil is going... :? a quart every 100 miles should DEFINETLY be noticeable somewhere..if it were getting burned it should smoke like a bitch...generally your lowest cylinder should be within 10% of your highest, so you are out of range a bit, although 125 PSI isn't EXTREMELY low. I've got a 97 K3500 dually in right now with compression problems...132,000 miles and the WHOLE left bank is waaay under..80, 80, 105, 65 shooting oil into the cylinders to help improve ring seal netted 125,125,150,90 plugs didn't look bad, just a bit dark, but the misfire counters on the left bank were going CRAZY, so he's definetly looking at an engine...your problem still stumps me a bit, as your compression is low, but not low enough on that cylinder to lose 1 quart every 100 miles, and not be extremely noticeable. I'll do some checking into a price on an engine and labor to give you a ballpark of what we'd charge if we were to do it, that way you don't get totally screwed....
On your other issue, do you have a bill of sale for the truck, and if so, what exactly does it say? I'd expect you should probably be picking up the phone and contacting an attorney to get an idea of your options. Many will give a free initial consultation, and it may come down to making the guy buy the truck back, or him paying for repair costs, although if he's a broke f*cker like most of us, he's most likely spent the $$$, and all he'll get is a judgement against him :?
was this a personal owner, or a business? You'll have much better luck going after a business than a personal individual......
Best advice I can give to ANYONE is to spend the $$$ to have a vehicle inspected by a good repair shop before buying it, unless you're EXTREMELY thorough, cause you never know what might happen :?

Well....I guess looks can be decieving since it looks pretty damn nice on the outside....

Too bad about the engine...hopefully it doesn't cost too much to fix her up...

TOC Admin
Brando

would the cat. converter pick up much of the smoke if it was burning oil? I didn't think it was burning oil either... untill I saw the spark plug. It definitely has a major oil control problem.

I dont have a bill of sale, just the title with the guy's signature on the back and the ammount I paid for it. I went around with him a little, because I wanted a bill of sale but he convinced me I didn't need one, and said that if I did end up needing one just stop by and "we can write one up". (it was a personal sale, not a business) like I said before, I may have gotten screwed... I've never had a bad experience buying a car from a private party, but I guess theres a first time for everything

What I may do is before I tell this guy I'm having problems with the truck, I'll write up a bill of sale and try to get him to sign it. That should help. I won't put "as is" in the bill of sale, hopefully he wont notice

it's a stumper for sure... but I'm not BS'ing you, I've driven it about 300 miles and put at least 3 quarts into it. The other day I had it idling for a while first thing in the morning and when I got in I reved it up a little and it shot a bunch of black shit out of the tailpipe all over the snow.... no blue smoke though.

73delta, in regards to getting some sort of compensation, I am not sure if the car buyers clause is the same in the states, but in Canada, the general rule of thumb is buyer beware. You have 24hours after the purchase of a private sale to get your money back.

Unfortunately, the courts will likely side with him if you want to deal through the legal system, but if you treat him right, and he co-operates, you may be able to get some money out of him if he feels bad for ripping you off...

But I would definately talk to a lawyer anyways, since he will know a lot more than I do! Find one that will give you an hour of free consultation.

I found this website where it seems to outline the rights of a private party buyer in Massachusetts. Scroll down on the page a little bit to where it says "private party Sales" Here it says: Click here

"If you discover a defect that impairs the vehicle’s safety or substantially impairs the use, and can prove that the seller knew about the defect but failed to disclose it, you may cancel the sale within thirty days of purchase. The seller must refund the amount you paid for the vehicle, less 15 cents per mile of use"

maybe I should just dump some Z-Max in there or something and see what happens, lol

Well, I wouldnt try to fix it, if you want to get something out of him! I would have to guess he knew about the oil consumption... Thats a little bit crazy using a quart in 100 miles. And there is absolutely NO oil spots on your driveway?? My car leaks oil, I use roughly a quart in a month its so bad. I know the motor does not use oil, and if I leave the car parked for an hour, there is a quarter sized pool on the ground. I think I've got oil pan seal issues.

Anyways, you should look into what you can do about this... Especially if you can get your purchase price back! (thats assuming you dont want the truck)

Well I do want the truck, hehe. I love it, and I cut my teeth driving offroad so it's nice to have an offroad vehicle again.... just wish it didn't have a bad engine. I'd rather have him pay or help pay to fix it, but we'll see what happens. Maybe he'll be willing to strike a deal with me. I'd be content if he would at least help me pay to get it in good running condition... but that may be wishful thinking. we'll see what happens.

I'll keep you guys posted on what goes down when I confront him.

I was just thinking of something... Check out the oil filter, and the assembly that comes off the engine... It may be cracked, therefore, very little oil would escape unless the engine is running...

Who knows. Just dont make sense that you arent burning anything with that much loss.

Maybe I'm talking out of my ass... But with 2 quarts going missing in a week, your coolant level should have risen quite a bit.

its not going into the coolant... it would look worse by now if it was.

I thought of that too... that it might just leak when its running so I put some clean cardboard under it and let it run for a while. not a drop.

I talked to a lawyer today and he said that the important thing is that I notify the person I bought it from of the situation ASAP. He suggested that I do it by Certified letter, so I can prove he actually recieved it and he cant say he never heard from me. So I typed up a real good one outlining everything that's happened since I bought the truck. I didn't stretch the truth or anything... just put the facts in there. In it I told him I want to cancel our contract and have him buy the truck back or have him pay to put the truck into the condition he told me it was in. (rebuild or replace the engine) because he misrepresented the vehicle to me at the time of the sale. And I also said that I'd like to avoid taking legal action, but if need be I will.

I'll see what he has to say when he gets back to me... hopefully he'll be willing to co-operate and help me fix it.

well if you end up putting an engine in it, they are pretty easy. i just replaced an engine in a 89 stepside with a 5.7L yesterday. it's actually the same truck i did head gaskets on a few years ago, but it lost oil pressure now.

P.S. i installed a Jasper engine, if you get one always take a good look at it before accepting it from the deliverer. this one had a bent push rod probably from having another engine bumped into it. not the first time this has happened, except the first time it was around 9 pushrods bent so i sent it back and got another one, this one was only 1 bent rod so i took a pushrod from the old engine, cleaned it, put it in and adjusted the valve (would have sent it back, but the customer needed the truck for the weekend) worked out ok.

73, thats cool that you're going after him. I bet he will try to hagle with you at first, and wont be receptive... Most people wont beleive you when you say you'll take it to court, so he may not be interested (especially dealing with a 21 year old), but as you show him you ARE serious and know what you're doing, he might turn right around.

Amazing what people will do when they think they can get away with it.

yeah, good luck with that, although i'm not sure what can be done. i don't think the lemon law applies to private sales.

It does in MA... If within 30 days you discover a major defect in the vehicle that costs more than I think 10% of the purchase price to fix, and can prove that the seller knew about it but did not tell you about it, you can make them either buy the vehicle back or pay to fix it.

Machismo I got some numbers Tell me what you think

GM Goodwrench Reman. 3 yr warrenty, 30K miles $2489
GM AC Delco Reman. 2 yr 20K mile warrenty $1775

There are a few junk yard engines I could get too, all with milege between 84K and 100K and in a price range from about $800 to $1000

12 - 15 hours labor ($58 an hour)

so it looks like if I went with the cheaper rebuilt engine it would end up costing around 2500 bucks (give or take) for the whole job. :? I would go with the rebuilt engine because I just cant see spending that much in labor to put in an engine that already has 100K on it.

I'm going to get a 2nd opinion from a guy I know who runs a local shop... This first diagnosis was done by a dealership and although I know they know what they're doing, I think they may be a little too quick to judge the engine to be "completely" junk. I found out that they didn't even check all of the cylinders for compression, they just stopped when they found the bad one and said that was the problem. (although it probably is) This other guy may be more willing to dive into it, also there's a machine shop in town that has a pretty good reputation for rebuilding engines. We'll see what kind of diagnosis I get from him.

GM Goodwrench Reman. 3 yr warrenty, 30K miles $2489
GM AC Delco Reman. 2 yr 20K mile warrenty $1775

There are a few junk yard engines I could get too, all with milege between 84K and 100K and in a price range from about $800 to $1000

12 - 15 hours labor ($58 an hour)


those sound about right, although the last time I checked, the Goodwrench reman had a 3 yr/50,000 mile warranty...and that was last week sometime when I called on one...

damn..$800-1000 for an 84-100K motor? I just ordered in 2 used engines...
an 11,000 mile complete 3.9 engine for a 2001 dakota..our cost was $1100...and a 7.4 big block complete with 46,000 original for $1900...they must get a hell of a markup there...you can buy a complete reman thru a rebuild place for $1100, depending on where you go...that's a long block too....

the labor times sound pretty close too, maybe a bit less if the tech was very familiar with the engine swap...12-15 hrs should be to pull the engine, swap everything over to a new long block, and reinstall. That should NOT be for simply swapping in a used engine. I'm surprised..I thought your labor rates would be higher...ours is currently $58 and the dealerships are about $62, and we're in a town of only 5,500 people...