Does anyone have this many problems with their car?

[turbosam6]

I don't think I'm being unreasonable here. My car has 50,000 original miles on it. I am currently on my 4th motor counting the stocker. I have yet to get 1 motor to just work right. I don't wanna go 9's, or any outrageous crap like that, hell, I'd be happy with just having the damn thing run 11's more than once without breaking. I have maybe 15 passes on the whole car. The stock motor failed of my own doing, and I accept that. First motor 400 miles, rod knock. 2nd motor maybe 700 miles, lost oil pressure under boost for no good reason and no one could fix it. 3rd motor smokes like a chimney, most likely due to faulty heads. WTF?! I baby my car, like its made of glass, and this is my reward? So now I will attempt to find why it smokes, which I pretty much already know but I'm in denial. Its really testing my patience here. I would have no problem replacing motors if I actually got to use them. I just don't see other guys having this much trouble. I have paid through the nose to get good parts and use buick "experts", only to get non functioning parts. I'd sell the fu(ker, but I wouldn't sell it till it was fixed, which apparently will never happen. Even then it would be painfull to see so many paychecks and so many hours go down the drain.

So does anyone have problems like this?

 

[sixgun86gn]

Do like I did and build the darn thing yourself.Then the only person to blame for taking shortcuts is yourself.I am the only Buick "expert" that touches my car plain and simple.I trust noone with doing anything right unless I am there the whole way.That,or find yourself a new "expert" to screw it up again.

 

[Bruce Davis]

Just sell me the car...I told you that on sunday. E-Mail me at bd1320n11@msn.com

 

[turbot2112]

i feel your pain. im going on my 6th or 7th transmission. i think trasmissions will cost you more money than the damn motor in these cars.

 

[AsphaltAnihil8r]

Dang Sam,sorry to hear,,I think the last Rebuilder should step up to the plate and fix those guids,,I am no motor builder ,,but have heard about the guild problems,,why is he not flipping the bill to have Pete do the work that should have been done in the first place,,I remember you even brought it to the attention of the bui;der ,,and he still dropped the ball,,correct me if I am wrong ,,

What a shame .......

 

[turbosam6]

Bruce, if this crap continues you might get your chance! I just hate to sell a problem to someone else though. Too much time and money in it to give up.

Dennis, I agree with your opinion. Theres more than 1 person to blame here though. Champion ultimately needs to fix it, but no one ever has any luck with them. Right now I feel like trading someone for a new set of ported irons. Thats where I screwed up. I was assured these GN1's would be checked, as this exact problem was my greatest fear. I spoke to the actual builder who admitted not checking the guides. He pulled one and it looked OK. Nevermind the other 11. He then proceeded to tell me how these heads have sucky guides from the factory. I said "Duh". That would be the reason I asked for them to be checked.

I give up paying people to fix this car. I always end up doing it. Nothing like being forced to be a mechanic.

 

[Vendor Defendor]

dude, i feel your pain...

my car has a collapsed lifter in it right now, or something that is making a god awful knocking noise.

an oil leak with no end

7 transmissions

$600 in a/c 'repair' (still dosent work, 'family friend' tryed to fix it, although i did most of the work, asshole)

i have broken two of those front prostars i have on my car, and i have a third that is on the car right now that is headed out the door.

my speedo decided to quit working the other day, which also took out my converter lock up, so around town my car is running at pretty high engine speeds...

my scanmaster is reading all sorts of crazy knock numbers on the highway... just crusing (no boost) it is telling me i have 20 degrees and more of knock retard.

in the mourning, when i first fire it up in the mourning it seems that a bunch of soot comes out of the driver side tale pipe, a lot more then the passenger side one, and it smells kinda funky and there is a little bit of smoke with it too... hope thats just my imagination....

but no, you arent the only one.. some of us just dont have any luck, and my car is still my daily driver. everyone on here is like 'oh get a beater' well, i cant afford a beater right now, so i just have to make my buick work right now.

 

[turbojimmy]

Don't blame the car for shoddy workmanship. I was plagued with these types of problems for most of 2001 through 2003. Trans went first and I paid a local guy over $1,000 to not fix it. Ultimately I took it to Level10 and despite a few hiccups in dealing with them they did build an awesome transmission for the car that has been working fine ever since.

Soon after I got the trans working right the original motor went. This time, however, I checked around the TR crowd for a decent rebuilder. I found one. After 1,000 miles the motor was knocking again (it actually had a subtle knock from the get go). The guy rebuilt it again basically for free no questions asked. My brother's Turbo T engine is down there right now being rebuilt.

Now, knock on wood, everything seems to be coming together. I got my first 11-second timeslip last fall and hope for some deeeeeep 11s this year.

I'd like to say that the "you get what you pay for" adage holds true with this sort of stuff, but that's not always the case. You have to pay for quality work, but you could also wind up paying a lot for nothing if you don't do your homework.

Good luck and hang in there. Once it all comes together you'll feel a lot better about it.

Jim

 

[AsphaltAnihil8r]

Sam,those heads are my greatest fear also,,and I was pretty convinced as you were that it would be takin care of ,,get a \Lawyer,,there are plenty of post here to back up the concerns that you had while getting it built,,,to many back yard mechanics saying they are engine builders,,yeah anyone can get a multi line phone and pretend to be a large corporation,my buddy did that 11yrs ago,,press 1 for billing ,,press 2 for parts,press 3 for sh!tty engine rebuild,press 4 to get bent over and they all end up ringing some dopes kitchen phone ,,,Uhh yeah I can build you a motor

 

[badboy86gn2]

Sh*t guys

with all that talk you guys got me wondering about my (samsmotor) which ive yet gotten yet hopefully this week ill hear something

I dont know though

did you get to see it sam??

Johnny

 

[AsphaltAnihil8r]

That's the good Motor ( Sam Club Motor)

Just make sure about the heads (guides)

www.samsclub.com

 

[turbosam6]

No, I didn't see it. I thought you already had it. I did not even realize it was you asking for the pictures. Whats been the holdup getting it to you?

I guess someone told Pete I was full of sh!t about it being messed up. Right. Like I got nothing better to do than pull a very expensive motor out again and send it back. Like I don't want my car running. Whatever. I'm not an engine builder, and apparently no one is, but Pete says its fine. I also found no problems with it. So maybe I'm wrong. I hope so.

I'm getting so sick of watching all my big block buddies beat their cars endlessly with no concern and they just keep going. They can't believe all the work mine takes. I went for a ride with my buddy in his blown and nitrous'd big block chevelle the other day. Car had been sitting for 2 weeks. Fired it up, and within maybe 1-2 minutes he was WOT. I know my pos would have been toast if I did that. Its been running for years like that.

Its just so frustrating. Its becoming very hard to find a reason not to sell it. Coulda had a 9 second chevy for half what I got in this sh!thole.

 

[victa1]

"Its just so frustrating. Its becoming very hard to find a reason not to sell it. Coulda had a 9 second chevy for half what I got in this sh!thole."



I hear that. I still like my car, can't really say love anymore, and I am giving it one more chance. If I had kept it stock, I would still love it and have had enough money to build a big block Dart/Nova ect. If I wasn't in the middle of getting a business venture off the ground, I would probably stick with it due to the huge investment in money and fustration. But I will probably sell it at a HUGE loss if things don't start looking up. Going fast in a straight line does not seem that important anymore!

 

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by victa1
"Its just so frustrating. Its becoming very hard to find a reason not to sell it. Coulda had a 9 second chevy for half what I got in this sh!thole."

I feel like it's an uphill battle sometimes, too. It really would be a lot easier to go faster in just about any other V8 powered car. But where would you be? Walking down a row of 15 or 20 big block Chevies and another 15 or 20 Mustangs to get to the one or two turbo Regals at a show reminds me of why I own this car.

Same deal at the track. Walking down the staging langes: Rice, rice, rice, rice, Mustang, Mustang, Mustang, Mustang, LT1, LT1, LS1, LS1, LS1.....oh here's my car - the one with all the people gathered around the open hood (at Island, you spend a lot of time wandering around the staging lanes rather than actually racing).

Everyone has their reasons for owning what they own. If it's all about cheap, easy speed drop a big block in a primered Vega and be done with it.

Jim

 

[Roc87]

Mostly everyone around here has some sort of problems with theirs............(Johnny though, takes the prize!)

There are also a few that don't have many problems. I've got nearly 150k miles on the stock engine and pushed it to a low 12 (should have tried harder for an 11) on pump gas. Had to replace the tranny once, alternator twice, crank sensor twice, MAF twice, starter once, and that's it. I'll have owned it four years in May, and put 43k miles on it in that time. Still drive it to work 3-4 times a week.

After seeing what Johnny is going thru, that's when I decided to have a new timing set put on, "just in case".

Sorry to hear about the problems guys, (Knocking on wood.......) But what other car can you run 11's in, and drive it to the track with cruise and A/C and still log 23mpg??

 

[badboy86gn2]

there you go again bragging

but your right i think that the true reason most if not all of us have kept their gns

hey if i wouldnt have made the biggest small mistake id be there with you

Johnny

Sorry to hear about the problems guys, (Knocking on wood.......) But what other car can you run 11's in, and drive it to the track with cruise and A/C and still log 23mpg

 

[Roc87]

not really bragging

Just wanted to show that while there are cars with problems there are others that don't have many.

Johnny, if you didn't do the biggest small mistake, you wouldn't be with me, You'd be in front of me!!!