REALLY low oil pressure...

[ESP Products]

people who went to the wall, spent all kinds of money on machine work, with machinists who claimed they knew what they were doing, and the engine didn't last 100 miles. What do you say about those people? They thought spending a lot of money means it's done right. WRONG! Having an engine done 'right' as you elude to, doesn't always work out.

And how do I know whether or not the engine rebuilder I choose is decent? Cuz I study. Read. and research. constantly..till i get it right. I check his background and his references. Its my job in the army, and ill make it my job out here, to fully recon the builder before I let my engine go under his knife....

As I mentioned before, I would rebuild it. I understand both arguements (above) and can give numerous examples of both. I'll give one for each arguement.
1) A gentleman walked into our shop with a rod knock. He asked how much. We told him about $1,500 in parts & labor (not real $$). Well he almost died. We told him we had to pull the engine to do it right. You know; pull the crank, clean things up, check for round, and measure the journals, etc. "Can you just throw bearings in it?" he asked. We told him, "No!...someone can do that, but not us. If it were a Pick-up or beater car, maybe, but not a Turbo Buick. We stake our reputation on our Buick work. To do a patch job for a few hundred dollars, and be the hero today, only to be the villain when something goes wrong in 2, 3, 6 month later, is not the way we do things..." He went somewhere else.
2) We quoted a shortblock for $2500. The customer went elsewhere for the job; they quoted him $2300. He went to a McEngine builder. I'm sure they have thier place, but high performance ????. They gave him a warranty. He used it twice. When he got the second engine from them he asked us to install the engine. We did install the engine. He wanted us to asure him it was OK. "How?" we said. I think he eventually had problems with that engine too.
Bottom line - both arguments are valid, but the smarter money is on a rebuild, by a builder that YOU KNOW does Buicks. OH, Another example. Guy in MD went to a builder that said they specialized in Buicks. Company orders parts from us, and tells us that this was thier first Buick job and asked us for a few pointers. As mentioned above, Do your homework!
You don't have to go crazy, just make sure it's good. R & R the engine your self to save a few dollars, if you need.

Hope this helps you.

 

[Rodney87GN]

Well after much thought I think I will just go ahead and pull the motor and get it rebuilt. Not that I think just replacing the bearings is a bad idea, it's just I've been wanting to beef up the bottom end a bit, do a roller cam, and port the heads.... so I figure now would be a great time especially with winter coming around the corner. Not to mention doing all that would be easier on an engine stand.

Thanks to all for everyone's input- y'all have been helpful.

So the next dilemna...port the stock heads or Champion irons? :biggrin:

 

[ESP Products]

Now that you have decided to rebuild, do two things. Settle on your performance level and your BUDGET. From there, see if they match each other :smile:. From there, figure if the cost of the heads, or whatever, is cost effective to your rebuild. I wouldn't recommend garage porting over CNC porting. Both Champion and ESP heads are CNC'ed. A good head/cam/intake package is worth about 150 hp. This is from tests that we have done on the chassis dyno.

Hope this helps you.

 

[Rodney87GN]

Yeah, no garage porting for me. I'm a pretty good mechanic but a head porter I am not. I'm researching head porting packages from different Buick vendors. One thing I learned from my small block chevy days is to not skimp on the heads...I think the same rule applies to Buicks.

 

[ESP Products]

Exactly. That's why we went CNC many years ago. It was the best way to keep our engine builds consistant. The CNC doesn't care about a Monday hang-over or going home at 5:00. It also provides the same port job every time, regardless of casting flaws. As I mentioned before, you can get 150 hp out of your Head/cam/intake combination.

Hope this helps you.