YACT: Cost of engine replacement on a 91 Sundance (Shadow)

[thedarkwolf]

I'd have to go along with the around $600 guess. These things are just so easy to work on and junkyards have alot of them since chrysler made so many of them that the junkyards will let parts go cheap just to get rid of them.

 

[Cat]

So I should hope for an estimate of around $600? That's not bad at all. I was envisioning ~2500.

 

[Grizybaer]

Truthfully, if you think of your car as " Very good" condition, it may be worth it. I had a 89 sundance and that was nothing but problems. Things broke that shouldnt have.

the cam shaft broke, thats solid iron or steel.
the power steering punp went,
A/C was dead,
shocks were bad, replaced them and a few months later they were bad again.

headgasket went bad, that was the most annoying replacement ever, those exhaust manifold bolts really suck, like what was chrysler thinking when they designed it?


My suggestion would be to invest your money in an old honda accord, and old 90' accord can be had for a little over a grand, and they run forever

or someother old japanese car. You'll be happy if you ever want to be your own mechanic. They make their cars so idiot proof. I replaced a broken distributor on an old accord in less than 10 min. thats about $400 worth of labor right there.

 

[faziwazi]

Not to hijack this thread or anything but I am having car probs also. I think its an engine problem, because I hear a ticking/knocking noise and it progressively gets louder when the RPMs are increased. Its a 97 Pontiac Grand Am 2.4L I4. I think its a lifter or rocker, but it seems like its coming from the bottom. Any input would be great.

 

[geno]

the cam shaft broke, thats solid iron or steel.

Man, not to badmouth the cars I love, but by any chance did you know if it broke between Cyls 1 and 2? It's actually not THAT uncommon of an occurance... very strange. Good thing the cam is very easily replaced in those motors.

 

[Pepsi90919]

I replaced a broken distributor on an old accord in less than 10 min. thats about $400 worth of labor right there.

your mechanic charges $2400/hr? perhaps you should.... 'shop around'.

 

[RU482]

go to car-part.com and find a reasonable engine for your car. Then, just call around to a bunch of different shops asking what they charge to install engines. I did this when the tranny went out of my Camry. The quotes varied from "no fvcking way will we install a used tranny from a junkyard" to $1250 to $325. I got a tranny out of a newer car with ~11k on it for about $150 shipped. The whole deal was done for about $500, and the car's been running great ever since.

 

[DrumminBoy]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
all of those chrysler cars from that era have engines that knock.

I've heard quite a few that have the "knock"

 

[thedarkwolf]

Originally posted by: Grizybaer
Truthfully, if you think of your car as " Very good" condition, it may be worth it. I had a 89 sundance and that was nothing but problems. Things broke that shouldnt have.

the cam shaft broke, thats solid iron or steel.
the power steering punp went,
A/C was dead,
shocks were bad, replaced them and a few months later they were bad again.

headgasket went bad, that was the most annoying replacement ever, those exhaust manifold bolts really suck, like what was chrysler thinking when they designed it?

What were you thinking removing the exhaust manifold? Did you have to replace the whole head or something?

I've heard of them breaking cams but I haven't ever had that problem. I've heard its caused from several things like the timing belt being to tight to the head being warped.

The other problems could happen on anything. I don't see how the replacement shocks going bad in a few months has anything to do with the car.

These are rough noisy little engines but they shouldn't knock. When they went to rollar cams in 88 they got a lot better but they still aren't a refined engine by any means. Other than the headgaskets going they do hold up really well if taken care of and thats their biggest problem. They are cheap cars real cheap and a lot of people just don't give enough of a crap about them to even change the oil so they blow up and then its "what a peice of crap".