Thread: i need help! engine ticking?? 3800

You could do that, if you want. I doubt enough serious damage is done to it, though. Just a cam bearing, pull the cam and bearing, inspect the cam, put new bearings in, done. If the motor craps out down the road, you can get a replacement for a decent price and swapping isn't too hard. These engines are everywhere so it makes replacements and parts fairly cheap.

Morad Parts Company - 3800 Motors, Transaxles, & Stock Parts for all your used parts needs. Even whole engines and transmissions.

Like Synth said. Not trying to change your mind, but simply making sure you're aware of all available options.

To be replaced, or do you mean just the part? Doing it yourself is free. Part is here:

ZZ Performance

the bearings arent that bad in price ,its labor that takes you

even to do an engine, its major work especially if your doing it yourself in your driveway or whatever

how much do you want to spend? that is the question

i'd do the cam bearings myself, but im a GM tech so my skill level might be higher than yours

the only time the engine is worth replacing is when you love the car that much and not move on to then next

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

My personal opinion is keep it. Not that hard to get it running again. Once its up and running it's still a deal considering what you paid for it and then spent on it. You still come out on top.

I agree!! I'm not sure why a cam bearing went bad. Sorry to hear about your luck. But yeah, keep it man you will be much farther ahead then if you got another car. You already put a lot into it.

Just out of curiosity... Which bearing was it?

The hardest part about replacing cam bearings yourself is sourcing the tool to remove/install them. There's pretty expensive to buy, and it's tough to find a machine shop willing to loan one out. I got lucky and found a machine shop where the manager used to be a GP owner and he just let me borrow the tool with a $20 deposit.

I've still got the process pretty fresh in my mind, and I'll be more than happy to help walk you though the job (as would a few others here, I'm sure).

Originally Posted by DanGTP

Just out of curiosity... Which bearing was it?

The hardest part about replacing cam bearings yourself is sourcing the tool to remove/install them. There's pretty expensive to buy, and it's tough to find a machine shop willing to loan one out. I got lucky and found a machine shop where the manager used to be a GP owner and he just let me borrow the tool with a $20 deposit.

I've still got the process pretty fresh in my mind, and I'll be more than happy to help walk you though the job (as would a few others here, I'm sure).

Id love to see a write up and/or pictures of the process if you can, for future reference.

Well... I didn't exactly take pictures. I usually leave that up to my roommate, who wasn't around at the time. I'll sit down and do a decent writeup without pictures, anyway.

NP bringing up an old thread. That sounds a lot like a lifter ticking.
I'm not real sure on the process involved in replacing lifters for your engine, but I can imagine it's not a whole lot different than the process for ours.
Now, I don't know about any of the Grand Am forums, but I'm sure they're out there and the people there can give you a run down of the process. I do know that there are a some GA owners on fullthrottlev6 if you want to check that site out.