Thread: Spun rod bearing in my engine, Series III is cheaper than Series II, should I?

So after further research it appears that 2004 is not ALWAYS a aluminum pan, depending on when the engine was produced. I guess I'll just have to wait and find out. If it is a steel pan should I go ahead and replace the gasket?

Originally Posted by darkhorizon

S3's dont use oilpan gaskets if they are aluminium, either way new oil pan gaskets are usually never needed as they will still leak... rebuilding a stock gasket with RTV is usually the best choice.

I was curious about what he was talkin about here. I've read how hard the oil pan is and I want to make sure it won't leak once the engine is in. I'll go head and replace the gasket then, is that Felpro I listed good?

Again, replacing the gasket is not going to help matters. The stamped steel oil pans were made by a 5th grader in canada, and the mating surface looks like a broken accordian.

clean the block/pan with brake cleaner, and apply a ton of RTV to the pan and the top of the gasket. A new gasket is not going to fix the broke ass oilpan design. The GM service bulletin says excatly this is how you fix a leaky oil pan gasket.

I pulled the engine today, I got a lot done in about 6 hours today, but everything went very smoothly. Pics.About halfway done:

Time to get under it:

About half way done bench:

I think something was leaking...

It's out, thats the balancer shaft in the middle or the lifter valley:

I finally found what killed the engine. This sludge caused a clog before oil went into the filter, and starved the engine for oil, then spun a bearing since everything was relatively dry:


Under side of valve covers, rear was leaking really bad:

Passenger side rockers:

Driver side rockers:

Blurry, but where I left off. I pulled the 02 Sensor (2 weeks old), rear engine cover\RMS, water pump(looks new, I'll be reusing it), cam sensor, EGR tubes\mount, rockers, push-rods, and lifters (which were really stuck!). Basically stripped everything but the harmonic balancer, timing cover, and chain.

Bench:

I'll rent the puller on Monday and finish the tear down. I hope to get the new engine next week.

I just got off the phone with the junkyard, just to double check they still have it. I had him check for a aluminum pan, he said it was steel. I then had him check for the throttle body, to see if it has 4 bolts instead of 3 holding it on, it has 4. This leads me to believe it's a Series III(Gen V M90) with a steel pan right?

I'm definitely going to look it over real well to make sure it is what I'm looking for, but I'm also going to have money in hand to buy it if I like it (2 hour drive). From what I've seen, the easiest way to tell the differences quickly is the 4-bolt throttle body with no throttle cable, and the aluminum oil pan. They share the same timing cover, right? I don't want to use the timing cover from my current engine on my new engine, an old water pump's bad bearings caused the impeller to dig into the metal a bit.

early SIII could have steel pans, just as they could have the SII rods.

That explains it then, this is out of an 04. Looks like I'll still have the upgraded rods and supercharger though. Looks like there's plenty of signs\land mark on the engine to tell me if it's a SII or SIII. Thanks again.

New engine is here! I got a great deal IMO. Everything you see on the engine here, and all they got in a core was the heads and short block. This is basically ready to drop in, but I'm gonna clean it up first. I pulled the oil cap and theses valves are CLEAN! I won't take much to make this beauty look good!



cleaning and disassembly starts tomorrow!

It's an l32, the booster hose told me so, lol. JY said it's got 155k on it, but who knows. It appears to have metal LIM gaskets already (did I read somewhere that 04+ has metal factory? I think so), so I bet I could bolt an alternator and power steering to it and drop it in. I'm not going to though, I want to have a good look at the inside of her before I'm happy. Looks could be deceiving.

THANK YOU for that, I was going off of this:

Originally Posted by BillBoost37

You would need a throttle body adapter ($100) and that's all, as long as the new motor has the SC on it. And if it does..you are ahead of the game from the SC side.

Then swap your alt, ac bracket, map sensors and TB etc on .. you are good to go. Oh..and use the S3 evap. piece of cake.

I had no idea I had to modify the TB, I asked about the PCV, but never got a straight answer on it. Now I have my answer and have a general idea what to do...drill\tap TB, run hose from nipple on S\C to drilled\tapped hole, right?

So get this, block is cast saying 3800 Series II, has a stamped pan, had plastic intake gaskets, but has the newer (crappier) timing cover. I bet when I drop the pan I won't find the L32 connecting rods.