Um..ya probably, considering I think I dropped a valve today...

gee, it ran good for almost two days.

Reliable, no. I got screwed on this car, plain and simple. You win some, you lose some.

Next stop is the junk yard. I've had with this piece of junk.

Phil

 

Toecutter, how hard did you drive it after doing the head gasket?

 

About 150 miles of easy driving. I've done head gaskets before, and know better than to run it hard until everything seals up. I rebuilt a 2.3 I threw in an '85 Ranger...the carb was screwy on it and was running at 3 grand at idle...wasn't long, 5 or 10 minutes while I was trying to get the carb fixed that the new head gasket blew on it...not a happy camper.

No, the new problem I have now is that it seems to be back firing through the intake...makes a loud banging noise through there. The car does run still, but has no power and if i get it up around 50 it will start shuddering till I let off the gas...when I hit the gas again it stops shuddering, but still backfires...won't do it at idle, but will do it under a load.

The car was running great until it started doing that yesterday morning...I have no idea what it actually is, I'm assuming it's mechanical. I don't think it jumped time...I'm not sure if these still had nylon teeth like the older 2.8's did...I know they caused a lot of problems when those teeth gave way...bent valves I know for sure. Happened to my sister's 87 Grand Am...

Thanks for the help!
Phil

 

well, I found the problem.. I'm not thrilled about it either. Pivot ball on the number 3 exhaust rocker broke. Pulled the rear valve cover off just now, and there she was...hanging loose. I found 1/2 off the ball and a finger off of the pushrod guide lying inside the head...where the other half is? I'm assuming in the block somewhere...unfortunately GM decided to do things differently with the 3.1. There's a space between the lower intake and the top of the head plenty big enough for the other half to fall down into. Why it broke, I don't know...I double checked the torques on the rockers when I put them back on. May have been a stress crack on that particular one.

My concern is that other piece. It looks like I may be pulling the intakes off again to find it...if I don't I know it will come back to haunt me.

That explains the banging through the intake...I just wonder how much damage I did to the bearings on that cylinder...

Thanks for the help.
Phil