Fairbanks, Alaska engine replacement

[northerngospel]

I have an '84 DLX hatchback. It's been a good car, however this winter I put too much oil into the engine. The car began flashing the low oil pressure warning light & overheating, with oil in the coolant. I took it to Sun Rae Motors here in Fairbanks and the mechanic's response was, "This engine is tired. I won't replace the head gasket but I will consider replacing the whole engine."

Practically, I would prefer the same car with a new engine to some other car.

My problem is both finding a new engine for the car and also finding a mechanic in Fairbanks, Alaska that will be able to work on the car. I believe there are some other forum members from Fairbanks -- can you help me? Or do I just order online? Thank you!

[irowiki]

If the engine isn't blown, just rebuild it!

[northerngospel]

I want to! But I don't have the tools, time, shop, or education/experience. I want to get the car running again with professional help right now.

[irowiki]

Through a mechanic, you might spend less having them rebuild it then you would shipping an engine up from the lower 48?

[northerngospel]

That's why I'm posting here, I hope to find that mechanic. Reading this forum there are some excellent mechanics here, I am hopeful one of them lives in Fairbanks and will soon post in this thread.

[dlb]

some mechanics won't replace just a head gasket because once coolant gets into the oil, it can contaminate the bearings, causing corrosion in them and their eventual failure soon after the engine is up and running again -- it reflects poorly on the shop, like "oh they fixed my engine and then a few weeks later, it blew up." so maybe you can ask sun rae motors to do a full rebuild, including the bearings. lots of old shops hate working on old stuff so who knows if they'll go for it but no harm in asking.

another possibility is searching on the forum here for 'alaska,' finding the alaskan members, and sending each of them messages to see if anyone has a spare engine. all tercels 83-86 and the wagons from 83-88 all have the same 3A engine so you should be able to find one up there.

good luck, northerngospel.

[Petros]

that is a pretty old econo-box car to be spending money on, around here good running cars that old can be bought for $600-800 (the 4wd versions go for much more of course).

it might be cheaper to fly down here to washington and find a decent replacement car, buy it and and drive it back. I understand the desire to want to keep an old trusy and reliable car running, but paying someone else to do the work means likely about $1000 in labor (and other minor parts) for the engine swap, not counting the cost of a new/rebuilt motor. You also might need a clutch, hoses and a number of other related parts. you can likely have an engine shipped there for about $100, good used engines are about $500 (though that would be talking a risk, some unscrupulous supplier down here might send you junk knowing there is little you could do about it). All of the parts for an engine rebuild might only cost about $600-700, but there is still labor and machine shop costs. likely you would be into a rebuilt or replacement engine about $2000 by the time you are done. It hardly seems worth the cost for such an old car.

Unless you find a good engine locally, this is not a very viable or practical alternative. Perhaps it is time to say good by to this Tercel.

Also, I do not see how over filling the motor oil could cause damage to the head gasket. Usually it will spill out of a number of places and leak all over. Did it suck a lot of oil down the intake through the PVC system? Enough oil that way would do serious damage to the engine, but I would think you would have had plenty of warning before that happens, like running badly and a lot of smoke out the back.

No matter, if your engine is shot, from what ever the cause, you either need a replacement engine, or consider just looking for a decent car to replace that one.

Good luck.

[northerngospel]

It's great to have a chance to tell this forum about the extreme environment of Fairbanks, Alaska! I encourage you to read the craigslist postings. From a distance we will seem very foolish to pay so much for such terrible cars.

Thank you for the information about Washington motors! The only source I have for an engine right now is purzauto.com, who will charge $1100 + an Alaskan delivery fee for an "used, OEM" engine. Has anyone used this service?

Re: repairs. The motor was run only briefly with the excessive oil (about 2 miles, ten minutes). The oil pressure light came on while I was driving. I pulled into a parking lot and released the excess oil into a container. Over the next few weeks I replaced the air filter, which had much oil in it, and attempted to replace the radiator fluid, which also had oil in it. I only drained the radiator, not the engine block. I replaced the fluid with pure glycol and I don't know how much.

In addition the oil pressure light would keep coming on while idling. It seemed similar to other posts on this forum, flickering with the car's engine, only brightening to full when the car began overheating.

Then the ambient temperature increased from -20 degrees F to +20 degrees F and the overheating made the car undriveable.

Clearly, the radiator fluid still is a target. There are some other mechanical issues that could be contributing also. However as previously stated, I do not have time, tools, expertise, or shop. All I have is money. It would make me very happy to make a friend up here in Fairbanks! I hope this thread brings one to me

[xirdneh]

i overfilled one once abt 8 years ago. it had 8-1/2 quarts in there
drove it a couple of miles
engine lacked power off and on and there was intermitant bursts of blue smoke out the back
it also burped oil into the air filter housing
it did not harm the engine
still driving it

try replacing the oil sender just in case it went bad. its cheap and fairly easy to get at
but the over heating will probably mean blown head gasket
when i have one that overheats i remove thermostat
if it stops overheating get new thermostat
if it still overheats that increases the odds for blown headgasket