GM 2.8 V6 vs 2.0 4 banger,witch one is more reliable ??

[Frederic Breitwieser]

>than his 4 banger ( cavalier and sunbird 2.0L ),i want to set the record
>straight,does the cavalier 4 banger is more reliable than the oldsmobile
>2.8 V6 ?????

I'll be honest with you Alain, both engines are "okay".  A 4 cyl in a
cavalier is not too unreasonable because the car is small and light
compared to the Cierra.  A six in the Cierra is almost a must, and 2.8L is
kinda small.  I still don't understand why GM put a small engine into the
Cierra.  Both engines are good in their own right, but the Cierra was a tad
underpowered with the 2.8L In my opinion.  The 4 cyl was more reliable
however from a maintanence point of view... GM had a lot of problems with
certain years of the 2.8L, mostly relating to the electronics from anything
I've read.

Anyhoo...

What makes a big difference is how the driver treated it.  Did he/she stomp
on the gas constantly from standstill?  Was the oil changed regularly?  Was
the transmission fluid checked and changed every 50-60K?

If the V6 has 140K miles on it, more than likely, the car was taken care of
at least to some extent, or it would have been dead about 80K before you
found it.  Is it the original engine?  If so, care was taken in the
maintanence department.

Before you buy it, buy yourself a cheap compression test guage from the
auto store, remove the ignition coil wire, and do a compression test.  If
the compression is a tad low, which it might be because of the miles, make
sure all the cylinders are close to each other in readings.  If one or two
cylinders are way off, then you have a bad valve, a head gasket that's gone
or going, or a ring is broke.  I'd also loosen the oil plug, and drop about
a shots glass worth of oil, look for crud in it.  Jack each front lower
suspension member up one at a time, so the tire is about an inch off the
ground.  Try to move the tire forward and back, and up and down.  This will
give a clue as to the condition of the lower ball joints as well as the tie
rod.  Put the car back down, and pull on the front-wheel-drive axles.  They
shouldn't slip hardly at all.  Tie rod ends and ball joints are not too
expensive (in the 15-20 buck range each), but they can be a pain in the ass
to replace.  Personally, I'd rather have a running engine with a bad tie
rod (or ball joint) than the reverse...

Your investment would only be the $15-20 US compression guage, and
borrowing a jack, and a little strength on your part to see if this cheap
car is cheap because they want to unload it, or cheap because they can't
unload it.

If you need more advice, write to me directly, I'd be happy to suggest
other stuff you can do yourself.  After buying my first car back in 1983 I
learned the hard way, NEVER buy ANY car without a compression gauge (out of
eight cylinders I had three that actually made ANY compession.  A
compression test and offer you so much information, and save you lots of
money by not buying a "good deal" with a blown head gasket.




Frederic Breitwieser
Bridgeport, CT 06606

Homebrew Automotive Website:
http://www.xephic.dynip.com/

1993 Supercharged Lincoln Continental
1989 HMMWV
2000 Buick-Powered Mid-Engined Sports Car

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