PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

Saw this on craigslist yesterday. It's a little rougher than I would have hoped, but with only 113k, it has plenty of money making potential. I paid $1400.

I bought it from a guy in the ghetto. He claimed he couldn't get the engine running, so he started taking it apart to "see what was wrong". According to him, "everything was moving correctly"

I'm not sure if it will need an engine or not, but I'll put it back together to see if I can get it running.

Other than the major cosmetic issues (fuel door rot, hood herpes, missing mirror and dented fender), its a pretty clean car.

harofreak00 wrote:

Yup.....everything's moving correctly....especially since the S/C is in the trunk. LOL

Ever find one with hood aids?

Love you peaches

I want those *dang* wheel center caps

I forgot that 2000's had courtesy lights. Never should have got rid of those

You sure you know how to put that back together?

jk, Good deal, and that interior is pretty clean for not having been detailed yet!

Since I was planning on having the fuel door rust fixed on this one, I wanted to see how must structure was there.... not much. I did all this with just my knuckle.

yyyeaaaaaaahhhhhh......say you'd have a pretty large hole there Captn....

I don't feel so bad about my purchase now. At least mine had no herpeeez and no guttrot. Of course, those two things were the ONLY good things going for it

Looks like you planted some Bonneville seeds early in the spring, and now its harvest time

Before I went dropping in a new engine, I wanted to figure out what was really wrong with this one. I slapped everything back together, amazingly he supplied me with all the bolts. I didn't even use gaskets or anything, just want to see if I could get it to fire for a minute or so. Once together, it would just crank and crank. I had spark at the coils and at the plugs. I had fuel at the rail, all injector harness were firing, and I could feel the injectors clicking. I pulled the plugs found some dripping wet, some completely dry. I decided to do a compression test and was only getting compression on cylinder #6. I figure it was because the engine was sitting so long that the rings were dry. I added oil to the cylinder and tried again. Still, only compression on cylinder #6. I decided it had to be a timing chain or something similiar. I pulled off the timing cover and everything looks great, hmmm. Even while cranking everything appeared normal. The timing marks were lining up and moving as they are supposed to. However, while cranking it by hand, I noticed that the gear behind the cam gear was not moving when the cam gear was turning. I checked to see if the cam bolt was tight, it fell off in my hand.



It sheared off inside the cam. I've never ever seen this type of failure before, especially at only 113k.




it destroyed the key slot on the cam


I think I might get lucky and only have to put in a used cam and button up everything. Although it might be more labor than just dropping in a new engine, I'll save the cost of a new engine.

Wow, that's messed up. Likely someone tried to replace something in there and FUBAR'd it...

No, the front cover bolts were untouched.

One way to check if you have any bent valves is loosen all the rockers and look for differences in height at the top of the valve.

I'm betting you have a couple bent valves..

Everything looks pretty good to me. Maybe a little gap on cylinder #4 on the rear bank? Think I should remove the spring and see how the valve moves?

Front bank:



Rear bank:

To be completely honest, I HIGHLY doubt that you've got any bent rods or valves. I'm guessing that bolt snapped on a start attempt, when the bolt went the cam went "static" where most likely the valves were all closed or barely open to where the piston couldn't hit them. I think you're gonna be ok cheif. Qucikest way I guess is replace the bolt n stuff, time it, and redo the comp test.

Well I pulled the top end off to remove the lifters. When I removed the cam, I heard something metal drop into the pan... thats not good.


Here is the damage to the cam key.


So I pulled the pan off and found this... its done.


Looking for an engine now...

What dropped into the pan?

Not really sure. Lifters and cam all looked good.

Weird... I have never seen anything like this either, though many here have way more engine experience then I do.

I didn't even see it until I zoomed in on the pic, but that is definitely a cam bearing! No idea what that other chunk is though.

Definitely engine time. Still plenty of room for profit though

Doesn't look much like a cam bearing......looks more rod bearing than anything....