HA HAAAAAAA
I had one of those as well. A 93 GT. I was having trouble with it. The transmission was not right, so I did the Lemon Law and came out with the '94 Z26.
I loved it.
1991 Chevy Lumina Z34 | Retro Review
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I had one of those as well. A 93 GT. I was having trouble with it. The transmission was not right, so I did the Lemon Law and came out with the '94 Z26.
I loved it.
Transmission problems you say? I blew threw two transmissions and also shot a rod threw the block on that swanky 3.1 V6. I beat the ever living snot out of that thing yet at the time I loved it.
HA HAAAAAAAA
Yeah, transmission was wonky on those cars, unfortunately. They must of fixed it because my '94 Z26 ran like a top. Great little car.
I still want a 89-91 z24 with the digital dash. I have no idea why but I still do.
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I had a '88 Z24 with the 2.8 and a '89 Olds Cutlass Supreme International series with the 5-spd. I blew a hole in the trans on the NJ GSP. I had to walk 10 miles back to the last exit and bought 2 quarts of motor oil. Walked back put the 2 quarts in drove to Cape May, met the girl and drove back home on the back roads so the trans wouldn't overheat and seize.
If the head gasket was routinely failing, I'd say that improper repairs were being made. I had one car that failed it's gasket and it was due to the radiator that let go in a spectacular fashion in winter. I've owned half a dozen Quad4 powered cars and they all routinely saw the Rev limiter along with summers in the South and only only failed. It was my LO/auto Calais that lost the radiator first.
Back then, a lot of mechanics weren't used to a dohc engine and didnt check the deck and surface the head. Most didnt bother to follow the torque sequence either. Also, the OEM victor-rienz gasket was subpar. A felpro replacement was the way to go.
Timing chain noise is due to the tensioners and they really only wore out due to improper maintenance. Worn out oil from long interval oil changes wear out the plastic and the plunger can only adjust so far.
The IDI definitely had flaws. Putting the ignitions system between the cam towers without adaquate ventilation was a mistake. They did fail a lot. The revised housing fixed most of the issues.
Cracked heads were very common with the sohc engine, not so much with the dohc unless you abused the engine. The sohc lacked material in important spots and cracked externally. It was a mess. The dohc did crack sometimes around the valve seats but it didn't cause any issues. Not that it was ok though. Most of those resulted from overheating as well.
The Quad4 was not an engine you could ignore. You had to stay on top of the maintenance and to be honest, it was more fragile than it should have been.
Regardless, it was a technologically sound engine that made great power before import engines came around.
Id still rather have a Quad4 over the 3.4 dohc from the era. Converting a ohv engine to dohc and using belts with 60k service life intervals sucks. Plus, changing the alt on that thing is something I wouldn't wish on an enemy.
Could be wrong but I think the digital dash ended after '88. I know my '89 was analog.
Your probably right. I always thought it was an option. That was a long time ago lol
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Head was resurfaced, can't say if the block was true or not. In my experience the motor was pretty reliable for the first 50k or so but once problems started it was never-ending. Owned it since new so it wasn't lack of maintenance. Changed the chain, tensioner and all guides at one point but was still excessively noisy. Was it abused, possibly, but still way more problematic than anything else I owned. The 2.8/3.1 was pretty reliable in comparison and I had few issues with either motor. Thankfully I never had a 3.4 as I have heard everything you mentioned and worse.
If the timing chain and guides were changed and it was still noisy then there was an installation error or low oil pressure.
the tensioner was a pretty simple assembly and got pressure directly from the oil pump. sometimes the ratchet assy inside didnt get adjusted right if reused but it wasnt an issue new. the little plastic plunger sometimes got messed up on old engines but it was rarely a problem.
sometimes, people didnt remove the slack between the cams when reinstalling the chain and the tensioner wouldnt be able to adjust the slack out. youre supposed to install the chain with the cam index pins in, then remove the intake pin and rotate it back and slip the chain over the teeth then move it forward again to remove all slack from the chain. you then reinsert the pin to verify timing. its a step a lot of people didnt do. they would just throw the chain on and get it close enough. that caused the tensioner to extend way further than it ever needed to.
the 3.4 belt swap was hideous. im pretty sure you could lasso a cow with how long that belt was. it also had like 3 idlers and a tensioner, all of which liked to randomly wear out and eat the belt which seemed to only last about as long as it took for your bank account to recover from the last time it was replaced.
the tensioner was a pretty simple assembly and got pressure directly from the oil pump. sometimes the ratchet assy inside didnt get adjusted right if reused but it wasnt an issue new. the little plastic plunger sometimes got messed up on old engines but it was rarely a problem.
sometimes, people didnt remove the slack between the cams when reinstalling the chain and the tensioner wouldnt be able to adjust the slack out. youre supposed to install the chain with the cam index pins in, then remove the intake pin and rotate it back and slip the chain over the teeth then move it forward again to remove all slack from the chain. you then reinsert the pin to verify timing. its a step a lot of people didnt do. they would just throw the chain on and get it close enough. that caused the tensioner to extend way further than it ever needed to.
the 3.4 belt swap was hideous. im pretty sure you could lasso a cow with how long that belt was. it also had like 3 idlers and a tensioner, all of which liked to randomly wear out and eat the belt which seemed to only last about as long as it took for your bank account to recover from the last time it was replaced.
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