PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:You always get the head checked/resurfaced when you pull it off.
Being that your car is worn so badly, your cylinders could actually be semi-oval, in which case you NEED to bore it.
At the very least you'd have to replace all your piston rings, re-hone the block, and replace all the seals, and PRAY that it all goes back together correctly. I've never had anywhere near that sort of luck. You're better off driving the hundreds or so miles to the machine shop... although I find it hard to believe there's nothing for hundreds of miles. If true, then you should look into opening one up
Well, there's a place in the classifieds.... I don't think it actually exists, that's what I've heard from frustrated (actual, as opposed to my type) gearheads. If it does, there's a very high probability that they survive simply because they're it, and related to everybody in town, and will mangle my motor and offer no compensation. That's the experience I've had with mechanics here.
I'd be more open to travel, but I don't have any proper way to move a motor so far. It's easy to find someone with a truck who will drive accross town, but going hours to a real city is another matter.
Proably too long, may not be worth the read, and you may recall this:
To give you an example of why I wouldn't really trust a shop here, my motor experienced a lot of totally unnecessary wear when an injector died, and I took it to a shop for what should have been a quick change, just because I couldn't get the screw out. (they used a vice grip and replaced it, anyways) It seemed fine, and a hundred miles later, started missing again. I couldn't figure it out, and did the fuel pump (thinking pressure had dropped and the worst injector had stopped working first), and when that did nothing, the computer, because neither I or anyone else could see how else the injector wouldn't fire. This was all in their parking lot, the whole time. Eventually it started leaking very gassy oil past the front seal, and I bought a compression testor (the shop wouldn't let me borrow one, to see if they wrecked my motor) to see if it was the rings. Turned out all the cylinders where fine (or at least, as fine as they had been while I've had the car), and I realized the ONLY thing was the repair that had just been done, which everyone had assumed was done right and could not be the problem. Turned out they'd left the TWO SCREWS that I paid them an hours labor to tighten, just a bit over hand tight, and the injector had been shifting and shredded the lower O-ring. It filled my oil with a quart or two of gas, and it came out very sparkly. They shrugged and said that it was good that I had fixed it and it was all fine now, when I told them.
(I guess if I had had a good motor with full compression, it would have hydrolocked, having a combustion chamber full of liquid gas - I though even a stuck injector can do that. maybe if I tear this one apart, I'll find a slightly bent crank or other damage, anyways)
And those guys are considered one of the best shops in town. The alignment shop doesn't align stuff and charges. All that sort of thing.
