Long story short, me and a friend are looking at a used 87, 2.8L for a small rebuild project. Body is in okay shape for the age, but our skills with body work are good enough that we couldn't care less about the body, its no problem. Engine work is a different story, neither of us have the skills, resources or money to do any sort of overhaul on the engine (about 100k on it).

The engine, we're told, makes a "slight knocking" sound idling and if you go hard on the gas.

Just looking for suggestions and tips on what to expect, we will be going to look at it and start it before hand.

At max, what are we expecting to pay to get this knocking fixed? Don't want to be in over our heads with this one, so any help would be great.

more info:
-1987 2.8L V8 ~100k miles
- new brakes, brake lines and new exhaust
- slight knock on idle and when driving hard on gas
- runs and drives okay other than that

 

Unless you're getting the car for free, it sounds like you're easily going to be over your head financially with all that it might need. Realistically in today's market, that car isn't worth all that much (maybe in the $2,000 range), in good shape.

 

2.8 is known for weak bottom ends. Streched connection rods and spun bearings where common while these car where still under warranty. Based on the "knock" at idle that is where you are heading. We are talking a engine rebuild to fix it.

Cost of engine rebuilding is like painting a car the the cost all depends on what you are starting with and how much of the labor you are doing.

If you have someone else do it you could go as high as 3k for the rebuild ( it could be more but at that point you just buy a new engine). If you do all the labor and a machine shop can save all your parts your cost could be as low as 500.