New head gasket march 2012, blew my rods thru november 2012. Its been sitting since.

Shops are telling me $2300+
This sounds ridiculous to me.. If I tried to sell it with a blown motor, no one will take it for less than $1500. I've put a lot of money into appearance, rims, hood, lights, etc.. Def not worth it to sell.

I've heard many different things, "find a homie hook up" but the motor itself will still cost $1800 then +install and its a hit or miss, you never know if its a good motor or not.

I have a 96 z28, lt1. Since the top of my motor is fairly new, is it cheaper to rebuild? I am trying to find the best route to save money, but do it right. If my only choice is to pay over $2300+ would it be beneficial & for the same amount to drop something bigger in there? Also does it matter that its manual 6 speed?

 

you had the heads done? you may want to look around for a rebuilt block and put your heads and stuff on it. could go with a 383 stroker, run about 3k for the generic rebuild block. or could have a shop stroke your block with top parts for 3k+. if a shop is doing the work then you looking at a pretty big bill any way you do it. probly looking at 800 to 1k to install.

 

You can kiss the block goodbye, the crank may be damaged, and some of the rods & pistons being trashed is a given. You need a replacement shortblock.

 

Ridiculous? This is why the junkyards I go to are full of very decent looking cars -- a lot of them need major mechanical work. It's so expensive to have work done at a quality shop that people who can't do work themselves will junk a car with a bad engine or trans and buy another car.

People looking to buy your car with a bad engine probably know what it will cost to replace it so they're not gonna pay much for it.

I do almost all my own work and bought a 94 V6 Camaro several years ago. It needed an engine. After getting screwed on a supposedly good used engine I rebuilt the original. *I* pulled the engine and trans, disassembled the engine, and took it to a machine shop I trusted. Having the short block rebuilt (the works, stock) cost about $3500. Then I took the short block and heads home, put everything together, and reinstalled it in the car. I have thousands of dollars invested in tools and equipment.

If I had just dropped off the car at a shop and said "do it and call me when it's done" I shudder to think of what the bill would have been. $4500? $5000? More? The book time for R&R of the engine is something like 15 hours. Multiply that by a shop rate of $75 an hour or more. In retrospect it made no sense for me to take on the project at all and to pay a shop to do it, OMG...

I think a Jasper long block would have cost me $2600 so the savings there weren't that much.

Sorry for the bad news but AFAIK there's just no cheap way out of your situation.

If you *do* decide to fix the car keep in mind that the only way you will get your money out of it is to drive it. For years. If an older car costs you $1000 or less a year for repairs you're winning. I just passed the 2 year/10k mile point on my 94. I need to drive it for at least another 3 years to come out ahead.

 

I just paid $2250 last month for a used motor install. It was going to be at least that to rebuild and if needed other things done, price would go up. Depends on how attached you are.