I recently bought a 3800 v6 Camaro with about 180,000 miles on it for dirt cheap. (I knew it would soon need some work but since it was still running very strong i figured it was too good to pass up, i mean that kind of mileage with no previous engine work with that kind of motor is unheard of right?) anyways about 442 miles into me ripping around and kinda abusing it its starts to make a slight nocking noise on the right side of the engine, i wasnt suprised but started to baby it and within about 3 days it had gone from a little noise on one side to a louder smacking and cracking noise on both sides of the engine........ and after that had set in for a while it wasnt long before the engine quit on me. A week later it sits in my garage torn down to the block with obvious signs of blown head gaskets (no traces of metal at all in the oil but there were little bubbles that formed in the oil pan that i drained all the oil into which i have never seen in any tear down that didnt have a blown head gasket) and what really pissed me off is once i removed each head i saw very noticable traces of that crap you run through the coolant when u blow a head gasket or something that involves the block to get it to still drive, it was in almost every cylinder and very obviously had built up in the heads as well (it was then that it hit me why i had gotten it for soo cheap) in closing one of the heads has been diagnosed with a crack in one of the intake ports, and both head gaskets are blown (if not several times over).. Soo now im about to rebuild in a week and i dont want to have to deal with the block yet, i just want a simple rebuild from the block up and i have found no obvious signs of any serious block damage, pistons or they're connecting rods. So how likely could it be that there is block damage? Do you think ill be safe just doing a quick rebuild from the head gaskets up? Or what can i do to ensure that there is no damage that might have been a contributor to its demise?lol I'm really hoping to drive this car again in the next couple weeks so I thank you very much for any help in advance.....

 

180,000 + miles, blown head gaskets, what sounds like possible hydrolocking or piston slap .... might be worth while to think about a remanufactured engine. If you're going to keep it, you're going to need to look at the bottom end, especially the bearings and oil pump, timing chainand hardware. Cam and lifters are another wear item with watered down oil.

If you're going to dump it, ignore the bottom end and find some salvage yard heads.