Newbie question from a non-car guy. My daughter has a 2017 that was recently diagnosed by the dealership as "the knocking noise that is heard is the connecting rods and also multiple camshaft timing codes...classified as internal engine failure". We're considering a used engine as opposed to $12k for a new one. Under these circumstances, can an SS engine be replaced? I assume that would require a different transmission? Is this wishful thinking? TIA

 

Not totally impossible but for the most part wishful thinking.
Better off staying with the V6 and doing a few enhancements if you want more power.
Is the $12K a new crate engine? Seems like a lot even then for a V6,have you looked at having the current failing engine just rebuilt?
I would look to have it rebuilt and maybe add a better cam a set of headers and a tune,it won't make the power of an SS engine but should have a good bump over stock and cost you a hell of a lot less money.

 

The 12K sounds like a dealer price. I am sure you can find a good tech that will install a warrantied used low miles v6 for more like 5k or even a little less. Dealers charge insane rates for non-warranty work and their markup on GM's already high prices is at lease 50%.

The trick is to find a good tech/shop what will install an engine. In many cases the techs that work at the dealer moon light at their own shop. I would bet a good tech could install a complete motor in less then 8 hours. When you install a complete pull out motor there is a lot less labor than installing a new engine. New engines are just the engine all your old parts need to be removed from you old engine and installed on the new engine. It is a lot of labor. When you install a low miles used motor you just pull the entire assembly and replace that with the used assembly then return the core to the yard. There can also be another advantage to buying a used low miles replacement. Lets say your car has 100K on it and you buy a 12K motor. The yard is going to send that engine with most of the parts on it. Which means all those parts only have 12K on them. Most of the time when a car breaks down its these parts that fail not the engine.

Shops will charge more then straight hours because of the risk involved in installing used parts. Many shops have been burned by junk yards selling them junk engines which makes no one happy. A lot of shops do not want to mess with it. Larger yards that do a lot of insurance work are more carful about what they sell on the higher end. If you can avoid it stay away from the cheap shop. A bad install by someone that just wants to get it out the door will cause you a lot of problems over the life of the car. In some cases the yard will offer to install it and they may be the cheapest. In my opinion you would only do this if you want them to do the grunt work and you had a skilled tech to go over the job once you got it back.

Ya forget the SS thing. Its not just engine and transmission. Its Engine, Transmission, rear end, the entire computer system which is all over the car and even the instrument cluster. You may even need to swap out the frame section that holds the motor. Even after replacing all that you would have to get things reprogramed at the dealer to get past the security system. The only way it would be worth it would be if you hade a wrecked SS car you knew what you where doing and about 200 hours to play with. 400 hours if you had to research everything.

www.car-parts.com
Local to me I found a 12K engine for 2K. If it was me and your RS had some miles on it I would be temped to to grab the low miles trans at the same time. 2K is cheap for a modern low miles engine. This means there are more camaros wrecked then ones that need engines. That is a good sign the motor are normally pretty good.

Good Luck and let us know what you decide.