Finally home!
 

I finally got back from what was supposed to be a simple 3-day trip to Binghamton NY to visit my GF!
As many of you know I have been fighting little gremlins in my car since i got it back on the road in early October. I managed to limp it to the trucks Wednesday night without it over-heating and got a stock thermostat from Tsar.

On Thursday I managed to swap in the new thermostat and test it around my work, and finally I got the car to stop over-heating! So I took it to school that night and left for Bing right after class. The car was fighting me to go over 70 the entire trip, and I had to keep the speeds and rpm's low. The car made it up with a normal temperature and overall good time, save for hitting a bat, going through a white-out snow storm & a large pack of deer roaming along side the highway! The car sat in front of my girlfriend's apartment until Saturday, when I offered to take her out to dinner, we went to go start the car and it reeked of gasoline and had developed the worst exhaust leak in history! I took a peak underneath and the entire cat-back decided to separate from the Y-pipe. I had to wait until Monday to have a very friendly local mieneke have a look at it. They patched it up and I was on my way.

A few miles down rt. 17 my car started to buck and stall. I panicked and turned around and took it to the local Chevy dealer. I left them the keys and had them check out everything. We figured it was a transmission Issue and they had to keep the car until Tuesday. They put everything back together so I figured I would just limp it back home. I started on my way back again, and a few blocks later the car started to buck and stall again! I pulled over and popped the hood to re-check everything, and I did notice a noticeable tear in the intake elbow. I fixed it with some duck tape and started on my way again figuring that was my problem the entire time! Went a block further and the car just crapped out on me completely! I had the car towed back to the Chevy dealer, and by a stroke of luck, there Parts Manager was heading to Long Island with an empty car trailer! I managed to hitch a ride back at $1 a mile. The parts manager was a pretty smart guy and we came to the conclusion the motor may have spun a bearing!

So basically I think my car spun a bearing! And it took me 3 days to actually get home safely with my car in tow! Talk about one crazy weekend!

What makes him think that it spun a bearing?

- Justin

What the hell.... Your suppose to spin WHEELS not bearings!!!!

Well im not sure, but whatever happened isn't kosher.

Anytime I've heard a motor spin a bearing, you can tell pretty easily just by hearing it squeal.

- Justin

It does do that! Alot of bucking, stuttering & back-firing.

It really sounds like some sort of electrical/computer/sensor malfunction or a fuel/spark issue. Did you melt any wires that might be grounding out when it heats up? I can't really see a spun bearing causing the behavior it's doing, but who knows.

My old Camaro never bucked or sputtered when it spun the #4 main cap bearing and 2 rod bearings. It just squealed like hell and was down on power. Must have been the power of the almighty 2.8 :)

- Justin

how much coolant did you spill on your opti when u changed t-stats?

I had it on my lift at work a few days before I headed out, and everything was tip top underneath. I even had the car running and was looking for possible arching. If anyone wants to take a look they are more then welcome to stop by my house. Its just hanging out at the top of my driveway.

Hve you tried swapping out MAF's with someone else to see if the problem goes away?

could this be the result of running the car with no oil pressure back when the pump failed?

No we never ran the car for more then a few minutes when that happened. It turned out to be a failed oil pump drive which was replaced within a day after all the start up attempts.

I didn't spill anything on the opti when i swaped T-stats. I drained it completely so nothing was in the car.

I've replaced my maf once before with this descreaned one thats in there now, but haven't tried a new one yet. Also theres a tear in the intake elbow. Theres alot of noises comming from the car, and I couldn't accuretly tell you from what. But I can positivly rule out exhaust problems causing taps.

Even a few minutes without oil pressure is enough to do some serious damage....

- Justin

like he said

He said that he drained all the coolant first....

- Justin

howd he drain all the coolant out of the block though? it still wouldnt all come out i bet. a tear in the intake elbow wont matter unless its after your MAF, creating a vacuum leak. bucking/sputtering wouldnt be the trans, unless your clutch was messed up, or if it was an automatic. see if you can get a MAF sensor from someone and try that, could be any sensors really, could be an o2 sensor, who knows.

a spun bearing woudl be the last cause i would think of for what you are describing. a bearing that hasn't seized yet will usually be just an annoying sound and some power loss.
any bucking or stumbling would be much more likely caused by either a fuel or spark issue.

Maybe it was said somewhere and I missed it, but hows your oil pressure?

Oil pressure was fine for the most part, normal is around 40 I believe which is half way on the guage.

After some discussion, I plan on swaping mass air sensors, because the one on the is descreaned. The rip on the elbow is behind the mass air sensor, and the feelin did seem consistant to a vacume leak.

Im going to check all the electrical crap AGAIN, and start swaping electronics.

Alex, y didnt u just pull over right away or just come home once u noticed the problem on your way up to ur gfs. I wonder if ur massive overheating had anything to do with it.

wow youre not havin good luck are ya bro?

you need yourself a 305 TBI ;)

Oviously not.

I would think if you spun a bearing your oil pressure would drop. running the car for a couple minutes with no oil pressure is not a good thing either. and depending on how hot the car got when you everheated it, you might have done some pertty serious damage, especially because the iron block and aluminum heads have very different expansion rates.

I wouldn't think its a spun bearing though, that wouldn't make the car smell like gas. it also wouldn't run okay and then out of the blue start bucking and stall, it would be a constant problem that got worse at the motor heated up.