I Dont Have A Clue! Help Me!

I have a 1984 Chevrolet Caprice Classic. I was told by a mechanic that my car needs a new starter and that the reason that my car was overheating because of a crack in the engine block. i know nothing about cars. he said that it would cost me over a grand to fix the car and get it running again but instead of letting him fix it, i tred it back to my house and im going to try and get a couple friends of mine to help fix it. Please e-mail me to let me know how much this may cost me, if its complicated to fix, and whatever else u can tell me about it since i dont know much about cars. my e-mail address is: [email protected]. Or you can send me an instant message on aol. my screen name is: PurpleDream756. Thankyou sooo much:)

i'm sorry.
if you do infact have a cracked block you'll most likely have to replace the engine. how did he determine the block was cracked??? this hardly ever happens to small block chevy's. you should go to another shop to get a second opinion. do you have any mechanic friends with engine hoists kicking around??? auto recyclers(junkyards) are the cheapest place to get used engines. i've swaped in a few with no problems. you might want to cut your losses if the engine is shot and sell the whole thing to a junkyard. i can't see the book value on an 84 being worthwile sinking a bunch of money it.
I have many friends who've spent thousands on old beaters only to sell them for a couple hundred the next time something breaks.
good luck!!

What are the chances the cracked block diagnosis was nothing more than a rotted freeze plug? Sediment tends to collect at the bottom of the water jacket and rot them out. Your car is old enough to have this problem, and it's a fairly simple fix, provided it's accessible!

I had a leak from the freeze plug right above the starter as well on my 89. It's a pretty easy fix really. I think the freeze plug was less than $2US for the part.

It will make you think really bad things have happened when it starts leaking from the block like that. It wasn't until I got under the car completely that I found how simple the fix would be.

Hey...'94 Vette motor in a Caprice dual exhaust. Black shit is coming out of the tailpipe on one side. Why, and what is this crap? Otherwise, it runs fine. Thanks,

Sean