Major Major Major Problem

Hey guys, some of you may know me some of you may not, but I havent posted here for a really really long time.. but i still hope that you guys can help me. I did something seriously stupid, and I dont know if this is fixable or not. Alright, first off I will tell you the little things that were wrong with my car before I raced. I have an exhaust leak with the flex tube and everytime i shift 1st-2nd you will hear a small backfire. Also my front left brake needed a new brake pad.. and I was due for my usual 3000 mile checkup. I really take good care of my car, and I shouldnt have raced while my car was like this. Alright so were racing.. line up.. slam it... shift to 2nd... have it punched, shift to 3rd.. still have it punched.. go to shift it into 4th at about 6500 rpm (doing about 100) and I dont know what happened, i may have slammed it into 2nd or what happened, but my car just died. Power brakes came on.. didnt loose control or anything but my car was just costing.. so I pull of to the side of the road.. look under it.. everything seemed fine. Dont know what happened.. Get in.. try to start it.. it starts but dies right away.. start it up again dies right away.. start it up again giving it gas.. got it started but was idolizing at about 1/2 a grand.. really low. And also my low oil lite was on. So im like alright im getting this thing home before anything else happens to it. Start off.. my car is loud as fuck.. seems like im missing a piece of an exhaust or something. Dies on me again, luckily I was able to pull into a parking lot 3 houses from mine.. This time I go to start it.. KRRRRRRINK so.. i didnt try to start it again. Got some friends around.. helped me push it home.. as we were pushing.. there was a fluid coming out of my exaust.. drying as soon as it touched the ground. (btw no smoke or anything came from my engine) And I dont know what happened to my car. I know its either my transmittion or my engine.. still have my clutch.. still works.. When I got home I cryed my eyes out.. takes a man to say to like 50,000 people that you cry your eyes out buy yes i did. I cryed more over my car then when me and my girlfriend broke up after 1 yr 1/2. Can any of you guys try to help me? If you need anymore details ill be here for a while yet. Please help...

Sounds like it may have jumped time. Not sure what else to tell you.

hmm u may have cracked something...i'm not goig to say what but u may have cracked something... something with only in it that has moving parts that would leak into the exhaust valves and out the tailpipe... just a thought.. but i would grab a light and look behind the motor from under the hood and see if u can see where things are coming out of...

Hey man, I am so sorry to hear about your car bro. There aint no shame in crying for her...I hope everything works out for you man....I feel your pain... :(

Well first off, racing with a low brake pad and an exhaust leak aren't the worse things in teh world. As far as I figure, I'd guess neither had to do with whatever happened.

Start by waiting until it is light out, then checking all your fluids..see what is low. Then get under the car and see what you can see. Check all aspects of tranny, engine, oil pan, etc...look for obvious damage or leaks.

Also don't start your car under any circumstances, you may do more damage. If you cannot visually figure out what happened, it may be best to take it (get it towed) to a mechanic you trust to have it looked at. Whatever diagnosis you recieve, don't shell out money, before coming back on here and getting further advice.

Sorry to hear about your badluck...I know it's tough, but keep your head up, it'll work out.

Well , I took it up to my mechanic.. and he really didnt get a chance to look at it yet but he said it sounds like the engine. I think that im going to be sick... :(

Okay, ive been doing some research and heres the thing, this is IF my engine is blown.

I found a brand new stealth engine, rt.. for 3500, (500 less for what I bought my car for) also comes with a 5 year warranty.. and also back to 0 miles.. and also new lifters... etc.. Although, here is the thing. If I am gonna fork out 3500 dollars, instead of owning an RT? Should I just get a TT? I love my car to death, and dont want to get rid of her at all, although I would love to have a TT. Also on the other hand, I have already sunk so much money into my RT, New Clutch, New Front Axels, New Starter, New Rims, 2400 Watt System, Tinted Windows... and theres a few more just dont feel like listing everything. So plus the 4000 I paid for my car, i have 9,000 dollars sitting there easily. Have I already sunk too much money into her, or should I keep rebuilding the whole car, which in the long run will have her running perfect..

Do you guys see where i am coming from? Please help..

Oh this is no good, this is no good at all. Lets see, 6500 RPM in 3rd is about 90-95 mph right? If you shifted to 2nd instead of 4th, you would be trying to hit 12,000 RPM or so...which would throw rods, break valves/springs, not to mention the strain on the transmission from that. Now thats just assuming thats what happened, and when you say you may have hit 2nd instead of 4th, thats something there's no way you could miss it, you would know for sure if you mis-shifted.

The fluid out of the exhaust pipe could only be oil or coolant, since those are the only fluids that would have access to that path. With that thought, you could have blown a valve guide seal, or broken a valve.

Also on that note, Stealthee may be right. A mis-shift into 2nd from high 3rd could cause your timing belt to jump. Which in turn would cause piston-to-valve contact. And at those speeds contact would break the valves more likely than the piston, which would shoot around in there breaking seals allowing fluid to leak out the exhaust pipe via the exhaust valves. In this condition it may start again, which it did in your case, but it would only be causing more damage to the engine. Your "KRRIIIINNKKK" sound would then be your broken valves and damaged pistons and whatever else is damaged grinding and hitting eachother as you force the crankshaft to turn.

So if that last scenario is right, which would make the most sense according to your story, worst case you would be looking at a new head, and possibly new block (basically new engine). If it's not too damaged you might be able to bore it out, new pistons, crank...which would give you more HP and fix w/e is broken.

Keep your spirits up, its not the end of the world and you'll get through it.

For your sake I hope i'm wrong. :(

As for some advice if your engine is blown:

You'll never get back what you put into it already, so consider it lost. Now you can either spend almost as much as you paid for the car, and not be satisfied as it will still not be a TT. Or you can cut your losses, and part it out. Tranny should be ok, cat back, headers, intake, airbags ($$), body pieces, interior (leather would sell for a lot). You might be able to pull off getting what you paid for it.

If I was in your position...well can't say that cuz I would just rebuild the engine in my garage...but my advice to you would be the second choice.

If I were in your shoes I think I'd be looking into a TT swap. I mean if the engine is broke why not put a positive spin on things and use it as an excuse to gain a huge hp increase. Stock TT engines in a FWD 3s usually dyno around 260-270 to the wheels if I remember correctly. Thats at least 40 more h to the wheels than the factory rated crank hp which alot of us beleive is overated anyway. Good luck and I hope things work out for you.

Thank you guys for your help, and your concerns.. I really appreciate it. Although, until I know for a fact of whats wrong with my car, im gonna wait to make ANY decisions until then.. you know what I mean? I dont know though, it would be so hard to get rid of my car.. not to mention my first car...

as we were pushing.. there was a fluid coming out of my exaust.. drying as soon as it touched the ground. (btw no smoke or anything came from my engine).

Was it gas?

No, it wasnt gas.. but as soon as it touched the ground it dryed up, and once i got it into the parking lot, wow did it smell like dead rotting shyt...

I dunno, but the horrid smell sounds like it could be a fried ECU. Whatever it is good luck and keep us posted.

if you buy an engine for a stealth for 3500 you should be shot. 1st of all, you can buy another stealth for not much more than that. second of all, you can buy an engine for much much less than that! for crying out loud you can buy a complete VR4 motor for $2400! (saw a japanese website selling one a few weeks back)

What Gateway says is true, warranty or no it would be taking a huge opportunity loss to buy a new Stealth NA engine for that much.

Ugh, I have such a major decision to make, that if my engine is blown to either get a new engine for my stealth, which I love and I do not want to get rid of at all, or get a newer stealth tt.. which is so much faster and so much better. The only thing is, if i get a new engine for my stealth, 0 miles, no lifter problem, plus i have already sunk so much money into my stealth, and there isnt much more that needs to be fixed on it, but if i get a tt, i will need to replace stuff sooner or later, and i dont know what all has been wrong with it. etc... Such decions...

Yeah, that's a hard one bro... But personally, if something happened to my car, I probably wouldn't get rid of it. I mean, my car's a daily driver and I love her to death. Once I get her to 300hp, I'm gonna leave her at that and if everything's pretty much running fine on her, then I wouldn't get rid of her for a VR4. What I would do however is try and save up for a VR4 but wouldn't get rid of bOO for one because she's my first car. But that's just me and since I'm not actually in your situation, I could always talk but may end up doing something else. :o/

Yeah, my stealth rt is my first car too, and I love her more than anything. I cryed more over my car when this happened then when i did when i broke up with my girlfriend over 1 yr and 1/2.. god.. car freaks! lol.. I wish I could get my car up to 300 HP, but honestly I dont know exactly what to do to her to get her up that high. Muffler and cold air intake like 10-13 HP if that.. and then maybe lighter pulley system but that is like 400-500 dollars.. any tips? If I get my car back that is..

Well, my car is completely stock right now. What I am planning to do is intake, exhaust (either Borla or VR4), super charger, and some polishing jobs. Most of the increase should come from super charger and a decent amount from the polish job but I'm not sure what the latter entails. I just read on a thread here somwhere that said there would be an increase in hp because of that so I am planning to do it and will look into it more when I actually have the money to do it. Also, I was reading some stuff about pulleys and stuff so I may venture into those too. If I knew how, I would want to do major engine work like take it apart and rebuild it with better "stuff" but since I'm not mechanically inclined, I'm not going to. I'm just looking to do the "easy" stuff and aim for like 300-320 or so and I'll be good since it'll be my daily driver. And plus, I could beat (if needed) the "typical" cars that we see around on a daily basis so it's all good. Hehe :)

Yeah, well I already can pretty much beat the typical cars around here, except for the mustang cobra which.. i wouldnt touch. However where did you find a supercharger ? and would it fit my stealth and how much? And about the polishing.. how much is that going to run into and what are you all going to polish?

If you read the FAQ, Musashi did an awesome write-up about super-chargers. Right now, rippmods just finished one for the DOHC engines but haven't officially released it yet or something. I don't really know the details... But yeah, it's there and from what I've heard from him (Musashi), you don't really need any real upgrades before you install a SC so that's great seeing that there's so little for us GTers. But yeah, he would be the one to ask about SCs. As far as polishing stuff goes, I'm not too sure just yet. Here's the thread that I read from that said there's some increases:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=335010&highlight=polishing
I personally thought that polishing jobs was just for the bling which I want, but now that I know you could get performance gains from it too, I'm excited. Hehe As far as prices go, 3sx has a couple listings but I don't know if that's a basic universal fee or what. Like I said, I currently don't have the money so I'm kinda just wishful thinking at the moment. Hehe How about you? What are you looking to do when you get your car up and running again? And yes, I said WHEN cause you WILL get through this. :biggrin:

Well, here is the verdict. My mechanic tried to start the engine manually and he said that you could hear something going on within the motor.. so he says that w/o a doubt its blown. So here is what im going to do, I found a brand new rebuilt engine for the dodge stealth rt with new headers and a lot more.. dont remember what it all comes with. 3,500 plus shipping. The only thing, what is the difference between a short block and a long block?

Getting my car fixed, thank god..

Short block is the block, pistons, rods, etc. Long block includes the heads.

you are getting ripped off for a stealth engine for 3500. for crying out loud you can get the whole bloody car for that. Look harder before you buy that.

since I'm feeling helpful tonight...
I don't post alot on 3si, but I read alot. I was given a website by a member there, who highly recommends this company. www.tbolt.net You can get trannies and engines from them. They have a long block 6G72 motor for 2395. you can get the DOHC turbo, the DOHC non-turbo, and the SOHC engine there. Check them out.

I agree with Gateway there, if you have $3500 to be spending on this you might as well save it, sell what you can, and buy your TT. You can learn the easy way or the hard way what every car owner learns at some point in time...its just a car, you could pour your heart and soul into it and total it the next day (this was the way I learned). I guarantee you wouldn't regret buying a TT, but if you must keep your N/A then I would DEFINITELY buy a used motor or remanufactured from EBAY, car-part.com, or a junkyard. $3500 is a lot for a N/A motor, and don't forget, just b/c the engine is new doesnt mean you wont have problems...you'll still have your old transmission, old suspension/axles, and old frame. Problems will still come up.

Well, as far as my stealth is concerned, me and my mom and dad have tried for 3 loans so far, and no luck what so ever.. its really shitty. Althought, we are going for a 'poor' persons loan.. lol. Hey if it works.. ill be happy.

call these guys buddy (518)-482-3737

you can get an engine for $850
i beleive its free shipping. good luck