Trans Am not starting.

When i was driving to work the other day my Trans Am(1979 403 6.6L) started "Knocking". I got to work and the sound wasnt that bad but i was going to take it in to see if something was wrong the next day. So im on my way home and my car starts to overheat but i make it to my house and take a peek under the hood. The breather valve was blowing out smoke pretty bad.

So the next day i go to start it up. 1 Click and fan//belts move an inch. Same for everytime i try to start it. I notice a antifreeze leak under the body(not sure where its comeing from but somewhere not visible from top or bottom of car. I cant move the car and its on uneven ground so cant jack it up. I check the oil level and its "High"(strange i think). Then i check the antifreeze level and its fine. But under closer inspection i think there is oil in my antifreeze and antifreeze in my oil ORRR water.

So does this mean i have water in my engine?? Or is it just gaskets breaking and i probably have to rebuild?? I know i can check to see if waters in my engine by removing spark plugs 1 by 1 and trying to start.

Im not sure. Im takeing it to my mechanic today but any input would be very appreciated!

Thanks Robert

Sounds like it, and I wouldn't try to start again until you can verify it.

Well towed it today and got it to my mechanic. Im hopeing for the best but preparing for the worst. He is going to take a look at it tuesday. I will probably know what is exactly wrong by late tuesday or early wednesday. I had my head gasket replaced about 2 months ago. Could a problem happen like this from a replaced headgasket that wasnt done right??


Thanks Robert

Absolutely.

Ya good thing i have some money saved up. But the whole motor could be shot for all i know, and if thats the case i might just sell the car.

Well, who replaced the gaskets? Their work wasn't warrentied?

As long as you didn't continually trry and crank it and didn't hear an ominous pop or crack, you may be okay. If you did, hear a metalick sound, best case scinerio is a cracked connecting rod or worst case, a cracked rod a hole buseted in the side o fthe block :yikes:

No real loud noises. . . Yes the engine started to knock but nothing other than knocking. I noticed dramatic loss of power and it seemed like it was "Bogging" Like i was running cold. The fact that i was smokeing wasnt noticable until i stopped. I sat there for 1 min to see if the engine would "Die" but it didnt and i turned her off and took a peak under the hood. Thats when i saw the smoke comeing out of the breather valve. Around the breather valve there was oil comeing out(so it was burning the oil causing the smoke?) I heard gurgling sound(boiling of leaking oil??). I really havent had the time after that happened to take a good look cause of work and school. The antifreeze leak looked like it was comeing from on top of the oil pan,because thats where the antifreeze was dripping down from. When i got it towed there was a big antifreeze spill i had to clean up.

When i tryed to crank it, it would click once, and the fan // belts would move just a little and rest back to there original place. I didnt try to start it that many times.

Hate to say, that's not sounding very good in your favor. A new short block may be in your near future. :sorry:

Who did the heads?

The mechanic i took it to said im going to have to completly rebuilt or buy a new engine. . .


I want to take out my 403 olds, and put in a new engine. I want to rebuild the 403 olds, and have it to just have it(to say i have matching numbers). What engine do u guys think i should get PLZ not a 350. ..

I'd put a 400 in it.

So you ended up snapping a connecting rod? or 2 :eek:

You still havent said anything about who did the head gaskets, they are at fault here and should be making good on their screw up.

Ya, Willies Automotive did it(My brother in law and sister have taken there cars there and said he does good work, but obviously not. . . ). I will call him up later today (Im in school right now). How should i pursue this? How would i get my money back? Plus if he did it wrong then he would want to fix and i wouldnt trust his work agian after this. . .

The guy that looked at my car just said it was an internal problem and that he doesnt want to dissasemble the engine(He said he tried to handcrank it but there was no oil or antifreeze in the engine and that its dry right now, but i find that hard to believe because i looked at the dipstick earlier, and there was oil in it(2 days before he looked at it) The spill i cleaned(night before he looked at it) up was no where close to have leaked the oil and antifreeze compleltly. I should be getting my car towed back to my house today.

No shops around here seem to want to work on my car, and i dont want to take it to a place i dont know, but im willing to considering the places i do know either fuck up your car or have a bunch of retards working there. I will start calling some shops downtown. Ive been taken them to the local shops that friends or family suggest(15 mins away). Ive looked online but there i cant find any information on good shops. . .


Thanks for all of your guys help its well appreciated

When you call "Willies", don't be all hard up and "hey man, you messed up my car" That will net zero results.

Errors happsn. If the issue is approached calm and collectively then a sensable agreement should be reached. IMO, you bring your car to a referred shop in trust the work will be done to satisfaction, obviously something was overlooked. It happens. I make it a rule of thumb to never reuse head bolts, I ond't care if the motor is "torque to yeild' or not. The $30 sum bucks is worth the piece of mind.

That would be my guess as to what happened with yours, the head bolts either weren't torqued to spec, in the correct order or shouldn't have been re-used.

Or could be a faulty gasket, ya never know until you get into examining it.

Bare bottom basics, you brought in a car for repair, the work was done, and now there is clearly a problem that stemmed from that work. Again, I'm telling you now, if you come off as hard as you just posted.........

No shops around here seem to want to work on my car, and i dont want to take it to a place i dont know, but im willing to considering the places i do know either fuck up your car or have a bunch of retards working there

........................The result will not hold well. :shakehead