92 achieva quad 4

[Jcstang]

I recently aqquired a 92 olds achieva from my dad but it has sat for 6-7 years. The motor only has about 50k miles on it. When they drove it jumped time and they parked it. It took them 3 years to get around to fixing it and when he did and cranked it over and it started it began hissing very badly and it was soon discovered the head gasket was blown. Id like to keep this car because of the motor in it. Ive heard good things as far as the quad 4's are concerned except the price to work on them. I was wondering what all I would have to do to the car as far as filters, plugs, wires, clean the rotors of any rust, check all the brake lines, check antifreeze, transmission fluid, filter. Would all of that be needed or am I missing anything. Please let me know, thanks.

[95OldsHO]

Common problem with these cars is headgasket failure, but the newer gaskets out now have pretty much eliminated that problem, when you rebuild use a quality gasket set, fel-pro or corteco(what gm is using now on many cars) I also hear good things about, just dont use an oem one from 92-93 thats been sitting around, youll have the same problem possibly, be sure the head and block surfaces are clean and not warped.

Quad 4's can be alot of fun to play with, even the lower output version makes great torque for a 4 cyl motor(go ahead compare it to higher hp honda vtec motors etc), many of the parts are interchangable and arent too exspensive(compared to other vehicles nowadays). Most mechanics dont like to work on these motors and charge alot sometimes when they do, truth is its not all that hard to do yourself get a manual, plan to spend some money on tools you may not have, research on the internet and in the manual, double check things, work safely. Quad 4's are easiest to work on out of the car, the timing chain housing is a real pain with the motor still in the car, but it can be done that way.

Since the car has been sitting you would want to look over it as much as possible, depending on your area look the car over for rust before going any further than that, a rusted out rear shock tower is a pain to replace, the quad has no plug wires to replace but looking over the coil pack couldnt hurt-look for arcing, this looks like someone drew on it with a pencil sorta, change oil and filter, plugs, fuel filter(get as much old gas out, siphon or whatever and buy a fresh can of gas to put in), I would probably replace the brake parts if rust is forming-have rotors turned, the coolant should be done when you do the head gasket anyway, trans fluid could be replaced, if its a 5 speed get 2 (yellow)bottles of Penzoil "syncromesh" fluid from Auto zone its made for these types of transmissions and isnt a fortune like the dealer fluid, if its not a 5 speed then drop the pan and change the filter and fluid. Check over the chassis as much as possible, for safety reasons.

Go here for more info on the quad 4, lotsa info to be had there:

http://www.quad4forums.com/forums/

[Jcstang]

You said taking the motor out of the car would make it alot easier. I have an engine stand, and a engine hoist, would it be better to take it out and do it? Im not to great on the idea of front wheel drive, is it difficult? Thanks

[95OldsHO]

Working on the engine out of the car is much easier mainly because of the timing chain housing, trying to work on the engine and set the timing with the engine in the car leaves a very little amount of room to work with between the chain housing and the body.

The engine can come out the top or even be dropped out the bottom(GM put them in from the bottom fyi). If pulling the engine out the top separate the trans from the engine, remove the intake and exh. manifolds and as much other stuff as you can from the engine then lift it right out. Some people lower the trans and engine together(or separate)and then lift the front end of the car high enough to slide the engine out, many people say going out the bottom is easiest, its all preferance and what is most comfortable for you really, worst part about going out the top is you can bang up the engine bay if not careful when raising the engine, dont try to lift the engine and trans out the top together, it can be done, but its a real pain due to the brake master cyl. and the angle that the engine and trans come out at is pretty extreme which makes it hard to handle and leads to damaging the engine bay.

On the other hand you could leave the engine and trans in the car and pull the head off, usually people just let the chain housing dangle there loose because they cant get it out from between the engine and the body, many people do it this way because they have no hoist and have the common head gasket problem, its just viewed as being harder due to the limited amout of room to work, kinda a trade off in work I suppose- either pull/drop the engine for and easier job, or leave the engine in(less work)and deal with the limited hand and tool space etc. Since you dont have any bottom end work needed it may be easiest to just pull the head off while the engine is still in the car, again its really personal preferance.

Be sure you have a manual and research as much as possible, for instance there are new head tighening sequences and specs released since some of the manuals were made, on the net you can find the best way to rebuild the motor, again check out http://www.quad4forums.com/forums/ a ton of info can be found there, the active members of the board are experts on the quad 4 and are usually glad to help, alot of topics already covered in there so try the search button first if you like.

Which version of the quad do you have?