Dealer Cracked My Block

[novacane2003]

i took my baby 1993 cadillac sts into a cadi dealer to have the head gaskets replaced. they said the motor had been into before and sent the heads off the be checked. heads were ok no cracks and were resurfaced. dealer then put all back together and upon start up they heard a loud POP. said it was like a hitting the finder. then a loud chirping began comming from the back head. next they took of the intake revieling a long crack running from the started back across 3 cylenders.this is were we stopped.they bid the head job at $1650.00 but had the normal thread problems with 2 head bolt holes witch jumped the price up to $1850.00. now they want to give me..yes give me a used warrantied block that was defective leaking oil under the intake behing the starter. for this they want $2860.51. problem i have is they want to use my heads which i think now are damaged. i drove this car into the dealership not hot, now its worse. what are the odds of a cracked block due to excessive overheating? any other advise will help. the crack is about 3 inches down from the heads looks like the bottomed out the headbolts? anyone seen this?

[maxwedge]

I think you need to find a mechanic familiar with these engines and have him look at the situation and see if he thinks they caused this putting the helicoils in the block for the head bolts, if that is where the crack started. If so, then with his info sit down with the SM and let him know you expect them to take care of this, if not I would demand a better deal on their part, this engine was, in legal terms, "in their care and keeping"

[M.A.C]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

I think you need to find a mechanic familiar with these engines and have him look at the situation and see if he thinks they caused this putting the helicoils in the block for the head bolts, if that is where the crack started. If so, then with his info sit down with the SM and let him know you expect them to take care of this, if not I would demand a better deal on their part, this engine was, in legal terms, "in their care and keeping"

I agree. Talk to experts that know the Northstar engine and find out what could have caused the block to crack. Call GM and see if you can talk to a technician. One thing for certain, you didn't cause the problem. Perhaps the mechanics’ over-torqued or improperly torqued the bolts and stressed the block. Like maxwedge said, find out if the block cracked where the time-serts were installed. Even if the block cracked at a different location, it remains the mechanics still could have possibly over-torqued or improperly torqued the head causing the block to crack. But again, contact GM.

[novacane2003]

i sence have contacted gm.they said they would investigate..seems all they did was talk to the service manager..and when they called me back they said they have to stand behind ther dealer..talk about gettin ripped off...thinkin about buying my old lincoln back lol

[maxwedge]

Originally Posted by novacane2003

i sence have contacted gm.they said they would investigate..seems all they did was talk to the service manager..and when they called me back they said they have to stand behind ther dealer..talk about gettin ripped off...thinkin about buying my old lincoln back lol

GM has no control over this situation this is between you and the dealer, utilize some of the suggestions already posted such as dispute the credit card cahrge use small claims and so on.

[n_ciappara]

Hey........I am really sorry to hear about your situation with your local dealer. I could not imagine the anger I would feel if I were in that situation. You may already know this, but there is another forum out there that has been a help to me in finding resources for my sts. If you havent tried it out it is cadillacforum.com. You may be able to get in touch with some cadillac specific mechanics there. Good luck with your situation and god bless.