2002 Silhouette Engine rebuild

[civic lx]

I recentlly purchased a 2002 Silhouette Premier. Yes I know, what was I thinking again. But I only paid $500 for a realy nice van, with about 125K on it. The heads have been off for about 6 months. So I pulled the block to check everything. And to hone the cylenders and install new rings. This is where I have a problem. I got a set of Sealed Power rings(E-918K) although the oil rings are to large to fit into the groove. It looks like the groove is about a 1/32 narrower. Will I have to use GM rings or are there any replacements out.
Yes the intake gasket went out, they kept driving it till the thing overheated. Then they let it set for 6 months tell a purchased it.
It was good thing I pulled the block to check everything out. The cam bearing had worn down to the copper layer on the first bearing. So I had new bearings installed, and the cam and crank polished. Basiclly a total rebuild with new heads.

[463]

good find. you can't lose for that price. my 02 has 85000 miles and no problems. post some pics if you can.

[civic lx]

I'm still reading and trying to get some pictures loaded. But I did get my question answered about the piston rings. If you are going to rering one of these engines(3.4) you will have to buy OEM GM rings. The oil ring groove on the original pistons has about a 3mm groove. Although the rings that I could find at the parts stores are 4mm wide(Sealed-Power E-918K) I think these rings will only work with replacment pistons.

[civic lx]

Well I got this thing running finally last weekend. Now I'm trying to get the bugs worked out. Namely the #5 Misfire I keep having. I had the injectors cleaned on Tuesday, and it helped. But it's still there when you first start it or let it idle for a while. Although if you slightly give it gas the miss is gone, and no miss while driving. And then last night we drove it till the low fuel light came on, big mistake. It made the misfire worse. I'm going to change the fuel filter and see if that helps any.
This van had sit for almost 10 months before I got it running. Who knows what is in the tank and filter. Other than the misfire this thing runs like a top. And it only had 111,000 miles on it and everything works in the van.

[94 Jimmy]

Great Vans(Trucks) aren't they, my 98 has over 230K and is still running well. No ridging in the cylinders and the compression is still 160+/- cold. I've had the chronic head gasket problem since 100K, on the last one I found cracks (12) in the heads so I replaced them, $600 or about one car payment, which is my barometer for "is it worth fixing" While doing the job and cleaning the block mating surfaces I noted a concentric ring about 1/8" from the cylinder wall, I don't know if it's a crack or more likely a cylinder sleeve separated from the block. No evidence of a leak, but this is the cylinder that seems to blow. So if you have the heads off again, make sure to check the condition of block around the cylinders. I'm not a proponent of gasket cement, but in this case I used it in the suspected areas. It would be nice to get another 30-50K out of it, its been a great truck it's got 4X8 sheets of sheet rock in it now, but it could just as well be carrying Boy Scouts on dusty mountain roads and serving as a tent when you get there, let the kids sleep on the rocks, these old bones have had enough of that.
As to your miss, definitely change the filter, and be wary of the fuel pump, they die without notice and leave you stranded. Low fuel pressure will surly show the weak injector and will smooth out at higher RPM. A common warning is not to let the fuel go below 1/4 since the fuel is used to cool the pump.
Good Luck, Have Fun
94

[civic lx]

Originally Posted by 94 Jimmy

Low fuel pressure will surly show the weak injector and will smooth out at higher RPM. 94

I think you may be right about the fuel pressure, although I haven't put a guage on it yet.
Saturday we took a small trip (300 miles) and it ran perfect, no miss or check engine light. It was 92 when we left and got up to 96 in the late afternoon. I'm thinking the incressed temp. made the tank have more pressure and the engine to run great. Then Sunday my wife drove it to church, and had the miss and light on. It was around 75-80 yesterday morning.

[94 Jimmy]

In your last post you said your wife drove the van and noticed the miss and had the "Light" on. Do you mean the MIL(check engine light)? If so a code reader will show the code and the miss will be identified by the cylinder #. I had a bad #6 wire which caused an intermittent miss at times, often not enough to set a code, on one occasion it did set the code and I was able to find it and replace the wire, change both since they run off a single coil. If you don't have a code reader, many parts houses will read them for you, I have one from scantool.net which reads all modes and all cars. Just plug it into a laptop or any computer and read all of the OBDII data, plus codes and clear them as well.
If you do have a real miss, watch out how far you drive, the raw fuel in the exhaust could damage the CAT.
By the way, when you pulled the engine, did you take it out the top or drop it out of the bottom. If it came out the bottom, how far did you have to lift the Van?
Good Luck
94

[civic lx]

The only miss I have is on the #5 cyl. I already changed the wires and had put new plugs in while installing the engine. With the code reader it will miss at idle, but goes away quickly when you give it gas. With the code reader in Data mode you can watch #5 going down the road and all is good. It could be just a bad injector but I still haven't had the fuel pressure checked to rule out the pump.
I bought the van with half the engine already in boxs. So all I had left was the short block left in the van. I pulled out the top and put it back the same way.