'97 Lumina (5) lifters problem

[bug-n-pony guy]

Recommendations please. My granddaughter's 1997 Lumina sedan 3.1L died on her on the freeway at 70MPH. The CHECK ENGINE OIL light came on and then all the other lights as the engine quit. I got it towed to my house where I popped off the front valve cover. The rocker on my extreme left I could move by hand so I proceeded to tear into it to replace the lifters. I got the rear valve cover off as the last thing before pulling off the lower intake manifold. There I found 4 more rockers I could move by hand. I have never heard of 5 lifters collapsing at the same time in the same engine. I didn't think to do an oil pressure check before ripping into this. The rocker's movements vary from 2 to 9 (on a scale of 1 to 10- 1 being immovable and 10 being totally movable).
What would you do now?

[wafrederick]

What did it sound like before it died.It might need a replacement engine and 3100s are known for eating camshafts also.If the cam is bad,the block is junk and washes out the cam bearings in the process.

[tennykimble]

5 lifters? all at one time? possible but VERY hard to believe. if you have the lower intake manifold off, remove all the lifters, and roll the engine over and look at the cam shaft (thru the lifter bores) and see if it wiped off any cam lobes... if not i'd say you have an oil pump issue, its to bad you didnt do an oil pressure check, but you should still be able to if you remove all the spark plugs and use the starter to spin the engine to do an oil pressure test and see if it's getting any oil pressure at all? id cover the engine just incase it does start spitting oil everywhere. good luck,
in my professional opinion ---- i'd say your engine just shit itself! ... sorry!

[tennykimble]

i forgot to say.. i tried to remove an oil pan on a 96 lumina & i couldent get it off! your better off removing the entire engine... i know it sucks but i just tried it last weekend. it ALMOST makes it.... but you need to pretty much jack the engine up out of the engine bay to get it. and even if you do get it off- do you really want to be lying on your back to check rods/crank bearings? bottom line-----start looking far a good used or reman engine........good luck!

[maxwedge]

Make sure the cam did not break, common issue here.

[bug-n-pony guy]

Originally Posted by wafrederick

What did it sound like before it died.It might need a replacement engine and 3100s are known for eating camshafts also.If the cam is bad,the block is junk and washes out the cam bearings in the process.

She said there was no sound before it died. It just shut down.
I appreciate your quick response and it was about what I expected.

[bug-n-pony guy]

Originally Posted by tennykimble

5 lifters? all at one time? possible but VERY hard to believe. if you have the lower intake manifold off, remove all the lifters, and roll the engine over and look at the cam shaft (thru the lifter bores) and see if it wiped off any cam lobes... if not i'd say you have an oil pump issue, its to bad you didnt do an oil pressure check, but you should still be able to if you remove all the spark plugs and use the starter to spin the engine to do an oil pressure test and see if it's getting any oil pressure at all? id cover the engine just incase it does start spitting oil everywhere. good luck,
in my professional opinion ---- i'd say your engine just shit itself! ... sorry!

I appreciate your quick response. I will definitely roll with this information. I'm leaving it up to the daughter & granddaughter to determine how much further I'm going with this because I think your right that this one is down the toilet.

[bug-n-pony guy]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

Make sure the cam did not break, common issue here.

Thank you for the quick response. I will check on that as soon as I get the lifters out. Then leave it up to my daughter & granddaughter how far I go after that.

[manicmechanix]

Like it was mentioned the camshaft probably went. The leaking lower IMG on these engines can lead to that. when you say 5 rockers were loose, I assume you meant they were loose at the pushrod and not at the pedestal itself. If someone had the rockers off changing the LIMG and didn't retorque them properly that's about the only other way several would be loose. Well the timing chain could have went out and the pushrods got bent as I believe the 3100 is an interference engine, but not likely. I've seen a timing chain do that on a 3.8.

[Bearwulf]

3.1 & 3.4 are the two interference engines, if timing chain goes so do push rods & valves.