Engine Dilemma

[Josh]

There is a parts car with an engine on eBay as we speak.

Ouch! That car has had a rough life. The stainless has me drooling though! haha.

To the op, I may be putting my engine up for sale soon. 20k miles, solid compression, but the valley had never been cleaned it appears and a hole was formed in the block.

[Morpheus]

There is a parts car with an engine on eBay as we speak.

Like I said, a parts car is a little out of my reach right now.

[Morpheus]

Ouch! That car has had a rough life. The stainless has me drooling though! haha.

To the op, I may be putting my engine up for sale soon. 20k miles, solid compression, but the valley had never been cleaned it appears and a hole was formed in the block.

I wonder if your crankshaft is good, considering the oil leak and all.

[Josh]

I wonder if your crankshaft is good, considering the oil leak and all.

Yeah no way to tell. If I do have it up for sale that mean's I will be getting a 3.0. I could take a look at it when the lower casing is off.

[OverlandMan]

You may have already seen this but a forum member here has a used crankshaft for sale (assuming it's good) for $800. http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?7145-Check-it-out

[Farrar]

When I'm bored, I search car-part.com for 1989 Eagle Premier engines. They generally go for less than $1,000. You might be able to find one in your area. Just thought I'd mention it, since price is a concern. Good luck!

[eagle-co94]

Brandon, I've got the motor I pulled out of my parts car sitting here if you need parts. I can pull everything you need and we can figure out how to have them checked for tolerances. I'm going to put the motor on a stand and start the tear-down tomorrow I think. LMK if you're interested.

[eagle-co94]

I'll even sweeten the options for you. I'll be in Lakeland next Saturday night and Sunday morning if you want me to bring things up to drop off at your shop. Sent you my # via FB.

[Morpheus]

^ Thanks, James!

[May81DeLorean]

A bit of an engine dilemma I am faced with and would appreciate advice, I got under the car for the first time today and noticed the following problems, and took a few pictures of them:

- appears that oil is coming from the timing cover area, a few inches below the AC Compressor
- the above leaking oil is dripping down the block onto the oil pan area, don’t think there is an oil pan gasket leak, but unsure
- there is a build-up of oil and grime on the engine frame cradle
- possible oil leak between the engine/transmission mating area, possibly the main seal (don’t know if it’s the original seal or not)
- lots of gear oil on the transmission case, around the plug, don’t know if it is a result from being filled
- decay on transmission mounts, both sides
- numerous exhaust header studs without nuts on the stud, perhaps some studs were not used after a header swap when studs were discovered to be faulty

Due to not having a car lift, I would most likely have to pull the engine to try and deal with these problems, and any other problems that I currently cannot see, and figure that if the engine and transmission are removed from the car - it would be best to tackle lots of maintenance.

At some point in the future, I wanted the engine to be converted to EFI, so not sure if I should try to:
- purchase a 3.0 engine at this point and not spend time or money on the 2.8
- try to replace gaskets and seals on the 2.8 myself, but not sure if I would do it correctly, and the transmission work would be beyond my skill level
- or stick with the 2.8 and send the engine and transmission out to be overhauled and have transmission weak components replaced by folks with experience on these engines
- or simply ship the entire car to a delorean vendor and let them repair the current issues and any other issues they find

I have a budget of about $ 4000 to deal with these problems and don’t know which option I should choose, with a focus on long-term solutions...