Hi All,

Obligatory "tell me what you think" without a lot of information thread.

1994 Magna TS 4cyl Auto Wagon => 180,000Ks

Drove car to carpark last night, parked, shopped, came back, car no starty. Was turning over but not firing up. Had RAC out, checked spark, fuel, etc, no go.

Got tow truck out this morning, managed to get it started, had a bucketload of white smoke come out for about 5-10 seconds when it started finally and was running quite rough, cleared up a little bit after but still was very not right. (note car had been cranked quite a few times and had a fair squirt of fuel injected in manually by rac guy.. altho i thought thatd come out black rather than white.. could also possibly be water)

Took to my mechanic this morning, after messing around for a bit we

a) Replaced the fuel filter => resulted in it over fueling quite badly
b) Replaced the fuel regulator => fixed the over fueling .. old one seems to be stuck closed.

However its still having problems where after running for a bit.. turn it off.. warm start, dead, won't go at all. Let it sit for a while, starts again.

He's then figured between looking at the radiator with the top off, smelling, and by trying to crank it without spark plugs and have what he thinks is water thrown out and a bit of water out the exhaust.. reckons that the head gasket is starting to go (for all intents and purposes tho, 'gone'.. since it keeps not starting).

At this point its not really worth trying to repair (as well known).. mechanic reckons best bet is to use "Gap Seal" basically just to keep it going until its cactus probably 12 months rathe than cactus now (my intent was/still is was to keep this going for 12-ish months and get a new new car)

My aunty however who still owns the car wants to go down the route of getting a new recon engine because

(a) the body is still in very good condition, no rust, quite clean, only a couple minor drivers door dents from carparkyness, etc
(b) It had a new automatic transmission in roughly 2003 when we got it so thats "newer", thus
(c) Even if not necessarily good on resale value, it'l still be a good car to keep around.

So curious on peoples thoughts as to

(a) Diagnosis
(b) Actually doing a recon engine, and
(c) If anyones got a recon 4G54 before, who from, how much (spec. if in WA) and what their experience was as far as lasting, problems, etc.

Following has been done recently
Distributor, Fuel Regulator, Spark Plugs, Leads, Fuel Filter, Intake Manifold Gasket, Oil Pressure Switch, Knock Sensor, O2 Sensor, Water Pump, Fuel Pump.

Thanks,
Trent

My old TP had a recon engine in it, it ran fine for a little while and then just died.

The head gasket was dead, but after <100,000Km's everyone was kinda scratching their head. It took everyone ages to figure out, but it turns out that that rubber gasket shit had plugged up the oil pick up (dodgy reco the mechanics told me) starved the motor of oil, seized the cam shaft (doing considerable damage to the heads in the process) broken a little dowel pin and sent a piston flying into a valve that shouldn't have been there. The result was about $500 for heads, cam, rockers (may as well, I had a sigma there) some steam seal valves, a head gasket kit, plus labor and trouble shooting ($800ish?)... gotta love your parents

In the end it ran well, but everything else was dead so I sold it and got about $500 for it and got a second gen with a V6 for $1100. It took 80'000KMs for something to go wrong, and even then it was the CVs that I had been told were on their way out.

The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a lot lower, they have more power and use less fuel.

Okay, so...you could go about it two ways.

Sell the body and buy a new car

buy a 2nd hand/reco engine...

reco engine will cost you an arm and a leg and isnt worth it. may aswell buy 2nd hand because they dont change the big end bearrings, crank pistons sometimes dont even change the rings.

I'd probably suggest getting a 2nd hand motor from a wreckers and running that until that dies.

for reference sake, i bought a low k's 4G54 last year (60,XXXkm). It had the piston rings and seals changed, a new timing kit new stem seals and new gaskets. I paid $900 all-up with 6mth warranty.

have you gotten any quotes on a new head gasket? or mechanic friends who take payment in alcohol?

Head gasket replacement is not a big problem. as a DIY exercise it is quite cheap, no need for a new motor.

As above, get a reco head and have this fitted, if you are handy with tools do it yourself, will get out of it for around 600ish if you do it yourself