Hey,

First of my name is Chris and I own a 91' VR-4. I recently baught my car over the summer and have been having overheating problems(haven't had time to get down to doing anything yet). I'm still pretty bad when it comes to knowledge in cars and am glad I still have my grand am for reliability.

I origionaly baught the car from Nashville, TN for $5,500 and I've put around 2k into it so far at a dealership. This was for just getting a rebuild ECU and the exhaust leak fixed(by getting a brand new one).

The overheating is the only problem other than a little whine I sometimes experience on left turns and some casual backfire in third. It's most likely not the fan because that was replaced at the dealership. Before I purchased the vehicle the engine had gone completely and was rebuilt. I'm possibly thinking some of the water may be getting into the engine but have absolutely no idea.

I want to invest in this car no matter what and I love the vehicle. I'd like to possibly get somemore knowledge / assistance / work done on this vehicle so that I can eventualy drive it.




Somethings I've noticed wrong (pipeing infront of the radiator.)


And finally a picture of the engine bay(even though it won't help to much...)

Tubing has never been replaced
--Waukesha, WI--

That piping in front of your radiator is a transmission cooling line. It does look bent up versus a normal position.

Have you tried flushing and changing your thermostat?

SJ

_________________


Racing is life. Everything else is just waiting.

http://umg.mn3s.org

http://ummo.boards.net

No I have not actually and have no idea what to do honestly. Is there anywhere with some pictures / instructions, possibly an owners manual I can look at in reguards to doing these things?

I would assume there are directions at stealth316.com, but I can't seem to get there right now to verify.

Can someone else?

SJ

_________________


Racing is life. Everything else is just waiting.

http://umg.mn3s.org

http://ummo.boards.net

The piping is actually the power steering cooler, manual transmissions generally don't uses coolers. It also maybe why your are hearing the squealing when you turn. I would get it fixed soon or you might be replacing the pump as well.

As far as the overheating issue, like SJ said, get the system flushed and replace the thermostat. Hopefully they replaced the water pump when the motor was rebuilt.

Do you know how many miles are on the motor since the rebuild?

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'94 vr4- Now with extra slowness

well heres the link you can find pretty much anything you need to know on here. its the site SJ was talking about.

http://stealth316.com/0-frames.htm

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91 Stealth TT
Black with Porno Red interior
Stock with 185k and still going.

I just recently got back home from college out in Whitewater and am able to do some looking around to get the car fixed.

I had the car over at Darrel's Engine Repair here in Waukesha off of Sunset and I finally got the diag. results back. The exact comments read.

Diag. Comments:

Estimate of repair to install head gaskets and machine heads, $2500.00 Possible lower end problems in engine, also needs timing belt covers.

Notes and Recom.

Scan vehicle, code=31 knock sensor circuit problem. Pressure tested slight hose leak, engine runs rough, white smoke from tailpipe, combustion leak detection tests results- blown head gasket.

I'm not on the computer much so I would appreciate it if anyone that could/would mind possibly assisting me text me via phone.

My number is 262-352-0915.

Thanks alot,

Chris.

At a shop that sounds about right. If you know someone that knows what they're doing you can do that for considerably less. A large chunk of that price is the labor for the head gaskets. IIRC book time on the job is 8 or 9 hrs. If you aren't too familiar with engines I wouldn't attempt this job, it's fairly tough.

Looks like your finding out the hard way about these cars. They are maintenance hogs. If the owners before you didn't keep up to date on the maintenance then look out. So right now you have approx. $7,500K into a car that needs head gaskets.

I think you would be better off to get one of the guys here in this group that works on these cars to look at it. I'm sure the price is a bit less plus they know what they are working on. These twin turbos are somewhat rare and the dealerships rarely see them. So when they do get one in for work they have to break out the shop manuals to figure out how to work on them. Ususally they screw something up and you end up paying more $$$.

But in the long run when you get the head gasket issue repaired you will probably have the same amount of $$$ into repairs as you did buying the car.

Bunk

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93 3000 GT VR4

For gawd's sake contact Jeff -- PM him here as 440 4x4.

SJ

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Racing is life. Everything else is just waiting.

http://umg.mn3s.org

http://ummo.boards.net

He now has Jeff's # and email address.

2500 for head gaskets????


Jeff "needs" to triple his prices.

Good God man - don't pay that amount of money for head gaskets. Call me, call someone else, call anyone.

Chris,

Don't miss out, it looks like the repair Gods are going to answer your prayers!!

Contact Jeff. Check with others in the group and they will tell you to go to Jeff. Plus he's not far away.

Kyle

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93 3000 GT VR4

Chris:
Call me if and when you decide to take it to Jeff's if you need help. I may be able to help you get it there.
SS