01 grand am Engine Problems and Selling Questions

[mylastpontiac]

I'll start by saying I am in no way a cars person.

I was overheating on the highway the other day so I pulled off. It did not cool down right away after 7 minutes of sitting it was still overheated on the temperature gauge. I had AAA tow my car to a local garage.

The garage came back and told me the engine was "warped" gave me a printout that basically just said my car needed a new engine with a 4100-5300 bill. I had my car towed home.

I was wondering if this happened to pontiac's often or what this even means. I have not had a second opinion by my car does not start and at 160,000 miles I'm sure it was about gone anyways.

I think my car has an aftermarket exhaust system and wheel/rims that were put on before I bought it.

I was told the exhaust system is borala. I'm going to attach a picture of the rims. I was wondering what the best thing to do with this car financially would be. Should I piece sell the wheels/exhaust/twotone leather seats and anything I can get off of it or should I just sell it as a whole.

I was also wondering if there was a good resource out there to find out what my rims are worth or a place better than craigslist to sell my car.

I've attached pictures.

Thank you for any help!
Dan

 

[melsg5]

It depends upon how long you continued to drive the car while it was in an overheated state. If it was say 1/2 hour you may have caused permanent warpage of the engine block. You state it wont start, what does that mean, you turn the key and nothing happens or it does turn over and doesnt start or it turns with difficulty and wont start? I would get a second opinion. If you want to find used parts prices try e-bay.

 

[mylastpontiac]

It was definately not a half hour. My car had overheated like 2 weeks before where I pulled over for 10 minutes and let it sit until it cooled down and I didn't have an incident until this. It turns over but doesn't then struggles and does not start.

 

[mylastpontiac]

Definitely not a half hour. maybe a few minutes. It had overheated a week or two previous to this event and I pulled over for 15 minutes until it cooled down and had no incidents until this one. When I try to start it turns over but does not catch/start..sounds like it is struggling badly.

______________________________

 

[Zimgxp]

Those wheels are factory Pontiac wheels. If it was overheated, the heads can warp, but usually not the block. Depending on how hot it got.

 

[melsg5]

why didnt you get it looked at after the first incident?

 

[oldhippie]

Have you considered going to a wrecker for a motor? The 3.4 V6 is used in quite a few GM products. Could be cheaper to keep 'er if you go that route.

The 3.4 also had a problem with headgaskets failing but at 160k your engine could have been saved if you'd caught it earlier. 20/20 hindsight doesn't help now though.