Things are different now that I’m married and have a child. I have to be responsible, both with my time and with my finances. So when, last night, I went to move my 1989 Chevy K1500 Silverado to the other side of the street to avoid a street sweeping ticket, only to listen to my 350 V8 blow up for no apparent reason, I was really upset. More than I would be usually.
Back in my single days, if I blew up an engine, it wasn’t a major concern. In fact, as shown below, when I hyrolocked my first Jeep XJ’s 4.0-liter straight-six, I bought a new motor the next day and hat it installed within the month. I think the whole repair might have cost me $400, and yes, it took many hours, but that was just good content. And fun.
Nowadays, I’m responsible for a small family, and what was once a little setback is now a major problem.
I didn’t need the Chevy Silverado K1500 that I bought for $4,900, but I told my wife Elise it was such a great deal that I couldn’t lose. She trusted me, but I was wrong. Last night, something happened that I simply cannot explain — something so “out there” I’m still having a hard time believing it.
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It was late Monday night, and Elise had suggested I move my truck instead of waiting for the morning, since I’d have an easier job finding parking on the Thursday-street-sweeping side. So I walked up the street, installed the fuse I use as a kill-switch, put my key into the truck’s ignition, cranked, and listened to the engine rev to the sky — but before I could even think to shut anything down, the motor died making a horrible noise. I went to crank the motor again; no dice. I kept trying — nothing.
I put the truck in reverse, allowed it to roll backwards, and let off the clutch. The motor didn’t move. It was then that I knew I was screwed.
Elise knew right away something was wrong when I walked into the house, so she asked what was up.
“I… I think I just lost $7,000 dollars,” I told Elise as I stood there, clearly shocked. “What? How?” she replied.
“Yeah, the truck, which is worth at least $8000 is now worth probably $1000 because the engine just blew up.”
Elise was also surprised, asking me how a motor can just blow up for no reason. I had no answers. She was supportive, as she could tell how bummed I was.
I remained in disbelief, so this morning, I tried jumping the car myself with Elise’s Lexus (see above). The motor still wouldn’t crank.
So I called AAA, who put a high-powered jump-starter onto my battery, and got it to crank over! But the sound that motor made was absolutely horrific (follow our Instagram to listen, as I plan to rank it again as soon as I have my battery charged up). “Yeah… your motor is done,” the AAA driver told me.
I’m still stunned. The truck was driving great when I parked it last week. Now, just starting it up to move it 15 feet to the other side of the road, it just blows up? Why did this happen?
I hadn’t changed the oil since purchasing the truck in January, but the oil looked good, and the previous owner confirmed he was a religions 3000 mile oil-changer. What’s more, even if the oil were bad, the motor wouldn’t have failed like this. This was a catastrophic, abrupt failure.
It seems like perhaps there was something afoot with the Throttle Body Injection system; perhaps there was a major vacuum leak. And maybe it was the engine revving really high at idle that caused those rods to fail.
I suspect that’s what happened. For whatever reason, when I started the truck, it over-revved and the rods let go. Without warning. Or maybe the motor was flooded with fuel?
I’m not sure how I’m going to move forward with this truck. On one hand, selling it for a loss is going to be tough for me since I’m a cheap bastard, but fixing it will take many hours that I should be spending with my child. I also planned to use the truck this Saturday, as we are moving across the city. The timing couldn’t be worse!
I’m really bummed here. I’ll get through it, as I live a life of gratitude these days, but this is going to make future car-purchases more difficult to justify. I figured a 350-powered 4×4 manual Chevy truck was a low-risk buy that I’d actually be able to make some money if I sold it, but I figured wrong. Between the bondo discover on my old Willys Jeep and this, it’s a reminder that buying used cars can be risky, even for wrenching veterans.
Anyway, I will soon be getting a $75 parking ticket. Thereafter, I’ll tow this truck… somewhere and figure out what to do. I’m so tempted to just find a used truck and swap the motor in, but again — time!
at least it blew up in the right place and at somewhat right time. Usually they blow up when you are far far away and leave you stranded….
I was thinking this as well. At least it didn’t blow up while completely loaded with stuff from the move on the highway.
You now have an opportunity for your first father and son project, he’s going to grow up covered in rust and oil, he might as well start now…” 🙂
Just get his tetanus shots done first okay… lol
Try pulling the plugs and turning it over. May have leaked fuel into the cylinders and hydrolocked. It’s possible you get away with it being valvetrain related…but unlikely. Good news is, 350s are typically fairly cheap for a basic one. I can’t imagine it dead locking up that fast even if it spun a bearing or something similar which makes me think hydrolock or a failed component in the valvetrain.
Every family is different but when we had our first and second my hobby time took a nose dive. I will say though that ages 3-9 (before sports or other activities/classes) I did have a significant amount of time to do hobbies from 5am-10am on weekends. Then the kids got older and more active and that’s gone. But in a year or two my oldest will be driving and won’t want anything to do with me, and then I’ll have more me time back. In the interim, the time with the family is priceless even if it doesn’t always feel that way in the moment.
Revving the motor to the moon before oil pressure develops will totally spin the bearings. Doesent matter how good the oil is or how well it was maintained.
That wouldn’t cause it to lock up that quickly though, versus knocking
As someone who has a brother with a 3 year old and having witnessed how much time and effort is required ( or at least should be ) to raise them from 0-3 years old tells me that not only should you cut the losses and sell the truck but that you’re going to need to adjust the amount of time you spend wrenching.
I think you need to scrap that Chevy and obtain the real GOAT of trucks, a Ford with the 300-6. Mine overheated 3 times and still keeps going. That said I was thinking my next truck should be a Chevy with a 350. Glad to hear yours was just a starter/flywheel problem?
I joke with my son that I plan to own at least one example of every legendary engine. Already have the Jeep 4.0, GM 3.8, Ford 300-6. Thinking about a 350 and slant six. We’re debating whether the 1.8L turbo in his Audi TT qualifies.
get BMW with M30 engine…. those are outlasting cars they are in
You could do a series of West Coast vs East Coast articles, that is, NV3500 vs NV200.
(As per my other comment about replacing the Silverado’s cursed 5LM60 transmission with the superior NV3500 transmission & as per the series you have going about the 375k-mile NYC taxicab NV200.)
For anyone who didn’t see the instagram post, it didn’t blow up, the starter got stuck on the flywheel and chipped a tooth or two which was rattling around.
Why did it rev to the moon during start up? Was that the sound of the starter spinning?
Seriously?! Let’s hope there is an update or retraction. Impugning the honor of an SBC like this would be a crime.
It’ll make it easier to sell as-is. Use it for the move or rent a Transit from Galpin, depending on when a buyer turns out.
Why would you sell it?
That makes a lot more sense
I’m kinda-sorta feeling your pain, but for completely different reasons. I’ve been helping my neighbor on and off (weather permitting) on his ’89 C3500 dump truck (one-ton square body with this exact engine), and all the issues we’ve been working through point to the fact he just turned 84 and shouldn’t be working on his vehicles anymore. The latest is a coolant leak that I traced to the fact that he forgot to install one of the intake gaskets when he last had the intake manifold off, and he had the intake manifold off because the heat wasn’t working and I traced that to a plug that he stuck into one of the fittings and forgot to remove when he was putting things back together from the previous time he took the intake manifold off. As I’m typing this the truck is sitting in his driveway with a crank full of water, waiting for him to be in the right headspace before tackling the job again.
Just make sure you get some sleep before you dig into this…
Sleep can be hard to come by with an infant in the house.
Oh I know. I have two kids who thankfully started sleeping through the night years ago.
My little one turns 20 next month. Enjoy and treasure it while it lasts.
15 and 9 here. And I am.
No fun – sorry to hear.
“ Elise knew right away something was wrong when I walked into the house, so she asked what was up.
“I… I think I just lost $7,000 dollars,” I told Elise as I stood there, clearly shocked. “What? How?” she replied.
“Yeah, the truck, which is worth at least $8000 is now worth probably $1000 because the engine just blew up.””
If it has this much effect on your mood and your family then I would pull the plug on this sort of thing.
Cheapness and bad moods have externalities. I grew up with a cheap dad who made us feel like crap when stuff broke – the mirror on his Audi, driving the bikes into the garage with them on the roof rack, that sort of thing. For your family’s sake: deal with the stress in a productive manner (as in not making your family sense it) or just cut out the activities that put you in this mood.
This is not a call for bottling up all emotions. But you have a lot of low hanging fruit if you’re tossing out “I just lost $7k” bombshells.
All the best and hoping you find a cheap replacement
Over 2 decades of marriage and more counseling than I can count tell me that “I just lost $7,000” is never the right opening move.
“YOU were right, that IS a shit pile and WE are getting rid of it” is the way to go here.
No new mother in the history of ever has cared about the theoretical drop in value of her husband’s hobby car.
Please make sense in the next story. I bought the truck for $4900. I just lost $7000. With logic like this, you should be a writer and not an engineer at Chrysler. I have plenty of like minded coworkers. More of them is not needed. With all due respect.
If you own something that is worth $8000 and something happens to reduce its value to $1000, you have lost $7000 in value. The amount spent initially is immaterial.
BTW, if you are interested in critiquing somebody’s writing you might want to brush up on the basics. Here is a little help.
1. “Please make sense in the next story.”
Revised: Please ensure your logic is clear in your next explanation. or Please be more coherent in your next story.
2. “With logic like this, you should be a writer and not an engineer at Chrysler.”
Revised: If that’s your reasoning, perhaps fiction writing would suit you more than engineering at Chrysler. (PS. Mr. Tracy IS a writer and not currently an engineer at Chrysler) (PPS. Chrysler isn’t really even a company any longer, it is Stellantis. Chrysler is a brand that sells one basic model.)
3. “I have plenty of like minded coworkers.”
Revised: I have plenty of like-minded coworkers.
4. “More of them is not needed.”
Revised: More of them are not needed.
5. “With all due respect.”
Revised: With all due respect, your reasoning doesn’t add up.
Gotta go with Redapple on this. The the truck was purchased for $4,900. It’s now worth $1,000. Hence, he lost $3,900. Who said the truck was worth $8,000? Why not $80,000? After all, Mary is selling her over-priced electric trucks at much higher prices than that. They are worth that price, but people are stupid enough to pay those amounts. Value is only what the next guy is willing to pay, not what I say it’s worth. Value and worth are mutually exclusive.
Plus, if it needs a new engine, if he can do it himself with friends (turn it into an Autopian article!) it’s quite a bit less than $7k. New reman GM long blocks are $4700 or so.
If your retirement account goes from $100k to $50k despite you only putting in $40k, you have still lost $60k. That isn’t even arguable. If the car had even been given to him, he still has the title and therefore is in possession of its value, and therefore the losses are also his. You can argue about the value of the truck and the cost to replace the engine, but the price he paid is 100% immaterial by even the most tortured logic.
Sure, the value is only what he could get somebody to pay, but $8k isn’t an unreasonable estimate given the market. The only way to truly know would be to sell it. It sure isn’t based on what you personally want it to be worth.
That is because your retirement account has a stated value, not an estimated value.
Complete and utter nonsense. Plus, the actual value of the retirement account is calculated when it is distributed and can change moment to moment as the value of the stocks and other assets are constantly in flux. Any account statement is an estimate.
A loss is based on current market value and/or replacement cost, not the price you paid or didn’t pay at some point in the past. Again, think of if it had been gifted. Just because the person didn’t pay for it doesn’t mean it has no value.
It is quite simple: what you pay for something isn’t the same as its current value. They are different things. It should be a simple concept.
The only values that count are the cost to purchase and the price received when liquidated. DT hasn’t liquated the truck, so his loss not determined at this point.
Claiming he ‘lost’ $8k is bullshit. He hasn’t liquidated. If the value of the truck is now $0, his loss is a $4900 (the purchase price).
So, if the truck had been a gift, its value would have been zero by your “logic.” This is so obviously nonsense that you should be embarrassed. The difference you are talking about is liquid vs. tangible. Tangible assets can go up and down in value, and the acquisition price has nothing to do with the current value.
We always called those ‘paper losses’.
That doesn’t make them less real. If you buy your house for $100k and then 30 years later it is worth $450k, it is still a real asset even if you haven’t liquidated it and that is what the insurance payout would reflect. If the house burns down, you have lost $450k, not $100k.
Looking at it in any other way is the height of financial ignorance.
Whether it is a truck with a (now not) blown engine, a house, or a retirement fund, gain or loss is not realized until the asset is sold or otherwise disposed of. Until that point they are on paper and estimates are just that, estimates.
Did you have a point? It is an estimate of a real distance. Estimating the distance between two things doesn’t make it less real. Neither does estimating the value of something. Precision isn’t a prerequisite.
Surely you gained $10k instead of $60k? You can’t loose what you don’t have. Although the account lost the value.
You’ve only gained that $10k when you have it in your hand, not ‘invested’ in a retirement account.
That’s how I’m treating my much lower 401(k) value thanks to tariffs etc. I’m not retiring for another 10 years so I’ve lost nothing in my mind. Maybe I’ve lost 6 months of growth as the account has the value it had 6 months ago.
Exactly. Unless you are cashing out RIGHT NOW, you can ride out this latest nonsense and still end up ahead in the end. Just like in 2008-2009, those who are retired or were retiring soon then were screwed. The rest of us in the market were inconvenienced temporarily, and if they were making contributions all along without trying to be cute, took advantage of the crash to buy low.
Fooling yourself into thinking the losses in the market weren’t real is simply stupid. As you just admitted the people that retired at that moment were screwed. They were screwed because the losses were real. The strategy of riding it out only works for an asset that is likely to appreciate in value significantly.
You stretched the analogy well past the breaking point. The wait-it-out aspect doesn’t work on a truck or apparently, you think that buying a bunch of broken old trucks and waiting is an effective investment strategy. The gain in value of the truck in this case is that it was bought below market value. That increase doesn’t come from waiting.
You did “have” it. It’s silly to think that the current amount in your retirement account isn’t actually yours. The fact that the income comes from an investment doesn’t mean it isn’t real or you don’t possess it.
Regarding the situation described, you will have gained $10k from your original investment, but have lost $40k of real value from your recent total. If that $40k had just been stolen by somebody, they would have had $40k in real money. Therefore, the loss is real.
The fact that you are alright with the losses because it is a long-term investment that goes up and down is 100% immaterial.
If somebody is willing to sell you an ounce of gold for $1000 right now, it is still worth about $3375. You would have lost about $3375 in value if you lost it. Saying you only lost $1000 means you are purposefully remaining ignorant of the asset’s actual value.
A stock changes price minute buy minute based on the recent sale price. It is worth what someone will pay
Same with the truck, it was just purchased for $4700 – so it is worth $4700.
Complete B.S. because a good estimate is based on the current market. Not what you paid. Basing it on what you paid would be idiotic.
I’m applying this to my 401(k) it’s worth is based on the current market. Ignore all the rest as just noise, it’s meaningless until sold / cashed out.
For a long-term investment in a highly variable asset that has a long history of gaining value over the long term, that makes sense. For a truck, it doesn’t.
Generally speaking when talking about investments or assets you don’t actually make or lose money until you sell. Your talking about “paper losses” which is basically fake losses.
Great, so if I were to remove all the money from your retirement account above and beyond what you put in, you would be fine with that. It is just fake money after all.
Please, at least put in a little effort.
Well that doesn’t make sense. Nobody is arguing that anyone is “fine with” anything. Just what amount is actually lost. Nobody would be fine with lost money regardless of the amount, that’s a no brainer.
You are calling the losses fake. I’m simply pointing out how obviously incorrect you are.
Not fake, unrealized. You sure are using a lot of words to demonstrate how you don’t understand basic economics.
The other commentator used the word “fake.” You might want to brush up on elementary-level reading comprehension before attempting economics.
Exactly. The truck is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. $8,000 is just a guess/hope.
“Some genius is putting a Jeep Typhoon in his Silverado!”
Cue “Yackety Sax”
There, Autopian editorial roadmap till mid June completed!
The Raccoons keep waking me up, so I found an adapter for you
https://www.novak-adapt.com/catalog/adapters/engine-to-transmission/kit-437amc.html
I thought we lost you when you got the BMW, it’s time for Jason to hit you upside the head. You just had 6 months of content drop in your lap. Time for the Chrysler Dude to get an education on the superiority of the Small Block Chevy and rebuild one. Or swap in an LS like everyone else, but focus on how easy it to be done ( and cheaper). Or get crazy and swap in the Atlas 4200 and turbo it. Any time and money spent are business expenses. We just need to see you wrenching.
I *think*, I *think* he’d rather spend the time with his family. Maybe he should have outlined his thoughts in the article to avoid such confusions…
If there is a baby in the house, there ain’t gonna be wrenching. There will be sleepless nights and parental responsibility. It’s not going to make for a lot of fun stories here, but those who ignore their kids for work usually end up raising unstable people.
I’d say dump this turd and move on. It is a broken truck in Los Angeles. SOMEONE will want it. Maybe sell it to someone who will actually fix it and do a story on them. Delegation is key.
Take all the serpentine belts off and try it again. I have twice now had an engine sieze or make a lot of noise and struggle to crank and it turned out to just be an accesory.
Thank god we finally get a real DT story instead of the now usual “CA is so rust free I hate driving” posts
(just kidding, this utterly sucks, David)
Baby first, wife second, David third, others later. Get rid of the car, or hire a younger version of yourself with no responsibilities for the Autopian. You will get some hours of wrenching time in 2-3 years.
Sounds like some lucky Autopian reader just won a pick-up
It needs to be some inexpensive $1 raffle?
“ The timing couldn’t be worse”
Oh yes it could, it could have happened *while* moving, probably with a load of valuable items, probably in an unfortunate location.
I’m sorry, did you swap in a current Chevy v8?
Or Toyota who apparently licensed “crap in the oil” tech from Ford?
Oh, and the alternate side of the street parking thing? I had a car parked on the street in New York City that I moved from one side of the street back to the other for a couple months without a functional engine. It was pointing downhill and I just rolled it from one side of the street to the other until I had covered two blocks without the engine running and finally had to do something about it.
That’s genius
soldier
I don’t do instagram to hear for myself but are you certain that it’s the rods, and not just the bearings? Or something in the top of the engine?
If you can sort of get the engine to turn over it might just be the bearings. I know people who have changed the bearings on a Chevy engine while it’s still in the car. Not that I would recommend that.
I spun the bearings on a Porsche 914/6 engine. And a Mercedes 240 Diesel. Getting to take a look at the bearings on a 911 engine is a total disassembly situation.
Oh, and the cam/valve train/ distributor(do they still have those?) might have broken something. A broken valve spring or retainer could mess things up.
Actually I am surprised that a Chevy 350 can spin fast enough to break the bottom end under its own power without the benefit of down shifting two gears when you meant to shift up or something. Doesn’t the airflow or the engine computer put a limit on that?
If it had an Automatic it would have a Park/Neutral rev limiter that shouldn’t let it get past something like 3k rpm.
Would a truck this old have something that modern? My automatic ’90s Jeeps certainly don’t limit RPM in Park.
Also, if this is a vacuum leak then it’s likely that the computer would struggle to control the RPM until it hits the rev limiter and cuts spark. I started my ’98 Jeep XJ with a huge vacuum leak by mistake once and I’ve never heard it rev so high!
Yeah GM starting implementing that in the late 80’s/early 90’s
Huh, the more you know! I’m impressed they were doing stuff like that back then!
Yeah a lot of people discount those early GM EFI systems but they were actually pretty sophisticated compared to many of the contemporary mass market systems.
My mom’s suv sounded like 581% rod knock. Turned out to be the a/c compressor. The 4l her Explorer had was fine otherwise. Despite having an unpressurized coolant system a good part of it’s life or detonation any time a hill was encountered in the heat.
Park it someplace secure and sit on it for a few months until you get in the right headspace to fix it. And save some $$$$ so you can do it right and put something cool under the hood. The tbi chevies are usually very reliable, but they are damn dogs perfomance wise.
There are a bazillion different options on how to build a small block chevy, it would be cool if you did some articles on an engine you built yourself. Do you keep tbi? Holley sniper? East tennessee redneck it with a holley dominator so it only runs right at WOT???
David’s going to be over-tired for at least 2 years.
He’s a new dad. He’ll be good and exhausted for quite a while.
If it sits for a year or two, no big deal. Just make sure its stored somewhere secure.
Wait… E(nhrn) just had a baby, is in the midst of a house move, and still has energy to be sympathetic and supportive? Did David marry Wonder Woman?
This is the same woman who received his LinkedIn dating DM, presumably read his articles about washing engine parts in the dishwasher, and thought, “Yes, I can work with this.”
You should also know that David’s LinkedIn picture is one with him standing in an engine bay, so she know what she was getting into.
if they don’t find you handsome they should at least find you handy
my Better half knows way too well: Honey, I am going to go to the garage for quickly before we leave and I have everything I need…. and then 3 hours later me calling a tow truck and we are NOT going anywhere anymore
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!! If you decide to replace the engine how feasible would it be to replace the 5LM60 with a NV3500, as per the input shaft bearing noise you noted in your earlier post https://www.theautopian.com/it-was-too-good-to-be-true-heres-everything-wrong-with-my-gmt400-chevy-pickup/ ?
Yeah, looks like you have quite a few volunteers willing to lend a hand (takes a village and all that) so hopefully there’ll be enough volunteers that are nearby and this can be knocked out in a day or a weekend when your baby is busy with other people (i.e., grandparents) if you go the engine replacement route (& possibly 5LM60 to NV3500 route.) And seconding the other commenters who expressed interest in an autopsy (ha, yeah, auto-psy) on the engine.
Again, good luck with whatever you end up doing.
Yasssss an Autotopsy article. Chevy’s are easy to work on, leverage your army and get it done over the weekend.