Car began hesitating/skipping, when accelerating, after a VERY rainy couple of days. No sign or sound of any problems prior. This improved over next 2 wks and was only happening when accelerating around 40 mph.
Took to a dealer for oil change and minor tune-up and mentioned this symptom. The first day they initially felt the cause of the ?skipping? was a bent valve. The second day they determined there was actually a piston ?sticking? and have spent the rest of the week trying all sorts of solvents to get the piston loose.
Today ? day 7 ? they called me to say there is a bent valve and it caused the piston rod to ?bow?. They are willing to replace the damaged parts for 2525 P&L or put in another engine with 70K miles for 2466 P&L. They tell me it is the exact same engine: V8 5.7 L, fuel-injected. My car has 206K mi. They have also told me the car is dangerous to drive. This car is important to me: because it?s a wagon; was in great condition; getting 18mpg in the city/25 hwy; I can?t afford a new car ? in fact, the costs of their options are a problem! Should I take the chance of driving it somewhere else for a second opinion? Should I go for the new engine? Are there more questions I should ask them? Should I take a chance on purchasing another 1996 Roadmaster wagon with 162K miles for 2400? Oh my! What?s a gal to do!!
Its possible moisture could get into your engine through your intake. But it would take alot of water to create rust that would make your pistons or valves stick. Small amounts of water would be dissipated in the cylinders when it was firing. So it could be just a coincidence that this happened around the rainy days. But if it started out bad and got slightly better over 2 weeks there coulve been alot of water and the cylinders were slowly getting rid of it. Now 2 things would worry me when it came to either tearing your engine apart or putting in a used engine. When they tear your engine apart to they might come to find damage to your engine block or other components, which would then require you to replace the engine then costing you more labor because they had to tear yours apart to find out you needed a new one. Now the other thing that would worry me is where this 70k mile engine came from. Its easy to find an enginge exactly like yours but who knows how it came to be ready to sell to another person from being in another vehicle. The car couldve been wrecked and the engine salvaged or anything. But i would say your best and safest bet would be to put in the used engine. Less things could go wrong when your replacing an engine rather than tearing yours apart, replacing parts, and putting it back together. Well good luck and let me know what you come up with!