to make a long story short. took my wife's 99 grand voyager into the shop for plugs and wires. mechanic calls. come pick it up. runs great. wife goes and pays. fires it up. 10 seconds later. boom pow crunk. stall. mechanic puts a scope down the spark plug hole. there is a valve in there. top end done. motor turned over a few times before this was found. so the cylinder is pooched too. so now a motor swap. found one for 400$. good deal.
But now. should I swap it my self. or just pay for a mechanic to do it. over 1300&. or myself. a few weekends. How hard is it to swap out. scale of 1 - 10 I have lots of tools. and the know how. but I have never done it on a mini van before. any advice would be appreciated. thanks

 

wow. 17 views. not one response. no body has any advice??

 

its your money u do with it as u want to spend it u tell me how am I suppose to know what your mechanical abilities are what tools u have? How do u know I am what I am? U dont and U cant unless u see me first hand this goes same true with u. IF u want to do this on your own go right ahead get a manual read it see what needs to be done then make the call if U want to or pay some one.

 

the problem i always have is not knowing the steps to do the work. normally the work is not that hard. if u get a good bookas a guide but the ones in the parts stores i fine to general.. u with need a engine puller machine(what ever they r called)think u can rent them. how do u know the new engine is good. I think i would ask the mechanic that did the work for some help.

 

Only my opinion but.... there are jobs that are fine to do on your own as a "driveway mechanic" as they are called over here. Some jobs are more difficult or specialised and that's why mechanics tend to charge hourly rates that match their expertise.

I think doing one for the first time I would be tempted to either have a good mechanic with me during the job or let the experienced professional do it, at least you would have some guarantee of the standard of the job.

 

Seems a bit odd that as soon as you fire it up after a tune-up, it drops a valve. Could be a coincidence..., or not. Anyway, it's probably too late for questions now.

Anyway, swapping an engine in a mini-van isn't something that I'd recommend doing yourself. It's been quite a few years since I worked as an auto mechanic, but I'd save myself a lot of work and frustration and have either a dealer, or a well established shop do the work. It might seem like a good bit of money for it, but your time is worth something too, and I think you'd wind up putting a lot more time into it than you will want..., and then you still might wind up having to have it towed into some shop to have them finish the work.

You might be very handy and have a lot of tools, but a dealer knows exactly what has to be disconnected and loosened and will have it in and out in a couple of days, unless he finds something and has to order parts.

I've pulled and replaced engines in the driveway..., many years ago, when I was a lot younger and cars were much simpler. It was a lot of work back then and it would be even more now.

Do what you want, but I'd think twice before getting into something like pulling and replacing an engine if you've never done it before.