Well, after replacing the head gaskets on my '99 Olds Silhouette, something broke about 5,000 miles later. I strongly suspect that the camshaft broke, because when it failed, it made a lot of bad noises (for about 2 sec), lost oil pressure and quit. It failed in a bad part of town so I tried to restart it to limp home - no luck:(. It would run for about long enough to put it in gear and then quit. Never developed oil pressure when cranking or running.

My guess is that the computer was shutting down the engine because of oil pressure. Now the questions:

1. Is the GM 3.4 an interference engine - did I bend valves if I broke the cam?

2. How hard is it to replace the engine? I know it comes out the bottom. How high must the van be to get the engine out?

3. Any tricks of the trade?

4. The 99 is a one year engine - why? - anything that would prevent me from using a bare block from another year?

Thanks Team Camaro!

Makes sense....they have a dummy distributor shaft that runs the pump from memory. You will need to get that van up pretty damn high. The best way is the sub frame on jack stands and lift the body off with a hoist. That way you just drop the body back down and everything lines up. However, I suppose you wouldn't have to drop it all the way out to get the cam out. That doesn't sound like fun though.

If you can get a scanner to it to get a message, that would be the best start.

Now, to get those parts your need. JUNKYARD HUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:hurray:

New car time

If the cam broke and I have had one myself and have heard of others It is very likely that you have bent valves or worse. To replace the cam you have to remove the engine. What you do is put stands under the craddle and lift the body off with a lift. I never measured it but I would say you have to lift the van body about 5 feet high to clear the engine. I don't see how you could do it without a lift. The 3.4 engine was used in lots of cars and vans for many years the differance is most likly the mount or something. you may be able to use a block from a differant year but you may have to use your old frt cover or oil pan. I drop it out with all the wireing and the computer. once you get it out its easy to work on but if you have never done anything like this before it will be an adventure.