EDIT: 1993 Bonneville something not sure if its SE SSE SSEi no badges

I got my Bonneville about a year ago and have had major problems with it. First of all when I first test drove it the thing was great and all but after we were done driving it there was a little bit of smoke coming from under the hood and turns out the oil pan was damaged and leaking oil. We bought the car anyway because I was anxious to get a new car already and it only cost $1200 w/ 130k miles. I had it for a good 6 months driving in the same condition which didnt seem to get worse but then the transmission broke down and had to get rebuilt which cost $3900 total. A month after that happened the engine blew because the a holes who rebuilt the tranny and fixed some oil leaks in the engine put a defective oil filter on and that caused my engine to burn up and everything got ruined. That last incident which was by far the worst happened during Christmas. The current situation is that we found a used engine for $700 which will be put in and completed by Friday. With labor and all that other stuff it should be around $1500 or less which can be paid in full. I will have my Bonneville back in about 2 weeks from now and cant wait to start fixin her up. Im not sure where to start because it needs quite a bit of body work on it and the wheels suck big time. The thing Im worried about is if the engine is worth trying to fix up. I dont want to be scared to floor it every now and then with the fear of it breaking down and stuff so I want to be sure that its running healthy and that I never have a problem with that car again. We dont know how many miles are on this engine yet but the mechanics said it was a pretty good used engine but Im still abit nervous as to how good it is. If I want to go about making this car healthy what should I do? I was saving to buy a new car and have somebody co-sign for me but Im a bit too young and decided to just fix this car up pretty good. Sadly my dad doesnt want me to even touch the engine because I already blew an engine in one of my old cars because I raced too much and didnt practice proper maintenance (I was 15 and it was my first car). Anyways, I am willing to spend $1000 on the engine alone to make it run like new again. I am thinking of replacing the spark plugs & wires, the battery, am probably the belts. I also want to switch to synthetic oil and clean up the engine a bit appearance wise. Is this a good way to go and if I could do better please, please feel free to help. I also want to fix up the body but I want to make sure the car itself is worth all of this. Thank you!

Oh and also a few requests. My shifter is on the steering wheel which kinda sux so I was wondering how much it would cost to have it put on the middle like your guys'. Thats like the last thing on my list though but I am just curious. Since Im new I thought Id give you people a little bit of info about myself.

Im 18 years old and was born on 10-15-1985. I just moved here to Manassas, VA about 2 months ago from Colorado which is where I bought my Bonne. Been working @ Radioshack for about a month now and am making pretty good dough. Live with my parents of course and we only have 1 vehicle which is an old 1992 Chevy van which has a big wreck on its side but still runs ok. Luckily my manager lends me her car a lot so that I can get to and from work. Her car is a Chevy Metro though and it stinks like garbage so you can see why I really want to fix up my Bonne so bad. I am having a great time here on the East Coast and Im so glad that I found this website which I never thought would have any hopes of existing but here I am and happier than ever. I really hope to have a great time on these forums and this will actually be the first car that I will be working on and out of my own pocket.

Hey there, welcome to the club. Sorry I can't help you on your specific problems, but I'm sure you'll get plenty of suggestions if you have your message moved to the proper forum for your specific year of Bonneville, which you never mentioned. (Send a private message to user "Jim W" or "willwren" for this request.) Good luck!

If your shifter is on the column you have an SE. Changing it would be a lot of work, and require more time/money then it'* worth.

A lot of bad luck has hit you, hopefully this new engine is the charm. Synthetic isn't the best if you have a lot of stuff in the oil system like dirt holding it together. If you use synthetics their detergents may wash out that gunk, and leave holes that have been plugged by dino oil. Every oil system is different, and no one can tell you for sure if it'* good or bad to switch.

Im not sure where this thread would be best placed. Could somebody help me or maybe tell a mod to move it to the appropriate place? Thanks.

I would suggest the "1992-1999" section of the "Mechanical and Maintenance" forums for these types of questions. There'* no way (that I know of) to move a message yourself that has already been posted and read, but an Admin will take care of it and notify you if the place you posted is a problem. If you haven't heard anything by now, it'* probably okay.

Welcome to the club!

I sent a PM to Jim to get this moved...