theres a 93 GA for sale in the paper, guy says he thinks it has a blown head gasket. My first thought was an intake manfold gasket, but it could actually be a head gasket i suppose.

How would you tell which the problem is?

well his asking price in the paper is 500 bucks, all its says besides the head gasket is that it "need some tlc" so im not sure what that means exactly.

I really have no justification for buying another car, if I could fix it and then resell it that might be an option, but I dont know for sure whats wrong with it, or how long its been sitting there with coolant in the oil.


I thought about getting it and maybe driving it instead of my Intrigue to work and school, because i rack up a ton of miles that way, but then I realized those are pretty much the only places I go, so id have a pretty red 3500lb paperweight in the front yard, and be driving a very uncool 93 GA everywhere.

Not too mention I would have to borrow the money to buy it, and probably take money out of savings (aka next semester of college) to buy the parts.

KBB on a 93 GA with 120,000 miles is only a litle over 1k in good condition. Thats not exactly inspiring me with huge monetary gains at this point.

I don't think they use the same LIM gaskets, as the 3300 is a lower deck block. I looked up the part numbers for the 3800 LIM gaskets and the 3300 gaskets and they don't match. But I do doubt a blown head gasket, I am betting on the LIM gaskets though, as they are pretty much the same gaskets as the 3800'*, but smaller (heightwise)

hmmm that is interesting, the Intake manifold gasket set is only like 25 bucks from RockAuto, plus it would probably need new plugs and wires......this is starting to get tempting.

But i havent seen the car yet, nor have i talked to the owner, but it might be worth taking a look at, never can tell.

His asking price is a little high IMO, unless the engine has really low miles on it. 500 bucks for a 13 yr old car that doesnt run and wouldnt be worth much if it did is a bit high.

Allright so I talked to the guy seling the car today, he told me the mileage and I thought to myself "holy crap".

It has 222,192 miles on it...and he said it does run, but very badly...obviously.

Says its been sitting there for 4 months...quite a long time to me.

He said that the girl he is selling it for is originally asking 500 bucks, but that she could probably be talked into getting rid of it for a couple hundred bucks.

He says the car is in good shape body-wise, that the interior basically needs a really good cleaning.

KBB and NADA both show value of the car in good condition of being about 1250. Meaning I could probably get at least 8-900 for it.

Im still giving this one some thought, but some opinions would be helpful. Im considering going to look at the car if nothing else.

I know a guy with a 92 Cutlass with the 3300 and he has 270K on it. Original engine and trans. No major issues with the drivetrain.

I'm willing to bet plugs and wires will really bring that engine back to life.

I don't guess it would hurt to look at it. I've came close to buying some cars before, but looked at them and changed my mind quickly.

Well he claims it has a blown head gasket, and that there is coolant in the oil, which to be points to a textbook intake manifold gasket failure...I realize the symptoms are the same, but they arent known for blowing head gaskets.

Right now one main concern is the fact its been sitting for 4+ months with coolant in the oil, do you guys think the internals are garbage?

Im just worried that if I spend 2-300 to buy and then another 1-150 to get it running right. Thats it gonna blow right after that.