so, i just bought a used sunfire gt. it was a florida car and the bodys in nice condtion and i really like the car but the miles are up to 166xxx. im wondering if its worth trying to get another engine or if the cars even worth putting money into. ive done some research into the LD9 and it seems like a pretty cool engine. there dosent seem like there all to much you can do the car car except for getting a new cold air intake, exhaust system, high flow conveter, headers, and i heard you can turbo it but that seems a little far fecthed. i heard about secret cams which sounds intresting but im not sure i could do all the work and im not sure if its even worth it. its a great car with potential but im not sure if its work it or not and i would love to get some thoughts from people who have done this work and put money into there Js. feedback would be splendid.
I talked to the guy who sold it to me and he said he did something with the timing and that he put a new 02 sensor on it and he said he didnt have the money for a new catalitic converter so he got a used one off another sunfire. i drove the car home yesterday and by the time i got the car home the check engine light came on and the exhaust was pretty loud sounding and was making some werid noises. the engine temp gauge said that the car was a normal temp but once you touched the hood you could feel that something was over heating. eventully the car started sputtering and making a very slight ticking noise coming from somewhere in the engine compartment. Also when you drive it the gas mileage is horrible and you can smell the gas from the engine and in the exhaust which is making me think its running extremly rich.the only werid part is when i woke up this morning to check out the car the check engine light was off and it seemed fine again untill i drove it a little bit. the light did not go back on yet but it started running sluggish and puttering again once the engine got hot. my thought was that the person who did the timing screwd it up and the car is running rich now and i also thought that maybe the converter was clogged or damaged somehow and that it was sending back pressure to the engine causing all these things to happen. i was told from a friend the exhaust is pretty smoky when im driving and that he even thought he saw solid stuff coming from the tailpipe. im hoping all it needs is a timing adjustment and a new cat but im not a mechanic so im just going off what i know, if anyone with knowlegde about this could give me some ideas that would be great. also if anyone knows where or what the best kind of performance parts for this car would be i would like to know in case i decide to keep it.
