Actually i am the one who changes the oil. im guessing when the gmc people put my new engine in, they didnt clean the manifolds. The engine needed to be replaced for many reasons. One of them was because it was dumping gas somewhere it wasnt supposed to be. anyway the oil had gotten gunked up and nasty. So they replaced the engine. They must have not cleaned out the manifolds. I was taking out many chuncks of oil the size of silver dollars. Also ive been taking out these huge chunks out of the heads and manifold and the engine. Also the entire engine is coated in this thick gunked up oil such as the valve covers,head, block. For some reason it was alot more gunked up in the passenger side head, then the drivers side head. Both were still nasty. any way i cleaned out the parts in my parts washer. and they look brand new.

Also ive taken in the heads to a machine shop to have them rebuilt. Its cheaper than new ones .

Thanx again for all of the help.

I hate to badger you, but how often was the oil changed??? If changed at or even near recommended intervals, you will not get that gunk build up. I had the valves adjusted on an older Honda with 108K, and the guy commented that the inside of the engine was spotless. I changed every 3-5k.

hi. i changed the oil about every 10 to 15k miles. is that not often enough. My 79 chevy truck with a 454ci hasnt had its oil changed in about 30-40k miles and its engine is spotless. It still works fine, except for the carb, but thats another story.

Also i just got the heads back and im gonna install them. I hope the d%#n thing doesnt overheat. (Actually i hope it even starts ) Im never gonna buy a van agian, unless it looks easy to repair. Such as those FWD models. they appear to have easy access to the engine, but looks can be deciving .

Thanx agian 4 all da help

every 3- 5is optimum. your lucky that big block hasn't puked yet. as I said before, alot ofoils will lose the viscosity, which in turn thickens the oil. now synthetic could be a whole new thing. but I have never went wrong usuing good oil every 3- 5 along with good filters. not sure what is going on with yours now. let us know how the head re-install goes.

10-15K is definitely not often enough. And the 454 may be clean on the outside, but I wouldn't want to open it up.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I just got the heads and everything back together. I tried to start it and it got messed up. The starter tried to crank for about half a second, and every thing died. I thought it might be a fuse so i checked them. All of them were okay. I took the starter to the parts store to test, and it was fine. nothing wrong with it. now nothing will work. the lights wont turn on, its as if the battery isnt there. When you open the door and put the key in it would beep until you closed the door. Its a saftey feature i guess. Any way when i put the key in it will beep. And the time on the radio goes on. But thats it thats the only thing that kinda works. also when i try the hazard lights you can hear the clicking noise slowly, but no lights. all you hear is the clicking. When i turn the key to the on position the beep and the radio time turns off. when i try to crank it i still get no response. my volt meter says the battery has 12.6 volts. I thought mabey the battery lost its ampes or something, so i jumped it with my car, but that didnt help. It made the beep and the radio turn off, so jumping it made it worse. When i took the cables off the beep and radio worked agian.

Also the book says there are circuit breakers on the van. from the picture it points to the fuses. The breakers look like large metal fuses. on them they say "12v 30amps". I tested them with the volt meter, and they seem to be okay. do you test circuit breakers the same way as fuses.




Please help. Im down to one, semi functional car.

starter went? sounds like what i just went thru and it was the starter.

i had the starter tested at advance auto and it worked fine.

oh duh, you said that. what about the coil or down by the starter isn't there another solenoid of some type?

i tested the coil and its okay, and thje solenoid is built in to the starter, and when they tested the starter, they tested the solinoid. even if the coil was bad, would that make the lights, and door locks, and everything else not respond? Thanx