[91cavgt]

Need you guy's's help here. I've found a 93 2.2L 5 speed Cavalier.
It's got 122,000 miles on it and it looks pretty beat up. The clear
coat is all but gone on the trunk lid, roof, and hood. There are a
few dings on the car here and there, a cracked tail light, missing
driver's side front turn signal light assembly, and all 4 tires are
trashed. The motor has not been run in a year or two. The oil
smells like it has some gas in it, the coolant looks ok but is low,
and in general the engine bay looks like it has never been cleaned.

In a nut shell, the car is rough. Now here is the good news. The
guy wants $100 for it. He has already found that one of the fuel
injectors was leaking and was told by the previous owner that it got
hot, and later wouldn't start.

Since I smell fuel in the oil, I would assume that the headgasket is
blown and/or a fuel injector is stuck open. Both of which are
pretty easy jobs to fix by myself in a weekend. Is this car worth
taking a chance on? I'm just looking for basic transportation to
and from work this winter so I don't have to drive my other car in bad
weather. Does it just sound like a headgasket and maybe a new set
of injectors would fix this problem, or what? I realize that an
overheadted motor could mean lots of bad things(cracked block,
warped head, damaged bearings, yadda yadda yadda), but I'm just
trying to get some feedback on this. So, let me know what you
think......

 

[z24_ss]

I could think of a dozen other things you could spend $100 on rather than a heap of junk like that :-?

 

[z24_conv]

you get winter in Texas???? it sounds like this car needs to be in the junk yard. did you look at the underside at all that can also tell alot about how car has been treated. if it was me it sounds like more work then what it is worth.

 

[91cavgt]

Here's the deal guys, I don't care if it dies in a few months. If it did, so what? My other car is a 2003 Dodge SRT-4. We don't really have a winter here in Texas, but I do work in the retail industry. Usually I travel around a lot and work nights, but from November till early January I will have to work days in a retail store. If I drive my SRT-4 then this means it will be parked in a parking lot during the busiest shopping days of the year. It will almost be gauranteed to get door dings and/or broken into.

All I want is a cheap car to get me to and from work for the next couple of months. If it lasts for more than a couple of months, cool. If it doesn't, then I'm just out $100 for the car and probably $200-$300 for everything needed to get it going.

 

[91firecav]

Im sure it was i no worse shape than my cavi was when i got it, just takes some time if your commited to fix it right, check my registry to see what i had to replace to even get it to drive, id say go for it if you dont mind working on it and maybe learning something new, good luck.

 

[91cavgt]

Well, I've owned a 91 Cavalier, 88 Sunbird, 89 Sunbird, and now probably this. So it wouldn't be my first 2.2L. On my 91, I rebuilt the top end of the motor in a weekend and it was actually pretty easy to do. A headgasket on this motor is pretty easy to do once you've done it before.

 

[jakerooni]

sounds like your looking for us to say yes go buy it. You've already had 2 people tell you that it would just be a waste of $100 and now you have a 3rd person telling you that :wink: But it's your money if you want to spend it go for it.