Greetings,
I needed a "new" temporary car after college as my main car (Subaru Outback) had died, and I ended up coming across a 1987 Buick Skyhawk Wagon with 64,000 miles for $500 in an estate sale. When I bought it, it had mismatched tires, and needed a new battery, but other than that was fully working. Even drove it home.
I did a full tune up (spark plugs, wires, oil pan gasket, transmission pan gasket/filter, valve cover gasket, new battery, alternator, o2 sensor, exhaust, ect...) and had the car running like a champ.
Here's a picture of it with it's new tires installed (and ready for winter of course)
<a href="http://imgur.com/sTEvllw"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/sTEvllw.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
Being our only car with a roof rack at the time, it also saved Christmas
<a href="http://imgur.com/nhTKriV"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/nhTKriV.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
and I found this plate online that I installed for $10 too.
<a href="http://imgur.com/ti2YwUb"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ti2YwUb.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
Although it's been running like a champ, it does have a top end valve tap. I put some thicker oil in it, as well as Lucas Oil Stabilizer in it to shut it up, but I know that's only a temporary fix.
My question is, has anyone ever done a valve job to the 2.0L OHV engine in these? I'm not sure if I trust myself to do a valve job either, but if it's simple enough I'll give it a shot. It has the 'K' vin code, and has the TH125 3-speed auto transmission. Is a valve job a pain in the ass to do on the 2.0L OHV? Is it possible to even just swap a cavalier engine into it?
Thanks for any replies!
Totally botched the links, these should work.
New Tires!
Saving Christmas!
Front Plate!
woo hoo, another Hawk owner--need more of those!
sorry, I have no idea on your question, just glad to see another Hawk.
Wayne Schiff wrote:woo hoo, another Hawk owner--need more of those!
sorry, I have no idea on your question, just glad to see another Hawk.
Haha thanks! I've never seen another Skyhawk, let alone knew they existed until I found it! The craigslist post for it was listed as a 'Skylark' originally lol
Valve tap isn't really a symptom of a head that needs a valve job.
Valve tapping is a sign of either partially collapsed hydraulic lifters or valves that are out of adjustment.
A valve job usually consists of cylinder head removal, refacing the valves & the valve seats, resurfacing the head sometimes and lapping the valves in and reassembling and reinstalling the head.
~ Mike ~
Upon further investigation, an '87 2.0 OHV Buick engine in a Skyhawk *has* hydraulic lifters.
Not sure if the lifters can be replaced with the head installed and not real sure if the valves have to be adjusted or just torqued to a certain spec like the newer (1991-up) 2.2 liter OHV GM engine .
If the valves are tapping, the lifters are likely bad & should be replaced, otherwise cam damage will eventually occur.
~ Mike ~
~ Mike ~ wrote:Upon further investigation, an '87 2.0 OHV Buick engine in a Skyhawk *has* hydraulic lifters.
Not sure if the lifters can be replaced with the head installed and not real sure if the valves have to be adjusted or just torqued to a certain spec like the newer (1991-up) 2.2 liter OHV GM engine .
If the valves are tapping, the lifters are likely bad & should be replaced, otherwise cam damage will eventually occur.
Thank you for the research! Lets say it was possible w/o removing the head, is replacing lifters a pretty straight forward job?
I can do all sorts of maintenance, but have never done anything internal for engines. I do have some help though from a couple friends/a haynes manual.
Also, the car did sit for a while (a couple months, as the original owned died)... would this lean towards one issue or another?
Thanks again!
Beautiful Wagon!! Extremely rare!!
'87 Custom Wagon - Body Style JS8 - 3,061 produced
'87 Limited Wagon - Body Style JT8 - 498 produced
Try a bottle of "Valve Medic" ($5 at Advance Auto in Yellow container) with an oil change. Worked wonders for me on an '84 2000 Sunbird!
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Beautiful Find!!!
Quick note, if it has a fram oil filter on it, take it off and put on an STP (autozone), Wix (Napa Gold, Oreilly's)), or Purolator (Advance Auto). I've solved some engine noises just by doing that. I know I've posted my personal grievances with Fram here before.
If it does not have a fram on it, dis-reguard this paragraph.
PS. I'm jealous of you. I want to find a 2ed/1st gen wagon terribly...
Wow that car is really straight.Personally I would go with a mobil one filter and use a good brand oil(just conventional NOT synthetic).I recently bought a fram last wk and THEY have changed the drain back valve in the bottom to METAL!! They use to be plastic,so I really felt like this was cool being I use them all the time on my cav.Nice find and you might want to do a trans drain and refill too.Want clutter up the post with suggestions just yet.Keep it stock is #1 for real unchanged history.
Wow thank you everyone for the information!
I currently have (I believe) a Puralator One oil filter on there, running 10w-40 with a quart of Lucas Stabilizer. I probably won't do the "valve doctor", as I would like to properly get it fixed. I'm afraid to take it on long trips with the tap.
One of 3,061? I guess that's why I've never seen another on the road haha.
As for keeping it stock; I plan to for the most part. I was looking into putting new speakers/possibly a head unit, as the cassette player likes to not eject, and the radio frequently changes tone/reception with every bump in the road, but I may just save that money until I do the lifters. I also miss my aux connection.
Other than the oil filters, are there any other general pointers/tips for owning a Skyhawk?
William Gou wrote:~ Mike ~ wrote:Upon further investigation, an '87 2.0 OHV Buick engine in a Skyhawk *has* hydraulic lifters.
Not sure if the lifters can be replaced with the head installed and not real sure if the valves have to be adjusted or just torqued to a certain spec like the newer (1991-up) 2.2 liter OHV GM engine .
If the valves are tapping, the lifters are likely bad & should be replaced, otherwise cam damage will eventually occur.
Thank you for the research! Lets say it was possible w/o removing the head, is replacing lifters a pretty straight forward job?
I can do all sorts of maintenance, but have never done anything internal for engines. I do have some help though from a couple friends/a haynes manual.
Also, the car did sit for a while (a couple months, as the original owned died)... would this lean towards one issue or another?
Thanks again!
I've tried to find something online that would tell me one way or another if the head has to be removed for you to replace the lifters, but have had no luck in doing so.
*If* you don't have to remove the head, removing the lifters really isn't a very hard job.
All you'd have to do is remove the valve cover, remove the rocker arms, remove the pushrods, then remove the lifters with a lifter removal tool - (make sure to keep all parts ((rocker arms, pushrods)) in order, so that you can put them back on the engine EXACTLY in the same positions they came off of the engine), put assembly lube on the new lifters (purge them with oil if necessary), drop them in with the tool, put the pushrods back in where they came from, install and adjust the rocker arm to valve clearance, and put the valve cover back on.
Hope this helps..
~ Mike ~
