So question for people here, not sure if i should just make a new thread but i'll post it here. While we were into the engine to replace the oil pump solenoid since that was stuck on high pressure only due to being broken by way of being snapped somehow. But we noticed a few things that make me wonder if someone else has been in the engine before.
First sign, upper oil pan did not have a gasket, it was sealed with RTV, is that factory? we used new gaskets all the way around when putting the bottom end back together
Second sign, 4 of the main cap bolts were broken or damaged. All the bearings appeared fine, but we bought new bolts and rolled new bearings in. 1 of the bolts was completely snapped in the middle of the threads, and the other 3 were about to. Was there a potential flaw from the factory, or was someone in there for something? and just wth were they doing?
The carfax showed even oil changes were done at the dealer throughout the rig's life. So i didn't expect to find any oddities under the hood. Was expecting and unmolested unit that just had some hiccups with 160k miles on the clock, which was to be expected. But that surprised me. our guess was the bolts might have been impacted on or over torqued or something, was just very surprised to find that. Crank looked good and cylinder walls are in great shape. Engine got fully flushed prior to being torn down with a nice deep clean and drain during the repairs. She's back together and running great again. She also got new iridium laser plugs and new wires since they were no longer in good shape from a decade of use and 160k miles. Only thing left is to ID the AC issue, she had great AC when we bought her, but didn't have any a month or two later, which lends to a small leak somewhere. Just gotta find it and fix it.
I knew going in at the price i bought the rig at that i'd be doing repairs, just wasn't expecting snapped main cap bolts to be on that list...delayed getting her back together for a week waiting on new bolts since GM decided to use a M10x2 thread on them so there is no chance of finding off the shelf replacements...but such is life. Glad to be onto the final (known) problem