John, Nothing Magical about EFI. Once you either go stand-alone or re-programmed ECM, there are about 25 wires between the engine and ECM and 5 from the ECM to the dash/fuesbox. It is because of EFI these engines are robust. The issues you have with your grand-am Quad-4 is the iron block/aluminum head. That combination will always give you head gasket leaks because the aluminum expands at twice the rate the iron does - simple material properties 101. The Atlas series of engines are all aluminum, so the expansion rates are the same between block and heads. I know of a few that were returned to the local dealer (my buddy is a car-peddler) that had issues (one rod bearing, one oil pump), then again every engine out there has a potential of failing.
TooManyToCount - The images are linked ([image/] [image]) which is the same technology as the smilies that everyone is fond of. The only bandwidth required is on your end if you have dialup, so the pictures will take a few seconds to load into the Cache, once there the images will remain in your cache until you purge.
Ezekiel - cost is what people are willing to pay. Local yards around here always ask high. If I need a part and have time to wait, then I offer what I believe its worth, and leave a card. 7 times out of 10 I will get a call back within a month. If I need a part immediately, I use
www.car-part.com and have something shipped. Just checked on a 2006 vortec 4200, prices range from $7500 down to $500 with the median for $1000. A 2003 vintage has many many more for the $500 range. Canada pricing is shown at 3X that of the pricing in the US.
While I do not support EBAY and the extortion tactics, there are times that a 4200 goes for only a few hundred $USD
