1989 Chevrolet Cavalier Z-24 from North America - Comments

Well lets see I put a two new heads on it, all new gaskets for the top end, before I got it the block was redone, I also put new coil packs, an alternator and exhaust from front to back. The heads were replaced do to someone that changed the head gasket had put in the wrong gasket and it was blocking off the coolant holes that go to the heads so the heads over heated blew the gaskets and melted hole in the head, by the way I put a new temperature gauge in it because the one it had was shot do to the reason why it wasn't noticed that the engine was over heating. I also had to patch the floor because it had rotten through.

I would never buy one again unless it had the four cylider manual trans I will never trust this type of 2.8 engine ever again because way too many things have gone wrong with it.

Look at how many miles are on it, the type of car it is, and how old it is. What do you expect?!

I agree with the previous comment. This car is 18 years old with 200000 miles on it. Pretty hard to complain about things going wrong with it.

I have put over 100,000 miles on my 2.8, and have had no problems at all. Maybe if the vehicle was taken care of, it might not be in such bad shape.

My 1989 Z24 has a little more than 251,000 miles on it and its the same 2.8 liter just take care of them its still very fast and handles very well. I've seen it at 120 at 2000 rpm in 5th gear.

From what you said, it seems that the former owner didn't repair it properly thus all your current problems eh?

I understand that having problems with a car can leave a "bad taste in your mouth" and make you dislike the particular model that gave you problems.

HOWEVER, in this case, it's obvious the problem wasn't the Cavalier's, it was the previous owner's ignorance of installing an incorrect head gasket on it. The same thing would happen to any car, so in principle, if you decide that this car was a bad model then you have to conclude that all car models are bad because none of them could survive that type of mistake during repair.