The distributor was not working right, so it had to be replaced.
Recently the engine was over heating due to a small leak in the radiator fluid lines. This caused about 10 things to go wrong. The heat warped the cam shafts which broke the timing chain which cause an interference between the valves and the piston. This in turn putting a hole in the piston. And all at the same time the water pump went. Basically the QUAD 4 cannot take any abuse. It was engineered to work one way with nothing going wrong or else it craps out.
The car wasn't that fast, but it didn't look too bad for its year. The 92 looks a lot better.
I find this review questionable due to it starting off by stating the distributor had to be replaced. Quad 4 engines have no distributor. I would agree with he assessment that these engines do have head gasket problems. But if one keeps an eye on the gauges and does not overheat the engine... major problems can be avoided.
I agree with the person above. The Quad 4 is truly a great little engine with more power than most v6's. And I know they can take abuse. I had a grand am with a quad 4 and I put 40k miles of hell on that car after it already had 150k on it. Not once did I have a major problem with it. It did try to overheat once, but I did the smart thing, shut it off and fix whats wrong (just needed water) instead of driving on, that's what will kill any motor, not just a quad 4.
I agree with the two people above for I have a 1991 Grand Am Le 2.3 H.O QUAD-4 and I've had it for 2 or 3 years and I rip on it EVERYDAY and the most trouble i'v had is the clutch slips a bit and I cracked the water neck.. the car has 166,000 miles on it and still runs and drives like new.. and has enough power to beat all these ricers in races so I think the first review on the problems with the motor is incorrect and he should have fixed his car before stating and maybe made sure it wasn't a 2.5 tech 4 before he wrote the review any comments email me jerry_leedom@hotmail.com.
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