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Federal Mogul Asks, Should You Replace or Rebuild Your Car

27 August 1998

Consumer Auto Feature: Time for a New Car?

           Why Not Explore a Few New Internal Engine Parts Instead?

    DETROIT, Aug. 27 -- It's a noise no car-owning consumer wants
to hear -- a loud metallic thumping coming from the engine compartment.
Regardless of the age of the vehicle, there's a chance that one or more
internal engine components has failed.
    Time to dive into another seemingly endless series of new-car payments?
Not so fast.
    Every engine will eventually show signs of wear.  Whether it's after
60,000 hard-fought city miles or 200,000 or more highway miles, the heat and
other internal forces encountered in today's engines will eventually take
their toll.  The key question, though, is whether that toll has rendered the
engine unsalvageable.  And nines time out of 10, it hasn't -- not by a long
shot.
    "The concept of engine repair intimidates a lot of consumers," explains
Ray Swetman, engine parts marketing manager for Detroit-based Federal-Mogul
Corporation.  "The fact is, there's no need to automatically start shopping
for a new vehicle when your engine displays signs of wear.  You can probably
get several more years of reliable service simply by having the engine
remanufactured."
    Over the years, the components inside your engine -- bearings, pistons,
piston rings, connecting rods, crankshaft, camshaft, valves, oil pump and
timing parts -- will wear out.  As the engine logs more and more miles, the
critical clearances between internal components will increase, reducing the
engine's efficiency and, in all likelihood, power output.
    Regardless of the cause of the damage, your local engine repair specialist
probably can bring new life to your vehicle.
    Here are just a few of the internal engine components commonly replaced
during remanufacturing:

    Bearings.  Engine bearings, as their name suggests, are designed to absorb
much of the reciprocating force within the engine.
    Pistons.  These super-strong aluminum parts help transfer the force of
internal combustion from the top of the engine to the crankshaft.
    Gaskets.  The head gasket forms a critical seal between the cylinder head
and block.  This seal maintains compression within the cylinders and helps
retain oil and coolant.
    Cylinder Head.  The cylinder head houses the valvetrain components.
Modern heads are precision parts manufactured from aluminum.  In an
overheating situation, the head can crack or warp.  Skilled machinists can
straighten heads and, in many cases, repair cracking.  They'll also replace
damaged internal components such as rocker arms, valves, valve springs and the
camshaft.
    Piston rings.  Rings form the seal between the pistons and the engine
block.  As the piston moves upward, the rings prevent oil from migrating into
the combustion chamber.  During the downward stroke, the top ring maintains
the compression -- and power -- created by combustion.
    The engine repair specialist rebuilding your engine probably will replace
damaged components with aftermarket parts.  These new parts are typically as
reliable as the components originally installed in the engine; in many cases,
in fact, they're produced by the same manufacturer.
    Most quality-conscious engine repair operations will offer a warranty on
their work.  Federal-Mogul, for example, offers a 100,000-mile limited
warranty on all engines repaired using the company's Sealed Power Platinum
Engine Kits.