So my beloved '95 Fairmont GHIA is out of commission. The oil is milky, it's going through a lot more water and coolant, so that's most likely a blown head gasket, or cracked head. I wasn't too worried about that, but I noticed there's also a knocking sound coming from what sounds like the bottom of the engine, which is a real worry.

So my question is this, is it worth ripping apart the engine, seeing if it's just the gasket, and hoping that the knocking sounds goes, or replace the engine with a '96 Fairmont engine, that my mate wrote off a couple of years ago? The motor from the '96 hasn't been damaged at all, done 30k less kilometres than mine, but hasn't been touched in around 2 years. If replacing the motor is a better choice, what steps are to be taken in swapping them?

- Cheers, Lance.

how many kms are on yours? mines had a knocking sound coming from it for a while now, if youv blown the head just swap engines if the other one sounds better than yours and if it has no sign of knocking or any real problems, replace the oil pump and waterpump while you have the replacement engine out so it rules out blowing this engine if the oil pump thats in it lets go, and water pump would just be easier to do while the engines out instead of taking the thermos out and serp belt off 2-4 months down the track if it lets go on you

I'm on 240k, while his is on 210k. Where would be the best place to get a new oil/water pump from. Wise to trust ebay?

- Lance

nah, unless your looking for a specific brand that you know is good and theyre selling them on ebay, wouldnt expect the bottom end to give up after 240, mines done 350 thousand and its knocking a bit,