[Sirrotica]

In 2000 bought a 92 Z24 with a little less damage than yours when I lived in an apartment in Memphis and straightened the rails in the parking lot with a porta power and then just bought all the cosmetic parts off of a car on the back row of a car lot with a blown engine. Used JB weld on the radiator and it was back on the road for a total investment of about $300 including the price of the car. I scrapped the car in 2007 for about $400 so it didn't owe me a penny.

Drove it for about 4 years after that until just after 200,000 the timing gear shredded the nylon and bent a valve, one of the cheapest cars I've ever had for what I had in it. Of course it was a 3.1 60 degree V6 fairly durable if taken care of.

Also owned a 92 Grand Am with the single cam version of the OHC 4 cylinder that made it to about 100,000 before the headgasket blew between 1 and 2, never fixed it sold it to someone who needed a cheap car for $200 and they put a head gasket in it. When I bought the car it was already having timing chain problems at relatively low mileage 65,000 and the water pump idler drive idler had a bad bearing in it and the water pump wouldn't turn, thus an O/H problem. The O/H problem probably also had something to do with the demise of the head gasket a few years later. When it ran it ran well and got about 30-33 MPG. I have to second Mike's evaluation, too many problems plagued this engine to be reliable and economical over the long run, not to mention it is one of the most difficult transverse mounted engines to work on.