Rod Knock..HELP Options

[kagemidnight]

Just bought a 96 GT hatch. Haven't really done anything to it yet except get the exhaust fixed. Driving just fine to my mechanic's house to have him look at it and all of a sudden I start to hear a clinking noise. He says it's a rod and the dealership quoted me $1400 in labor and about $3k in parts.....Please, anyone have some helpful information on what I should do and the least expensive way to fix it? Thanks

[kagemidnight]

Or if you can afford it you could find something like a 3sgte or 3sge to swap for some performance, but it will cost more and be more work.

Sorry to hear your new car is causing some problems. How many miles are on it?

I already attempted a 3sgte swap into my old ST celica and ran into tons of problems with the sad excuse for a shop near my house. I know a guy with a shop in his garage that has worked at Toyota for 20 years and he told me it was definitely a rod. He recommended just building it up while it's apart and eventually dropping a turbo on but I don't have the money for that. The motor in it now has 181k, same as my last celica but it had no problems. I Don't really have the money for either solution haha so I was crossing my fingers that someone on here had the same problem and found a cheap fix even if it's just temp.