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I’ve been chatting with Kurt a bit about what he could use as a utility vehicle for his business. He seemed interested in the Equinox. I was a little concerned it would be underpowered. Also I was enjoying not having any other projects, so all of this chat was about something to happen in the fall.

I had a couple chats with the neighbor across the street – they had this vehicle sitting there. He said it needs a timing set. At $800, being quite clean body wise, and with 20 of these in the local pull a part, I figured I would take a chance on it. In the plus column is it was literally right across the street, and he towed it over with his John Deere compact tractor.

Its got GM’s High Feature V6 which is the same engine platform as my ATS. It’s pretty loaded up – power lift hatch, leather heated seats, hitch receiver. Towing capacity is over 5000lbs.

It also has 198k miles, does not appear to be leaking any fluids, battery is dead. I found some surface rust inside a passenger door and the rear hatch.
Underneath has some rust but its overall decent and worth fixing.

So the first thing I did was clean up the interior some. Nothing fancy, just cleaning up all the misc trash, vacuuming, and washing up the front mats. The passenger mat had some goo on it which turned out to be laundry detergent that took forever to wash out.

After putting a charge into the battery I hooked up the scan tool, and found no engine codes. After that I couldn’t resist, so I tried to start it. Prior owner was hesitant as he seemed to think the timing chain might be out of time and didn’t want to damage the valves. It cranked but no start. The next step was to put a little starting fluid, and with it the engine fired right up for a few seconds. After that I started looking at fuel pressure, which did not show up on the pressure gauge. That led me to check the fuel and while the gauge was 1 tick above E, adding a couple gallons showed real pressure at the schrader valve. Still no start though the battery wore down fairly quickly.

While it ran it idled smoothly with no strange sounds. The oil is dirty but full.

I also have done some research on the V6. It’s the LLT RPO code and comes in many models. They are prone to timing chain issues. What I’m reading is this engine uses oil to cool the timing chain, so if you don’t take care of the oil, the chain is prone to overheating and stretching. I’ve also seen there are issues with the PCV circuit getting blocked up and causing excessive oil consumption.

I’ll probably pick at it more to get it to where it’s running or at least I know what major thing is wrong with it.
If Kurt likes it then it’ll be his in the fall. If not I’ll either sell it or maybe keep my Caddy out of the snow this winter.

Not sure I would put 5000 lbs on THAT hitch. LOL And the lack of codes was probably just because the battery was dead for some period of time. I like your idea of using it for the winter though. The Caddy is clean...

-BP

The next day after the battery was charged I reconnected the fuel pressure gauge and tried it again. Fortunately it started right up and idled. Fuel pressure over 40 psi. I moved it up and down the driveway and let it run for 20 minutes. There is some ticking under the hood. While the check engine light was not on, it did have a P0008 code as an active code.

Overall a running engine is proof the rest of the internals are in working order.

I did some research on P0008 and its telling me one of the cylinder banks is getting out of alignment with the crank. This is a telltale sign the thing needs the timing chain replaced.

I've also learned about swapping out the timing chains. There are three of them, and getting them installed and aligned is a bit complicated. The main issue though is access. While it is possible to change them without removing the engine, its tight. All the professionals are removing the engine to do this job. I am not relishing the idea of having to open up the A/C and power steering, so I'm going to evaluate whether I can lower the thing down far enough to reduce the stuff I have to disconnect.

There is a lot of bad press about these High Feature V6's having bad timing chains, but I've yet to see any where the chains jumped and bent the valves. The design requires regular maintenance with recommended oil - and failure to do so ends up with inadequate oiling of the chain which leads to excess heat and stretching. Also oil pressure is used to maintain tension on the chains, and dirty old oil does not do as well at that. Despite all this the engine fails I've seen so far are due to either bottom end failure or valve springs breaking.

Regarding the rest of the vehicle, after being around it more, I've discovered it has trailer brake controller, moon roof, and a second glass panel in the roof for the second row, backup camera.