Hey, I've been scouring the forums on the past few days and think I know what's going on, but my situation has an added complexity that I haven't seen in other posts.

My 09 g37x sedan (180 000 kms in Winnipeg) was running really rough in mid Dec so I checked the oil and ended up needing to add about 2qts. I hadn't checked the oil since summer, so it had been 4-5 months. It was still running rough, and it seemed like what a misfire would sound like (I've never experienced one before, just heard about it), so I brought it into the mechanic. My usual mechanic was booked for a week, so I brought it to minute muffler which had decent online reviews They replaced the spark plugs and gave it an oil flush and change and said it was good to go.

Fast forward 1 month and it hits the rev limiter at 3500rpm, but there's no CEL. I do a bit of research and find out this is limp home mode, so I arrange to take it to my mechanic. On the way there, it's now rev limited to 2400rpm. They take a look and find that it's 3 quarts low after 1 month of light driving (I don't drive every day since I'm a substitute teacher). They also find the code p0011 "Intake Valve Timing Control Performance Bank 1". They do another oil flush and change, reset the code, and tell me to monitor the oil level very closely to see how much it's using. I drove it home and only made it 8 blocks before "limp home" enabled again.

I brought it back and they test the cam advance timing to find that one of the cams won't return to starting position. I told them about the faulty paper timing cover gaskets, and they said that while it may have caused the issue, that camshaft sprocket is stuck now.

What I want to know is could the blown out gasket and subsequent lie oil pressure cause premature piston ring wear? Are they related or independent issues?

I might be putting a new (used) engine in this thing. So far the timing chain /gaskets /sprockets repair would be $3ish grand, and that wouldn't even address the oil burning problem, which would be several grand more... Best quote I have so far is 4.5 grand for an engine with 35000km on it - but then I'm back to fearing the paper gasket.

​​-->Brock

 

I would get the used engine and do the paper gaskets while its out. Alot of the labor involved is removing stuff to get to the timing cover

 

It's a 10 year old car

Get rid of it

Your going to spend more than the car is worth

Telcoman

 

So the other thing I didn't mention is that this car is a rebuild since the original owner hit a deer. The engine didn't need any work,though, and has been running perfectly for the past 2.5 years. So I bought it for 10 grand back then (already fixed) and would only get around 8 grand if it was in good running condition now. In the condition it's in, i think I'd be lucky to get $5000. And with the current financial situation, I wouldn't be able to replace it with anything of similar performance/comfort. My max budget would be around 10k.