i dont remember hearing about excessive tirewear being a problem on cutlasses… it has more to do with driving habits, tire quality and car alignment (customer maintenance issue) than if the suspension had design flaws.
20 lbs of sand would fall under abuse. abuse doesnt just mean driving the car hard… it means if you dont do routine mainentance as well…
nick can back me up on this one… Rubin beat the piss outta the General C and maybe changed the oil 3 times in 90k and it never blew… you have to abuse it something bad to blow up the motor (not including performance applications). that includes being an ass and not checking fluid levels, ignoring warning lights. if the motor didnt blow when grand pappy had it, it must be something you were doing to the car. he obviously drove it normal for two years without trouble. my bet is you over heated it driving it like it wasnt intended to be driven. you almost have to be semi retarded to blow up a motor in a car that is driven under normal circumstances.