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Decisions... Decisions...
Posted by
davecarama
,
04-05-2012
·
2,524 views
Yes, it has been a while. I think last time I wrote I was cleaning engine internals. My major decision at the time was "polish and or machine the crank, or not". Then... as if out of a story book... An "opportunity" presented itself to me.
Buy a '90 with a '95 motor installed, keep the motor, then sell the rest for what I bought it all for. And that is what I did:
Yup, bought a donor car.
This thing was a bit of a frankenstein. No dash or any interior (and the guy drove it that way) and house wiring to fit the 1.8 motor into the 1.6 ECU, throttle body, injectors, etc... it was VERY strange concoction. I think it was used as an autocross car before it became a parts car and then sold to me.
The plan was to pull the motor, put it in my car, and run with it.
Took it to the Rat garage, to yank the motor, and did a compression check. It was great, horrible, even worse, and great. Not a good sign. So we did a leak down check. It was 2% at 100psi, horrible, horrible, and 2% at 100PSI. All signs pointed to exhaust valves only.
Great... motor break-down and machine work is inevitable.
So I called my friends at Performance Auto Works located right at Summit Point and asked them to help. I brought them 2 fully disassembled heads and asked them to make me one that will work. I asked for quotes for a "black magic superman head" and a "stock rebuild(esk) head"... and I just heard back yesterday on the cost.
So I called my wife (bad move). She was pleasantly surprised with the "normal" head cost and hung up on me when I told her I wanted the "black magic" tweaked head price and told her that was what I was leaning towards. So it looks like I am going base package
Next steps will be to bolt that head onto my block (which turned nicely and the cylinder walls looked pretty good. Cylinders were very clean) and then bolt the whole thing onto my car. Fill'er 'up with fresh fluids, and crank her over... and see what happens.
Hopefully I will be able to post pics of all that nonsense... hopefully it will be happening in the next week or two.
Buy a '90 with a '95 motor installed, keep the motor, then sell the rest for what I bought it all for. And that is what I did:
Yup, bought a donor car.
This thing was a bit of a frankenstein. No dash or any interior (and the guy drove it that way) and house wiring to fit the 1.8 motor into the 1.6 ECU, throttle body, injectors, etc... it was VERY strange concoction. I think it was used as an autocross car before it became a parts car and then sold to me.
The plan was to pull the motor, put it in my car, and run with it.
Took it to the Rat garage, to yank the motor, and did a compression check. It was great, horrible, even worse, and great. Not a good sign. So we did a leak down check. It was 2% at 100psi, horrible, horrible, and 2% at 100PSI. All signs pointed to exhaust valves only.
Great... motor break-down and machine work is inevitable.
So I called my friends at Performance Auto Works located right at Summit Point and asked them to help. I brought them 2 fully disassembled heads and asked them to make me one that will work. I asked for quotes for a "black magic superman head" and a "stock rebuild(esk) head"... and I just heard back yesterday on the cost.
So I called my wife (bad move). She was pleasantly surprised with the "normal" head cost and hung up on me when I told her I wanted the "black magic" tweaked head price and told her that was what I was leaning towards. So it looks like I am going base package
Next steps will be to bolt that head onto my block (which turned nicely and the cylinder walls looked pretty good. Cylinders were very clean) and then bolt the whole thing onto my car. Fill'er 'up with fresh fluids, and crank her over... and see what happens.
Hopefully I will be able to post pics of all that nonsense... hopefully it will be happening in the next week or two.
