Update: We rebuilt the new engine and tried to start it up... and it sounded like a go-kart. We ran a compression check and sure enough.. 3 of the cylinders came up with zero. The valves on the new engine I had bought were bent.... so we managed to swap out the head of the new engine with the head of the old engine. The mechanics at my garage managed to dissassemble it in 25 minutes... jesus christ. Well, we put the old head on the new motor, re-did alignment. I had to re-assemble all the connections and stuff to the head... re-did the fuel rail, bolt on the intake manifold, the exhaust manifold.... radiator hoses... everything. Well, I didn't have the header bolts... so my header is kind of on by one bolt so i have a big *** gap... but I went to turn the engine and..... It started right up. I'm leaking transmission fluid but hopefully that's just where the cv joints meet the transmission... in which case it will be easy to fix. Gotta pick up some bolts from home depot and I should be good to go on the header.... the Engine is running strong, it idle'd for a good 15-20 minutes before I cut it off. Almost done with the swap... Finally.

 

nice to hear your engine is coming along.

 

dam, i bet your itching to get that sucker back on the road again, huh?

good luck man, your almost there

 

Good to hear, that thing sounded like crap running on two pistons (1 and 4 were the ones without compression). Did you take any pictures with the camera I lent you? Are you going to get some sort of refund from the place you bought the engine from since the head was bad?

 

Good luck, man! The worst is behind you.

 

not sure yet, but i cant wait to get it on the road... only 1-2 more days work, and easy stuff. no more huge engine rebuilds... i hope. if it breaks down for some reason from now on i'm just calling speedfactor

 

LOL what a BiT*h lol.... It wasnt that bad but like with any swap you will run into a few problems it was a learning experiance for both of us. This was my first true import swap and was rather straight forward but very informing. Lets just put it this way if anyone needs to know ANYTHING about the internals of the 94 engine ask me because I dissasembled and reassembled this engine several times! Hell I even have all tq specs memorized now. Well any ways Congrats Frank!!! And if you blow this one I would be happy to help again!!!!

 

You sure about that? You looked pretty pissed off when I was there

Frank best be taking you out for a big steak dinner for all the help.

 

It's a lot easier the 2nd time I'm sure. If I had to do it again (solo) I think I could go from built to block in a day and then rebuild in another. The engine's fairly straight forward so it's not so bad as compared to other engines I know of, but that doesn't mean it's simple by any means.

 

True, I think everything is easier and faster the second time around ( actually, I know some things that don't fall under that theory ). I remember doing brakes for the first time and taking 2 or 3 hours to do it. Is the "simplicity" due to it being SOHC?

 

Simple overhead cam

 

Definately I would still be screwing with the timing if it was DOHC. You have to retard one cam one tooth and advance the other one tooth hoping that they all line up. Or something like that but bottom line it wouldnt be fun.

Yeah I was a little pissed because I reset the timing belt like 15 times!!!! anyones patience would be tested after that. I had it right the first time but that wasnt the problem. I had all of the other mechanics in the shop telling me your timing is off blahh blahh blahh. Nope thats what your car sounds like when you are only running 2 cylinders. LoL but either way I love working on cars so its no biggy as long as my wife doesnt threaten to walk out again because I care about my friends car more than her.

 

ROFL, I heard about that one from Frank. I didn't mean you were pissed off about doing the work, I knew you were frustrated about the issues popping up. Having Jesse chirping in your ear the whole time probably didn't help either.

 

That guys crazy. Unfortunately, he's also our only ticket into the garage today....

 

eh... so the work shall continue on another day... couldnt get into the garage today