Car broke!

[dodgeneonACR98]

On the way home the other day from work my car took a crap! I pull off the road into a parking lot and jump under the hood. The car didn't get hot and the motor didn't feel any warmer than normal. However it was smoking from down low on the pass side. It was rubber melting!!!!! Instantly I found my time belt heated to the point that the teeth were sheered off it!!!!! Now Im waiting on the wife to come pick me up as I disasemble the stereo to take with me just wondering what went out.

Anyhow she finally picks me up and tells me that the kid down the road from my house just crashed his Dohc ATX neon and totaled it. Imagine that. Anyhow I talked to him and found out where the car was at and I called the towing company and asked about buying it in which he said "I will be happy to sell it to you" "soon as I finish up the paper work". Then he tells me that he has not one but two dohc atx's at his yard. Not wanting to wait around I asked him about the other motor that was clear to sell. Come to find out it's been rebuilt already and only has 40K on the motor!!! I swallowed my adams apple and asked how much $ would it take to buy it. Just waiting to hear 6-700 dollars come out of his mouth I was in fear. LOL Then he told me $200 if I pull it out myself. SOLD!!!!!

Now the heads off the car and Im thinking the valves are bent. The pistons look ok and the water pump belt gear is blue with discoloration so I know what the problem was.

Good note! It didn't over heat so the head should still be good. Right?

As of now the head is my only real concern. I want to mount it onto the 40K block and feel what the car would have run like fresh and with all my goodies.

[HoodooGuru]

Ouch!
Yeah, the head should be fine.
Theres always something to fix on cars mate!

[rice_eater]

As long as the valves didnt get bent enough to damage the seats... I'd redo all the valves, guides, seals for sure. Sucks to hear that man.

I'd also check and see what exactly was done on this "rebuild". Some people think a headgasket, timing belt and waterpump qualifies as a rebuild. Just saying, find out whats been replaced... bearings, rings, water pump, oil pump, timing belt, tensioner, front main, rear main, was the block bored/honed... I guess the top end doesnt matter if you're swapping heads.

[sohc98]

dang dude that sucks, sounds to me like your havin just about as many problems as me

[HoodooGuru]

And me.........................lol

[alaskaneon]

ACR, what failed to make your belt strip?

[scottrachel01]

Nothing worse than being stranded on the side of the road!!! Good find on the new motor though!!

[rice_eater]

ACR, what failed to make your belt strip?

Water pump seized.... hence the discoloration.

[dodgeneonACR98]

The water pump sure did !!

I pulled the donor heart from the body today and I got it home. Hoisted it up on the tripod and bolted it to the engine stand. From there I started to disasemble the thing.

The manifolds,time belt,alt,ps pump,crank pulley,water pump,egr and every thing else that bolts to the engine is pretty much off. I found a few potential problems tho.....

Even tho the engine has only about 40K on it and it shows. It has been pulled from two different cars now. So you can bet there are a few bolts that been screwed up. No punn intended.

1. The top front tranny threads that the bolt threads into is stripped out.
2. Im not sure if it's bad or not but the crank pulley bolt had been boogered up and installed anyhow!!! WTF? Anyhow I think a tap might fix it up just right. I HOPE!

3. once I got the exhaust manifold off I took the liberty to look at my valves and exaust ports. #1 cyl #2 valve seems to be leaking oil from the valve seals and burning. #2 and #3 are leaking just a smidge. But only one valve is doing it on the 3. #1 is the worse!!

Before I seen the valves leaking I had not planned to tear the engine apart. Atleast not takeing off the head. It don't look to have ever leaked a drop of oil. Not to mention the oil in it looks to be brand new!!! As well as the spark plugs. The ones I checked anyhow trying to decide which motor to take. The one that he claims had 40K on it roughly or the red one with a known odometer reading of 116K. After looking at the plugs and oil conditions I chose the 40K motor even tho it's sat there 2 years.

When the valves bent they pushed the cam up and stripped out all but the two end cap bolts. If it's any good at all as far as the bent valves and all it would need atleast 8 helicoils so I could bolt the cams in. Im thinking my best option here is to take the new engine apart, fix the valve seals and port the darn thing myself. It isn't hard to do.


Whats everyone think now?

[HoodooGuru]

Glad its u and not me mate!
But porting / polishing to get a good job is not easy. There are lots of places to screw up and lower performance.

[dodgeneonACR98]

You know what Mate! Your right. Im not even going to pull the head off this motor just yet. Im going to install my cams,lifters and rollers and leave it at that for now. If my old head is salvageable I will install it later on when the head gasket needs changed again.

The top tranny bolt is an easy fix. I can just use a smaller bolt and a nut to tighten it down.

I will thread the hole in the crank with a tap and see if it will hold. I will also use some locktite. That is if it feels right. If I am unsure I am going to go with an SAE size drill and tap. That way I know it's good.

Anyhow I painted the block today after cleaning it off, painted the PS pump bracket,cleaned the alt bracket and installed them. The brand new water pump is also installed. That 0 ring seal sucks to keep in that little groove BTW!!

In the morning I will pull the rest of the old motor out along with the tranny and get to work cleaning my engine bay as well as get the donor ready. I still need to get a new time belt also. I may get some pics in the morning just for kicks! LOL Peace

[sohc98]

Ha pulling motors isnt fun is it? It gets old fast. I would also use the thread locker on that nut and bolt your gunna use for the tranny hole thingy. And i agree with hoodoo leave it to the professionals for the port/polishing.

Anywho good luck with it.

[dodgeneonACR98]

I got the block and tranny out of my car today. Cleaned the motor mount brackets, starter,tranny, dust sheild and cross plate. They look near new now. The oil is drained from the donor block and now I need to flip it over and blow the dirt out of the spark plug holes.

I also learned that a fist full of gojo and a damp rag do a better job at grease removal than engine degreaser. JFYI

I will start on the engine bay next week or maybe this saturday. As of now I am waiting to buy a new time belt and getting the crank bolt hole fixed. Both of which I will get on my way to work sunday. So that monday I can assemble the engine on that side and get it in time. OH and Im also looking for a torque wrench. LOL got to borrow one of those and buy a new haynes manual since I can't find mine.

At the junk yard I need to get a few more things off the car b4 it gets mashed. Like the mint drivers door,window washer jug and OH heck I forget what else. rotlol

[sohc98]

At least you have the engine lift and stand When i was doin the work on my car i had to borrow those from my grandpa, then i needed a torque wrench so i had to drive all the way back to his house to get that it wasnt fun... i ended up spending an ass load in gas since i had to use the dakota and it was about an hour drive one way.

Oh and on the junker car id say you should part out whats left (if you own it) you could probly make enough off it to pay for your timing belt and other such things.

[dodgeneonACR98]

LOL!!!! No I didn't have the stuff to do it with. Tuesday I drove out a tank of gas (the wifes v-6 blazer sucks the gas) looking for my freinds new house and then going to get his brothers home made tripod engine lift. The poor old thing weighs a ton with 3 16 ft galvanized 3 inch tube. It has an old tire iron jammed thu the top with a clamp holding it firm. Looks like a death trap but it getts er done. The engine stand was given to me on sunday by a freind at work who don't need it anymore so it is mine now.

So far with the new engine and parts that I am getting rid of I have a 52mm ATX TB thats going to be for sale and two AC compressors. I am not going to have the ac compressor after this. It will shave 20lbs or so LOL.

The extra intake manifold I have now will be for my intake project. It will be cut apart and made into a box style manifold. Something like RTErnie's 800$ manifold. (which is insane) all his prices are insane!! Atleast I thought so.

Right now I am torn a bit. Im not sure if I should install my cams or leave it alone until I need to replace the head gasket. At that point I will have new valve seals ect installed. The motor I got don't look to have ever leaked a drop of oil so I don't even want to tear it apart right now.

[dodgeneonACR98]

Well today was sort of a drag. It rained all day long. So I sat down in the barn and grinded the heck out of the inside of my intake manifold. So far I have smoothed out the injector humps and removed all the casting roughness that I could. The 90* bend has been opened up some and port matched to the TB. Also gasket matched. The divider between cyl 2-3 has been ground down to a knife like edge and the EGR hump has been ground out. Now it needs a smide of JB weld to seal up the egr bolt hole I exposed when the hump came off. I just hope it works as good as it looks. OH and I also took a wire wheel to the outside of the intake which shined it up nice. I do have some pics too just need time to get them loaded up. Lttr

[sohc98]

well lets see the pics. And have you made up your mind about the cams? I dont see why you wouldnt put them in, you make it seem like you would have to pull the head for some reason to do so. Or do you only wanna use the cams with the p&p head?

[dodgeneonACR98]

When I get the new time belt I will be installing the cams,lifters and rollers. Just to be sure that they are new and working proper. Id really like to have the springs in there also but Iv'e not had the old head taken apart yet. In all honesty I think that I may go ahead and take my old head in and have it checked b4 I do anything more. If it is good and I can use it I would much rather have it on there than the un ported one. You know what I mean. Now for some pics
Here is the filthy engine bay
http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1441_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41499&c=member&imageuser=12123)
Here is the old engine and the damaged water pump.http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1440_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41501&c=member&imageuser=12123)
This is the injector hump b4 polishing and gasket matchinghttp://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1457_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41502&c=member&imageuser=12123)
This is after!
http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1460_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41500&c=member&imageuser=12123)
The dirty outside of the intake manifold.http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1454_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41503&c=member&imageuser=12123)
This is the lower plenum before flash removal.http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1471_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41505&c=member&imageuser=12123)
And after.
http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1474_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41506&c=member&imageuser=12123)
This is the upper plenum inside after polished.http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1461_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41507&c=member&imageuser=12123)
Here is the finished out side. Maybe! I may do more to it for looks.http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1477_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41508&c=member&imageuser=12123)

I need to get a pic loaded of the new motor just before I install it. So far the block is painted black and also the PS pump bracket.

[scottrachel01]

Great pics!! I was wondering about what to do with the intake.How much more hp will that make? What did you use to grind and polish? How close are you to getting it all together?

[dodgeneonACR98]

In the last two days I have managed to fix the boogered up bolt holes,get it timed,filled with oil,coolant,trans fluid,finished up the polishing job on the intake,installed the cams, oilers,rollers and put the darn thing into the car today. As of now I think it's so low on gas that the pump can not suck it up. It will fire and run until the starter fluid burns off. No fuel preasure at the rail valve and no preasure where the pipe connects to the hose at the fire wall. Must be out of gas cause the fuel pump is kicking on like normal.

It's done this a few times in the past when I got low. And I intended to get gas at the same store that I coasted into. My fingers are crossed!!!

[dodgeneonACR98]

Update: After about 3 gallons of gas the car was able to pump up some gas and the poor ol thing fired up on the first crank. Then it died as expected and started right back up. No check engine light or nothing. It's running a little noisy due to where it sat for two years and once it warmed up and got everything lubed up good it got quiet. Alot more quiet than b4.

Anyhow I let the car idle and run for a while and added water when it needed it. All the time wondering if the exhaust steam was a problem or just where I got water in the header. It was water in the header, when I took the car for a drive it cleared up nice. The only problem now is my stinking battery light.

If I start the car and let it idle it will do fine. Soon as you give it some gas the battery light comes on. The alt worked when I took it off the car so I hope it's just the belt I used. Once it cools some I will check some things on it. Later

[dodgeneonACR98]

Well about an hour later I decide to crawl up under the car and check my sarter wires. There are three all together. 1 ground and two hot. I had forgot to wire up the second hot wire. Anyhow the car is fine now and running like a top. I have not honed on it yet but @ 5K the ported/polished intake makes alot more noise.

Now I need a new battery tray/PDB/battery terminal holder. I broke mine at the begining of the project. Im also going to replace the engine coolant overflow and the window washer fluid. I need to get actuall antifreeze to mix with my water along with a new PCV hose. Mine was so old and hard it just cracked and broke.

Finally I can put all my tools away!!! OH yeah and I gotta have the ported head checked out. YAY I got me wheels!!!!

[scottrachel01]

Great to hear it is all together and running!!!

[sohc98]

Nice if only i could get my damn battery light to stay off. Did the p&p of the intake make a noticable difference? just wondering why you need a new battery tray isnt you battery in the trunk?

[dodgeneonACR98]

[quote=sohc98]Did the p&p of the intake make a noticable difference?[quote]

A noticable difference in sound thats for sure! Until Im sure the motor is worn back in some Im keeping out of it for the most part. Like I said it was sitting for at least 2 yrs. It's not been over 5 grand on the tach yet. Just before it getts to 5 grand it really screams like it's going to come to life. Thats when I let off it.

The battery tray also holds the fuse/relay box. Scratch that idea anyhow I found a way around that. Now Im going to make 2 catch cans. The one thats going to be for the pcv line will sit inside where part of the AC unit was. Its a perfect spot right on top of the passenger fender. I may even try to find a way to use the canister I took from the hole.

[dodgeneonACR98]

A few pics for you all. I will let you know if the intake made a diff in a few days. I need to open her up to do so. WHOO HOO the butt dyno. LOL!!
http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1508_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41616&c=506)
http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1486_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41615&c=506)
http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1484_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41611&c=506)
http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/files/1/2/1/2/3/100_1503_thumb.jpg (http://www.dodgetalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=41610&c=506)

[sohc98]

hey Acr that port job looks pretty good. Glad to hear its up and runnin. Just one question tho what do you need two catch cans for?

[dodgeneonACR98]

Quote from Sohc98's last post..........."Just one question tho what do you need two catch cans for?"

One for the breather hose on the drivers side of the valve cover and one for the PCV valve.

BTW: I opened it up a bit today and I think the intake made a difference. It not only accelerates better than b4 and it sounds like the intake is screaming .

[sohc98]

Quote from Sohc98's last post..........."Just one question tho what do you need two catch cans for?"

One for the breather hose on the drivers side of the valve cover and one for the PCV valve.

BTW: I opened it up a bit today and I think the intake made a difference. It not only accelerates better than b4 and it sounds like the intake is screaming .

Where does the breather hose go to? the intake? Good to hear that the intake made a difference, idk if id like the screaming tho, i dont even like the noise a cai makes.

[dodgeneonACR98]

Yes the breather hose from my valve cover hoos onto the intake tube. OH and I kinda dig the sound of the intake! Makes it sound mean! LOL

[sohc98]

old thread resurrection.

Hey acr98 what did you use to port out the IM? Dremel im guessing, what kind of bits? Im thinking of porting this one i got out befor i put it on. Actually I know im gunna, since i bought it used the previous owner started to prt it out and did a horse shit job.

[dodgeneonACR98]

I used a dremel tool and an air powered die grinder. It's like an air powered dremel tool but larger. You will have to bear with me here cuz im not realy sure what some of the bits were called. I will try to list them and describe them as I go.

1. Metal drum- hmmmmmmmmm it's a metal bit that kind of looks like a really thick circular saw blade but much smaller. It's a good cutter bit. You have to be realy carefull with it tho. You could dig realy deep realy fast and ruin your intake. Use it in places where alot needs to come out. Or Places where you can manuever it easily. Ya don't want that baby getting hung up in there! lol

2. Sanding barrels- You will need a bunch. I used only two grits of this. 120 and 80. You will need a few of the bits also they don't last long.

3. Flapper wheels- Looks like a sanding drum but has individual peices of sand paper glued to the bit. These were mainly used on my air grinder but they are awsome. After you use one a while it will shape it's self to the contour.

4. Scotchbrite tipped bits come in handy for polishing.

I even used cutt off wheels in some places to remove casting.

Use what works for you man. Just remember to keep the bits in motion. Hope that helps!!!!


Now I can explain how my car is broke again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep again!!!!!!!! This time I forgot that there was water in my cooling system and I froze it up. Been pretty pissed off the last few months at the car. Now this! If It's got a cracked block. I may be looking for a new ride instead of fixing it.

After getting it thawed out, I hooked up my water hose to the back wash system and found that not just one but both soft plugs had been blown out of the head. I had water pouring out both ends. Now I have the plugs back in and I added a jug of antifreeze along with some water to the cooling system. As far as I can tell I don't have any more leaks. To the outside that is!!!

Anyhow on my dig to the passenger side soft plug I notice that my time belt is busted. It was busted cause the damn water pump was frozen stiff. The bad thing is this was a week ago and I didn't have the cash at the time to buy a new belt.

Wish me luck! Im getting a new belt today and I hope it runs fine atleast for a few more months anyhow. If not I may have parts for sale.

[sohc98]

Oh ok Ill see what i can get for the dremel and go from their.

Your car is broken again! That just sucks dude, You cant get rid of the car Its on of my favorites from this site, and has a lot of work into it.

Do you still have your old block? i cant remember the reason that caused you to switch them but if the old block is still good, that would fix the maybe cracked block. Then on top of the block problem the t belt goes, talk about bad luck. I hope it all works out for ya though.