Neon 420A Vs. Eclipse 420A

[grmoo]

Well, it is generally known that the Neon engines are complete crap, and I know that the NT Eclipse shares the 420A I also know that there are many differences like the fact that it is reversed and the neon has more horspower but the eclipse has more torque and what not...well, is the eclipse 420a as much as a piece of crap as the neon one? and I am sure that I will get some people that will say that it is...but, a real honest answer would be much better....

 

[dogpoop]

First off, how does one define "complete crap"?

All I can tell you is that I have a 420A (Eclipse) with over 100K miles on it. Yeah, the lifters tick, the valve cover gasket leaked (until I replaced it) and it uses a bit of oil ( 1/2 - 1 quart per 2,500 - 3,000 miles). It never has "broken down."

Maintenance has been simple - change the oil, timing belt, accessory belts, spark plug wires and spark plugs as specified. Sure, it's not the fastest thing around -- but I never expected it to be.

 

[dr1665]

Let me be the first to say that the 420A is NOT crap. It is a solidly built motor with it's good features as well as it's downsides like any other engine built out there. People that say a particular engine is crap are more than likely retards who have no grasp on actual tuning and blew their own shit up. Consider this, if the 420A was such a lousy block, why would DCX put in so many different cars? For a while there, pretty much any 4 banger you bought from DCX had a 420A in it.

So that's just my 2 cents on the matter. If you build it right and know how to maintain and tune it, you should have no problems with any 420A block.

 

[loco4G63]

hey I am doing a motor swap because the old motor blew. We looked for a gs 420a motor but we wanted to know if we could just drop a neon 420a and just keep rolling. There shouldn't be any modification right? We should just be able to drop and go?

 

[dr1665]

There shouldn't be any modification right? We should just be able to drop and go?

Ever notice how the DOHC Neons have the intake in the front and the exhaust in the rear? You cannot just swap them straight across. If you must just replace one with the other, use the Neon block and your head imo.

EDIT:
If you're talking about putting this in your 90 NT, nevermind. Won't even work period. Just like going the other way. Sorry man.

 

[dsmrunnah95]

Well, it is generally known that the Neon engines are complete crap, and I know that the NT Eclipse shares the 420A I also know that there are many differences like the fact that it is reversed and the neon has more horspower but the eclipse has more torque and what not...well, is the eclipse 420a as much as a piece of crap as the neon one? and I am sure that I will get some people that will say that it is...but, a real honest answer would be much better....

A real honest answer is that you shouldn't say stuff you don't have any knowledge on.

 

[1997RS]

Hey C'mon,
I bought my car used with 52,000 something miles on it, and the owner before me didnt take good care of the car either. I took over changed oil and all fluids at their proper times and never have had a major problem with it yet, now I have my Wons and Loses. Only one Hatchback Civic beat me around here and he ended up using NOS in order to do so, , I was right beside him all the way from one light till the other and at the 3 light he desided it was enough and used NOS and made a quick right hand turn, I found out later that he had just gotten his head polished started to B***h to who ever did the job because there wasnt enough improvement. Today the car is still a daily driver, race autox once a month or so, run into some races here and there on the street and still sit next to and z-28 in 4 gear at around 115mph, not to mention that I still sport the stock head and intake and no internal have been done yet untill next month, keep in tune

 

[grmoo]

Well, I personally love the Eclipse 420A...and would like to think that I have adequate amounts of knowlege regarding the Eclipse 420A; however, I do know that it is different from the Neon 420A, like the fact that the exhaust and intake are backwards, and the power stuff that I said earlier. That is why I was asking...because all I ever hear is how bad the Neon engines are but I never hear that the Eclipse NTs are bad engines....but yeah, I love the engine, that is what I have, it is serving me well...but believe me, I am not "bashing" the 420A I am just asking why the Neon 420A is a "bad" engine yet the Eclipse is not...that is all...

 

[nutshot]

... I am not "bashing" the 420A I am just asking why the Neon 420A is a "bad" engine yet the Eclipse is not...that is all...

Entry level, or beginner, cars have a bad reputation for reliability, mostly due to the blatant misuse by their owners. Any kid in any car is guaranteed to make some mistakes and when he or she sells that first car it will be pretty shot. Neon's were very popular in my neck of the woods for a 16 year old girl's first car. They are mostly all dead now from oil starvation or kissing telephone poles at speed. Eclipses were more popular with middle-aged women than entry level car buyers. Eclipses were consequently driven more conservatively and are for the most part better for the wear.

 

[Walo]

Entry level, or beginner, cars have a bad reputation for reliability, mostly due to the blatant misuse by their owners. Any kid in any car is guaranteed to make some mistakes and when he or she sells that first car it will be pretty shot. Neon's were very popular in my neck of the woods for a 16 year old girl's first car. They are mostly all dead now from oil starvation or kissing telephone poles at speed. Eclipses were more popular with middle-aged women than entry level car buyers. Eclipses were consequently driven more conservatively and are for the most part better for the wear.

You got a very valid point there. When the neon was famous here, it was purchased by kid and racers, now most of them are trashed and the car has a very bad reputation here, but it was because of its own popularity, just like whats going to happen to the hondas theyr gonna get abused and then sold back trashed, thats why ill never get a used honda here.

But the eclipse was sold to more mature persons and with the original price tag back then it wasnt a car for everybody. That why the used n/ts are reliable.

 

[lawdaman]

Getting back to the original qustion.The 420A in most Neons are SOHC, while all 420A Eclipses are DOHC. The extra cam does promote a better overall performance, but I'm fairly certain that some Neon 420A DOHC came with about 150hp while ours come with 141hp. When it comes to reliability they are both generally good engines, and once the block is rebuilt, take turbo's really well. Our stock heads can support up to +400hp without aftermarket modification.

 

[dsmrunnah95]

If I'm not mistaken the Neon didn't actually get the same 420a. Different head, different compression, etc... so I dont really think the engines are comparable.

 

[lawdaman]

True, their reversed. You cant just swap the heads. Your exhaust would be on the intake side and vice versa. Some components are compatible, but not the engines themselves.

 

[loco4G63]

the 420a out of a 95 sebring is the exact same motor as in the eclipse. as for thr neon and eclipse they are also have same part numbers and only need minor modification. the sebring was a breeze the swap was easy. thanks for all info but we shot from the hip on this one and got lucky.

 

[dsmrunnah95]

True, their reversed. You cant just swap the heads. Your exhaust would be on the intake side and vice versa. Some components are compatible, but not the engines themselves.

They also carry a different engine code.

 

[3L3C7R0]

They also carry a different engine code.

Thank you, I'm gonna go crazy if one more person calls the neon motor a neon 420a, because its not!!!!!!!!!

 

[Redmachine]

My Eclipse has 147000 miles with NO leaks,doesn't burn oil, no lifter tick. My mom owned before me and she says the power is still there. It has had all major maintainance done at the required milage. The exhaust wore out first, which has been replaced header back(I had a huge crack/hole in the exhuast manifold) So as far as the 420a being crap I say nope, just lack of aftermarket support for our motors. If we had half the stuff the 4g63 guys had we'd be running with them. We are pretty much stuck with CAI throttlebody header/exhuast. It's hard to find cams, cam gears(that are reasonably priced) I hear our tranny's are tough to break(mine is still mint) I am completely happy with my car even though we get no respect from our turbo brethren :thumbdown

 

[Doug99RS]

All this hate on the neons... I swear if only people KNEW what they were talking about then the world would be so much clearer and the amounts of intelligence out there would be overwhelming. Instead... we're drowned in stupidity.

The neon is a cheap (interpret that as inexpensive) and under-rated car. The stock suspension is no where near that of even the low line eclipses but the power is all there. The SOHC is only 8 hp behind the 2gnt and the 2gnt is 10 hp less than the DOHC neon. Transmission gearing is the same on the nvt-350 manual transaxles with the exception of base neons. Compression ratios are so close it's not really even worth talking about. When comparing the two cars these are the topics that need to be brought up:

Horsepower to weight ratio
Vehicle Handling
Overall effectiveness of stomping a hole in a honda owner

The neon is ALOT lighter than the eclipse so even the 132 hp SOHC neon has great potential and can easily be on a competitive level as the 2gnt.

The neon (without ACR package or rear sway bar) is a pig to drive. Very squishy, lots of body roll, and horrible brakes (compared to the eclipse). However, it is lighter and in the right hands it can be thrown around with ease. The eclipse with it's multi-link front suspension, low stance, and rear sway bar (on all models BUT RS) handles quite well. The RS really sucked becuase of the 14" wheels with huge squishy sidewalls. But all in all, the neon had to really work to hang with the eclipse on a road course.

If you wanted to set out to spend $3,000 dollars in modifications on either car for the purpose of straight line racing, leave the eclipse and take the neon. Why? Because I've already done it and walk all over my fellow 2gnt'ers with my 95 SOHC neon. If I want to drive fast AND take turns then I have to park the neon because it's just down right scary trying to stop the thing.

If you want more information on gear ratios, compression ratios and other comparisons between the neon and eclipse just do an advanced search on my profile and re-hash one of those threads. The information is already out there and there's no need to keep starting new threads.
Doug

 

[realitytb]

i love the 420a But im a 4G63 guy. 420A's are good engines, dont let anyone tell you different. My auto tech teacher tells me all imports are shit, when the only cars we ever have in our shop to work on are FORD's and CHEVY's. Ive seen 1 or 2 hondas and subys, but NEVER have i seen a mitsubishi, especially a DSM.

 

[EclpzLvr97]

Thank you, I'm gonna go crazy if one more person calls the neon motor a neon 420a, because its not!!!!!!!!!

Please enlighten me, what is the code for a Neon then?? We know that doesn't mean they are *exactly* the same motor....

 

[Doug99RS]

It's funny how when you start getting down to FACTS and away from fiction based OPINIONS the bashers dissappear and can't debate intelligently.

 

[1fast97gsx]

this post is funny. Are 420As "crap"? I wouldn't say that .. however there are much much better engines out there that can give you a lot more bang for the buck as far as performance goes. If you are looking for good gas mileage and decent reliabily then the 420A is great .. for speed if you want a dsm then it's 4g63 no doubt. It all depends what you want to do with the car. Afterall if you are looking for speed why start with a weaker platform? If you want looks and gas mileage and don't care about performance why have a turbo car? It all depends on what you want to do with the car.

As far as neon vs eclipse ... eclipse is dohc but has less hp. Neons are generally sohc and probably weigh less. ( imo ) The engines are however reversed so they aren't the same and they aren't directly interchangeable.

 

[Doug99RS]

The oil pan and the cylinder heads are different but other than a few casting differences for chassis differences, they ARE the same bottom end and even the cylinder heads have interchangeable parts on the DOHC 2.0L and the 2.4L dohc offered by chrysler on the cloud cars.

There's a very slight compression ratio difference and the piston shape on top is slightly different. But the rings, the rod bearings, lifters and followers/rocker arms, spark plug wires, coils, cam sensors, cam sensor seals, cam seals, cam gears, oil pumps, oil pick-up tube o-ring, oil pan gasket, valve stem seals, water pumps, water pump gasket, need I go on here? These parts are all interchangeable with only slight differences for running changes such as part improvement/supercession and wiring harness changes.

The differences show up the most when comparing the SOHC neon to any other current production DOHC 4 cylinder produced by chrysler. If you put a 2.0L SOHC, 2.0L DOHC Neon, 2.0L DOHC Eclipse, and a 2.4L cloud car block all in a line there are very few people who can tell a difference with the naked eye. Piston design will be the most noticeable and balance shafts on the bottom of the 2.4L will be next. Outside of that.... for the purpose of comparing the 4 variances of chryslers 420A and it's siblings the differences are negligable.

Next?

 

[FourG63 97GST]

Please enlighten me, what is the code for a Neon then?? We know that doesn't mean they are *exactly* the same motor....

sohc - S4RE
dohc - D4RE

 

[Morphius]

sohc - S4RE
dohc - D4RE

I believe that is actually a sales code for the engine, not a engine 'code' or family as you all like to quote.

The SRT-4 motor 'family' is a A853 and the Neon 'family' is A527<----- (I'll have to check that when I get back from vacation, as I have it scribbled on a sticky note on my computer and I'm 1400 mies away right now)