Important Motor Question

[Eclipse_Tx]

Ok I picked up 90 GSX not knowing the shape of the motor. (it was almost free.) As my luck goes the motor was locked up. The turbo is good though. What would be the best suggestion. I have a limited budget. (Still in school) Am I looking at

1) Rebuilding the motor?
2) Buying a new motor and bolting my stuff on?
3) Can I swap the Turbo and Everything onto a 95 with a 420A motor?

Let me know what everyone thinks. I wanna think about all my options before I decide what to do? All opinions welcome. Thanks. Later

 

[doug]

Either 1 or 2 are doable-- number 3 is definitely NOT doable. The 420A is a completely different engine with very few compatible parts.

 

[Eclipse_Tx]

What do you suggest? Remember limited budget! Later

 

[OMN_DSM]

I suggest #1. You have a strong 6bot motor in there and would love the AWD. A simple rebuild can be accomplished for a minimal amount if you do your hunting around. Good luck!

Mike

 

[Streetbeat]

if you pull the engine and fix her up all by yourself youll safe massive money for doing the install of new internals by yourself

 

[Eclipse_Tx]

How much am I looking at to rebuild the motor though. The motor was overheated and then either seized up or locked up. I would love to have an AWD! My friend tells me it is cheaper to buy another motor. (Stock of course) and then add all my stuff to it. So now I am down to 2 choices.

1) Rebuild the motor with stuff I want and can depend on. How much money am I looking at there? Could I interest some Texas DSM'ers to help me if I followed through? Mostly how much am I looking at?

2) Swap the motor and still not knowing what I am going to get but looking at about $500 for a motor. The problem is just that. I don't know if that motor was taken care of or anything.

So mostly I can see that I need to choose step #1 but I wanna know how much it will run and if I could get any help at all. I will pay and everything but I will need to get a date set up. If you have any idea on how much it will cost let me know and we can follow up through that.
When responding with a price let me know what parts you are thinking of so I am not getting a price of a bogus $350 with crappy parts. Thanks alot guys and we'll see how it goes.
Later

 

[DrZiplok]

If this is your first motor rebuild, your best bet is going to be to go conservative. Use stock parts (or sensible stock alternatives, eg. the 1G big rods/95 pistons path) and build the motor as per the factory specifications.

Before you start, pull the engine and take the top and bottom off it. This will actually achieve a couple of things:

- It will force you to find somewhere to do the work.
- You will find yourself aquiring the tools you'll need for the rest of the job.
- It will give you an idea of how long things can take before you have a lot
of money invested in the project.
- You'll find out how badly damaged the engine is, and how much work it's
going to need.

Once you've got the engine out, you can decide what actually needs to be done.

For the block, strip it and send it to a local engine shop. You'll need to work out whether the cylinders can just be honed, or whether they need to be bored back into shape, and that takes tools and practice. The engine shop should be able to do that for you, and as a bonus they'll probably clean the block (which makes it nicer to work on).

Get the engine shop to check the head assembly while you're at it. If the head face is flat and the cams don't look worn, leave it alone. A head rebuild would always be nice, but it's not essential and it will cost a bunch of money that you probably want to save. If the head face has to be resurfaced, the shop will probably want the valves out, in which case you might as well have them ground and have new seals installed.

Check out the engine rebuild section in the Chilton's manual; it's pretty good at describing the process and will encourage you to get a professional to do the parts that are a bit hard for a first-timer.

A couple of things to consider:

- Get a torque wrench. This is not optional.
- Use the right tools. If you don't have them, get them.
- Be prepared to take several months for the whole process. You can easily get
the engine out and apart in a weekend with the right tools, but rounding up parts
and shop work and taking things slowly and carefully when you're not familiar
with the job can be very time consuming.

Finally: consider buying a rebuilt engine from some of the vendors that advertise here. In terms of parts and pain cost, they're pretty competitive, and their basic-spec engines tend to be pretty economical.

If you do decide to go it alone, more power to you. Just remember to take things slowly, and if in doubt, stop and ask someone.

 

[Eclipse_Tx]

The only problem I have with all of that is that I live in a small town about 2 hrs. from Austin, Texas. (where I had my fabrication work done for my previous 92 GSX) I can't just load the block and head in the trunk of my 95 GS and carry them 150 miles! I agree with the points about the block and the shape its in. I have rebuilt an engine before but it was a 350 c.i. motor!! Agh! I want the shop I have always used to do the work though. How much do you think they would charge (estimate) to look at the block and then either hone the walls or bore them? I know it would be more expensive to bore because of the new piston size. I also know that IF they bored the motor I might as well just think of getting big rods and re-seating the valves. The cams and springs are not in bad shape. The decision is whether to do all of that or just buy a rebuilt motor. Where can I find rebuilt motors that are in good shape with good internals? Then I would have alot of good parts just sitting there because I bought a whole new motor? Hell I don't know!! I just know that I can worry about it now and think it through cause I don't have any money right now!! And we all know thats a problem! Well let me know what you think guys and thanks for the help through this all!

Later
Joe