suntzu350
Probationary Member
- 5
- 0
- Apr 16, 2011
-
Omaha,
Nebraska
My wife bought our 1999 Eclipse RS with a mopar 420A engine from a used car dealer back in March. They claimed that they had replaced the head gasket. After driving the car 3,000 miles I changed the oil (using Royal Purple 5W30) this was about June. One day I started the car when it was over 100* to let the inside of the car cool down a bit (usually I won't even use the AC), when I backed out of the drive a ploom of smoke poured out of the exhaust. I figured the rings were a bit worn having 74,000 miles on the engine so i switched to 10W30. This slowed down the oil consumption for a while. I'm at the point now where it needs a full quart of the 10w30 each time i fill the gas tank...every 300 miles or so.
Now it is November and during our first winter storm the other day I realized there is no heat making it into the passenger cabin. I checked the thermostat and found it was broken and stuck closed. (Strange that I had not noticed any signs of overheating)
I drained the radiator and found some oil in it as well.
So now it is time to start the rebuild.
I am planning on keeping the engine mostly stock, maybe upgrading the intake and exhaust a little further than it was when I got it. I will be relocating the EGR and blocking it off at the head. I have almost finished removing the accessories so that I can pull the engine out and send the head and block in to have them checked to make sure they didn't warp since I have no idea how long the thermostat has been broken. If the engine is shot I will make a decision call at that time to either swap in some sort of a 4G6 motor or see if i can find a good 2.4l mopar and build one of those up.
More to come later...
Now it is November and during our first winter storm the other day I realized there is no heat making it into the passenger cabin. I checked the thermostat and found it was broken and stuck closed. (Strange that I had not noticed any signs of overheating)
I drained the radiator and found some oil in it as well.
So now it is time to start the rebuild.
I am planning on keeping the engine mostly stock, maybe upgrading the intake and exhaust a little further than it was when I got it. I will be relocating the EGR and blocking it off at the head. I have almost finished removing the accessories so that I can pull the engine out and send the head and block in to have them checked to make sure they didn't warp since I have no idea how long the thermostat has been broken. If the engine is shot I will make a decision call at that time to either swap in some sort of a 4G6 motor or see if i can find a good 2.4l mopar and build one of those up.
More to come later...