420A built on a wednesday?

[josh_effin_tyre]

First off thanks for the knowledge you guys share here. Now let's get down to business, I have a 99 rs, and have been reading about the performance of a stock 420a. It wasn't very impressive to say the least, however I felt mine was a little better than what it should be. I have not done any performance upgrades, but it came with a cold air kit and a 4 into 1 header, while tuning it up a few weeks ago I noticed a home made cat back. Just a piece of pipe welded after the cat eliminating the resonator, nothing to brag about by no means. I decided to check the 0-60 time on it because I couldn't believe it took 9 seconds, and sure enough I clocked about 7.8 give or take a tenth for the stop watch. Nothing amazing, but respectable for a 420. I started changing my timing belt today and found something weird, the cam gears were marked with an I and an E. After removing them to change the cam seals I noticed the back of the gear had 2.4l front stamped on it, wtf? I was under the assumption the head was mitsubishi and Mitsubishi doesn't have a 2.4 that would interchange with a 420a. So are those stock cam gears or do I possibly neon cams and gears. The obviously came out at some point hence the I and E, but could it possibly be a higher rise cam from a r/t neon? I'll finish the job tomorrow since it's raining but any advice or tips are appreciated thanks.

 

[JDT]

I & E stand for intake and exhaust. Do you have any pics of the engine? It's possible that you have an edz swap or someone just swapped gears from that engine onto yours.

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Yes but my phone takes high quality photos and the servers won't allow them because they are too big. I doubt it's an eds swap, but oh how nice it would be! It was a crate motor at some point, I can tell by the button on the freeze plug, but I had to get a crank kit when I bought it which would have done away with the extra stroke even if it was a swap. The oil pan doesn't appear to be altered and the motor mounts look stock as well, and considering the kid I got it from did his own work when he couldn't fix a sandwich, I'd say it's a 420a. Regardless though 1 second plus off of a 0-60 time is something to be proud of with any engine, I'm just not sure where it comes from. I'll know more tomorrow when I reset the timing and adjust the valves.

 

[synthetek]

I was under the assumption the head was mitsubishi and Mitsubishi doesn't have a 2.4 that would interchange with a 420a. So are those stock cam gears or do I possibly neon cams and gears

Its made by Chrysler not Mitsubishi , they are stock cam gears. The 420a cam gears have different markings on them , one side is for 2.0 engines and the other side is for 2.4l

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Thanks that's what I wanted to know I appreciate it, I was just getting my hopes up ! What timing will produce the most power out of my 420@ since I gotta reset it any tomorrow

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Ok I said I would post more on what I found when I reset the timing so here it is. Everything appears to be stock, the original problem was the tensioner was bad so I got tb, tensioner, and seals along with a new oil pump for the car. Everything went smoothly until the crankshaft sprocket which took me a week and a half to get off. I used a torch and a hammers and a gear puller, which broke along with 6 different bolts. I got 3 grade 8 1/4 inch bolts and drilled and tapped the holes after 8 days of working on it. I got another sprocket from a local junk yard and it took one hour to get to it and remove it. I got everything back together and started the car and it was still ticking, I was so pissed I set a bag of Doritos on fire and threw it in the car and went inside. My wife seen me do and smothered the fire and cussed me for an hour, so now I have a ticking car with a burn mark on the carpet. My wife still wants it fixed though so here's the symptoms. It has a loud tick coming from the timing belt side of my 420a. It's the same sound and location as b4 however I could wiggle the tensioner pulley b4 and now the belt is tight with absolutely no slack for the pulley to move. I have the front timing cover off and inspected everything but this is my first timing belt job so Im not sure what to look for. Any ideas?

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Oh yeah the best tool for removing the gear is a Chevy small block harmonic balancer puller with the 1/4 inch grade 8 bolts. That was a life saver.

 

[turtlebain]

I was able to get 7.2 in my RS when I videotaped it. Manual transmission stock besides short ram.. I believe it was uphill too.

 

[turtlebain]

Turbo's are fun, dude. You should get a turbo.

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Found a few cheap but the problem right now is this tick it's blowing my mind.

 

[Dsmkauai]

Did the old belt jump timing since you found a bad tensioner? Sounds like it did and maybe bent some valves. Or you have really bad lifter tick.

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

It did not, I'm leaning toward lifter tick because I just drove it to town and it is alot more quiet now. I'm getting some compression restore now

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

So the final verdict is lifter tick. The compression restore did make it almost none existent so I only here a sound when it is accelerating from a dead stop not idling or under a steady load, my old racing friends informed me that the royal purple oil I used is junk and not to do so anymore as that is probably what caused the tick in the first place. Man has stuff changed since I got out the performance world . 9 years ago that was all I heard about, royal purple this and that, I was a kid so I used synthetic castrol. After spending all my money building an engine my lack of patience wouldn't allow me to wait another week for "better" oil like purple. Should have done some research .

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Oh yeah thanks for the input guys, you were a big help!

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

New development just realized today. I have been less than mobile after our car took a shit in the front yard so I decided to drive it to a couple junk yards to get the bolts I lost for the power steering pump. With a total of about 100 miles all together taking the scenic route I started noticing little things I didn't yesterday, probably because I was just excited to drive the car , and stop lights it almost seems to be camming. Yeah I said it, like a small block Chevy with a nice high rise cam. It did it so hard the car rocked a little bit, I have been more than Lucky with this car but not lucky enough to have cams. It's probably a skip, all be it a cool skip ! Anyway this was my first timing job ever, I always out sourced that to my grandma who is very mechanically inclined. I read the Haynes manual and followed it step by step. I read it prior and during the process, the problem is the new oil pump didn't have a timing mark however the motor did exactly what it was supposed to do. No hard spots during the rotation after belt installation or apparent valve/piston contact. It's the same idle just amplified I guess, the power seems about the same with a definite power band. I'm sure the timing isn't perfect but I'm also pretty sure it's not off by much. Any ideas?

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

By "the same idle just amplified" I mean that the exhaust has the same sound just slowed down a little bit with a harder hit between lobes, but not much. I have been having problems with it dying at idle or trying to die, but it has been more so today. Usually once a week after a long drive, but it actually died 4 times today then fired right back up every time.

 

[Dsmkauai]

So check the timing! And did you change the hydrolic tensioner when you did the belt? If your timing is skipping your not far off from having no more valves bro! Stop driving and fix it.

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Yeah I changed everything, including the tensioner. The tensioner went bad and starting this chain of events. I'm am really starting to dislike timing jobs. I'll check it out today I have been up all night replacing all the parts I took off I.e. bumper and inner fender along with replacing some other broken parts I got from the salvage yard. Literally I just walked in, but thanks a lot.

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

You know I just thought of something. The only way to check the timing is to make sure everything lines up. The problem I ran into in the first place when timing motor is that I don't have a timing mark on the oil pump for the sprocket to line up on. Is there any other way to set the sprocket without getting a compression tester?

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Well I finally found the problem, my timing was off a couple teeth hence the lobing at idle. I have to admit, I will miss it a little. Took a trip to the parts store yesterday and a older gentleman asked how big of a cam I had ! Of course rather than bring the dsm name down any further in my town, I lied about a custom grind from Atlanta. Just to be safe I checked the bearings, rings, and wrist pins to see if that was the source of the tapping/ticking noise I heard everything was good. So luckily with adjusted timing it stopped. No worries anymore thanks for all the help guys!

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

I'm reviving this thread because after I fixed it last it spun a rod bearing, just my f***ing luck! Well I grabbed a complete head from a junk yard with valve cover, cams, lifters, and rocker arms (53 dollars well spent). I sent it out to the machine shop because I wanted to make sure it was good to go back on my motor after I fix the bearing. Well I'm in the process of doing it now and stopped because the camshafts are NOT the same. The cams from the head I picked up are stock, with abx stamped on both. The two from my head both have 532 stamped on them but they have other numbers on the opposite side. The intake cam has 272 and the exhaust has 252. I'm not sure what they mean or if it's even stock, any ideas? Please help asap I may add them to the new head. I decided to put another head on because of the multiple times I had to reset the timing belt because of it being off slightly, and the tensioner going out I figured it would be safer in case of any contact was made, and so I could make quick trips to town while it was getting resurfaced.

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Well I have had my ups and downs with my 99 rs, with the downs being more recent. Here's a recap I hydro locked the engine. the next day the tb tensioner took a shit. I replaced the tb with a kit and finally got the timing right. Shortly after that the engine locked up. While on a search for a new engine my wife said maybe we should get a newer car. Long story short I'm now the proud owner of a 2003 mustang gt. Not just any mustang a centennial edition. 2040 in the entire world, 717 of those r coupes which I have one of. It has every option available 110,000 miles, and 300 plus horses thanks to a programmer, x pipe, and no cats. I had to get it, my grandma sold it to me for 4 grand. This doesn't mean the rs is dead and gone. It just means I have the time to build it like I want. Thanks for all your help and I'll see you around as I'm going to need input on the build. Good night everyone

 

[tylersevo]

Is it a 2 valve? If so 300+ is highly unlikely with just a Bama Tune and exhaust. It took my 01 GT a ridiculous amount of money to crack 330rwhp on a DynoJet. How I miss that Atlantic Blue....

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Wow that is a sweet ass mustang. Yes it's a two valve, but yes it makes 302.3 rwhp on a dyno. She never let me drive it . That I know of, it has the exhaust, programmer, a shift kit...... f***ing automatics, msd coils, and a cai. It's not a corvette killer but it will hold its own. Gma added the msd coils, and cai. Well she paid for it. Everything else I mentioned was on the car when she bought it for her 62 birthday. The only problems I've had with it other than paying for premium, is that it to loud and it has less leg room in the back seat. But for the price I paid for it makes it ok, it reliable it's sporty and quick. It'll do until I can get the rs back together. Honestly I like the eclipse better, it's more fun to drive. Oh and what happened to your mustang? It really looks good.

 

[josh_effin_tyre]

Oh yeah it has 4.10 gears in the rear end, Gma just told me. She looking for the receipts now. He gave her all of them.