Rebuild Motor or Replace?

[Krmnnghia]

My 95 Talon TSi AWD is on its last leg...136K miles on the original motor with 30K on the tranny. Not really interested in doing anything more than a small 16G in the future. So strictly based on price should I buy a used low mile motor or buy new pistons, rings, and other internals to have it rebuilt. This baby burns alot of oil and is starting to puff smoke when I hit the gas hard and get high into boost.

For whatever advice you gove are their any sites with good prices on the part/parts I would need? Also I will be having a shop do all the work so that factors into the price as well! Thanks

 

[zross1]

You might want to consider finding out why your car is smoking. Because this smoking could be because of a bad turbo, valve stems, just to name a few, that wouldn't warrant a new motor, or complete rebuild. Obviously if it's just your turbo get a new one or a rebuild. If it's valves in your head you can just do a head swap, or have someone rebuild your head and you wouldn't have to buy a bottom end. First thing I would do is check the shaft play of your turbo to see if it is bad. I don't know what turbo you have but assuming it's a t-25 and with how many miles are on your car chances are it's bad if you have turned up the boost. You can pick up one very cheep or upgrade to a better turbo. Second do a compression check to check how your bottom end is holding up. If your compression looks good then I would look into doing a head swap or getting a new turbo depending on the outcome.

Also, different colors of smoke indicate different things that "could" be wrong with your motor. I don't know which colors tell you what, but I'm sure someone on here does and would let you know, or you might want to search around to find out.

 

[sechen77]

yeah, check compression and turbo condition, are you using synthetic motor oil? a lot times if you 2g stock bottom end has not gone bad crankwalking yet, stick w/ it, if you buy an used motor that's about to crankwalk then you're totally azzed out...

if you have bad valve seals, then a rebuild head is the way to go, often times you wouldn't be able to find out the condition of your block until you pull the head off...

 

[blackGSX2g]

Yea, the best way to check the condition of your block without taking it apart would be to run the compression test and a leakdown test. After you test the compression, put a little bit of oil in the chamber and test it again. If the compression goes up, that means the oil is temporarily sealing the piston better and the rings are bad and will need replacing.

If everything seems ok, maybe its just something simple like a turbo, or something in the head. What color is the smoke? Blue smoke means oil, white smoke means water/coolant, and black smoke means gas/running rich.

I personally would rebuild the motor you have if thats the path you choose. Buying a used 7-bolt is a gamble...you don't know the whole history of it and you can't tell how it runs unless you can drive it in a car first. Rebuilding an engine is not that difficult, you just need to figure out what your goals are. Do you want performance or stock?

 

[BUCK]

Can it for a 6 Bolt...

 

[Krmnnghia]

Well the reason we aren't going to a 6 bolt is the new tranny was put in about 30K miles ago and is still great. The color of smoke is Black as observed by my fiance driving behind me and she said it was nice and smelly. It doesn't really smoke at all unless I gun it hard. The turbo is a T-25 and I have no boost controller on it. Mods are all mild(IC pipes, Type S BOV, Hi flow cat, 2.5" exhaust). I guess tomorrow I will check the turbo for shaft play. With 136K miles on the stock turbo I am guessing the turbo is going but it still pulls hard as ever....hhhhmmmmmmm

 

[telly699]

Well the reason we aren't going to a 6 bolt is the new tranny was put in about 30K miles ago and is still great.

???

 

[ambcamry]

I thought the trannys were the same on 6-7 bolt

 

[ItsStockOfficer]

I thought the trannys were the same on 6-7 bolt

There is no way to put a 1g trans in a 2g car. Reverse compatible though. Very much like a playstation 2.

 

[q92awd]

Are you venting your bov to the atmosphere? If it only smokes when you get on it and then lift off, the smoke is probably caused by the rich condition you just created by losing all of the compressed air through your bov after the mas has already counted it. Maybe you've already thought of that and the smoke is worse than it sounds, but the bov seems like a good possibility. Some of our cars just don't like venting.

 

[Krmnnghia]

no I am not venting to atmosphere....I was not aware I could bolt a 7 bolt tranny to a 6 bolt motor....this will work!?!?

 

[DGajre777]

Yes If you want, you can have a 6 bolt motor on a 7 bolt tranny. You WILL need a 6 bolt flywheel. Check out Slowboy racing's 6 bolt swap in a 2G. Go to Slowboyracing.com, click on Race Engines and then scroll to 6 bolt Motor Swap kit. Roadraceengineering.com and magnusmotorsports has a good write up on a 6 bolt motor swap.
Good luck with your engine