here was my motor swap fun!

jamies98lsc

jamies98lsc

Registered
some might know, a member on another forum had an oil leak on his driverside valve cover, he couldnt get it off inside the car, long story short, he got real mad, took a hammer to the motor and wrecked the driverside head. broke the valve cover, broke the cam towers, hit a few cam lobes. so, we found a low mile, or so they said, 97 motor, i told him i would do the swap for him, so i did, these are pics from that weekend...
how it was towed in.

derriksmotor002.jpg

derriksmotor001.jpg

and the doner motor
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i had to replace the whole harness on the engine due to damage from the junk yard, i replaced the oil pan gasket, oil filter plate gasket, valve cover gaskets, cleaned the imrc's, replaced fuel rail because of damage, changed injectors, new water pump, new motor mounts, put most of the front accesories from the original motor to the doner, put the whole motor back together and then took his 97 trans apart, took the electric internals out, and swapped into a 98 trans i sold him last year, i j-modded the 98 trans and put the 97 internals into it. put it all back in the car...
derrik3.jpg

derrik6.jpg

i fired the car up and knew right away something was wrong, a loud smashing sound, did a compression check and found #3 cyl dead, removed the valve cover and found a fallen rocker arm, the lifter was collapsed and the rocker fell off dropping the valve and the piston tagged the valve and jammed it in the head.
rockerandvalve2.jpg

rockerandvalve.jpg

thats what happens when you buy from a boneyard, this motor sat for awhile there is no doubt.
 
so, then instead of playing phone games with more junk yards for another possibly junk motor, i took the original motor which ran perfectly fine before all this, and i changed the head with another 97 head i had saved. we surfaced the head in my shop, cleaned the whole head up, ordered a new head gasket and new head bolts, and i put the original motor all back together.

derriksmotor3.jpg

derriksmotor2.jpg

derriksmotor1.jpg

derrikmotor2ndtime005.jpg

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i would post the video of me starting it, but i swear on it, and i dont think that flies here under the rules!! but the car fired right up, no problems, the owner has the car back and so far all is good! this was my first time, ( well second ) putting a motor back in, i have taken out over a thousand but never put one back in, it was cake actually, long hours but easy, it would help with another person but i put it all back in alone, so i had to use things to roll it under the car like a furniture cart and my creeper lol, but hey, it worked!
 
the car was on stands, but to get the motor out and back in, i had a chain around the core support, and i lifted the front up higher with my engine hoist, once i cleared the frame rail and had the motor back under the engine bay, i lowered the car back down onto the jack stands.
you can sort of see here.

derrikmotor2ndtime015.jpg

these are 5 ton jack stands, they dont look it, but they are monsters, the car was about 30 inches off the floor, from the frame rail to the concrete, i could sit up straight if i was directly under the trans tunnel.
derriksmotor081.jpg
 
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Impressive. I've done one swap on a 4 cylinder Saturn and it was a pain but is very doable. I guess on the Mark the engine must come out the bottom.
 
What an endeavor! I'm surprised you didn't replace the timing chain tensioner....having it all apart and all. Nice to get rid of that occasional noise.
 
i replaced the tensioner on the head i replaced, but the motor didn't have the timing chain noise on start up, and still doesnt so lucky!! the motor can come out the top, but its not easy if the trans is still on the motor, and its much easier in my opinion to take it out the bottom with the trans on it still. the core support is strong, but dont forget, the car with no motor or k member is super light in the front. 2 guys could have easily lifted that car off the jack stands with the whole front end out of it.
 
jamies98lsc said:
i replaced the tensioner on the head i replaced, but the motor didn't have the timing chain noise on start up, and still doesnt so lucky!! the motor can come out the top, but its not easy if the trans is still on the motor, and its much easier in my opinion to take it out the bottom with the trans on it still. the core support is strong, but dont forget, the car with no motor or k member is super light in the front. 2 guys could have easily lifted that car off the jack stands with the whole front end out of it.
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Oh yeah, I totally did not think about that.
 
yeah i did take some of the dent out, he is having a pdr guy come touch it up but i did what i could for him with my hand and knuckles.
 
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