Kaboom!

Right, so now the original engine is out of the car and hanging from an engine crane. I hadn't drained the oil before we pulled it out of the car, and now my tired brain decides that we have to do that before we tuck it over in the corner. Even though we're desperately curious to see what has gone wrong in this engine, it's late, and we've had a long day.
So we pull the oil drain plug and the fun begins. As we're watching the very black oil pour into the pan, Brent, who has the plug in his hand, glances down and notices this-


The previous owner had the foresight to install one of those magnetic drain plugs, and that is one alarmingly large piece of metal stuck to it. Well, that's certainly not suppposed to be there, is it?.
It looks like it was once part of a spring, but those are all supposed to be up in the cylinder head - roughly 16" away and separated (ideally) by pistons, rings and all sorts of other barriers. Very intriguing...

Well, now we just HAD to at least drop the pan...this was too good. Unfortunately, the engine is hanging by a chain while the new motor is on my only engine stand. No matter - we're resourceful young lads! In a remarkably hillbilly-esque procedure, Brent literally hugged the engine while I broke loose the oil pan screws. As I pulled the oil pan off, the tale of this engine's final moments started to unfurl before our very eyes. The debris in the bottom of the pan was both startling and glorious. What distinctly looked to be the remains of a piston skirt lay shattered across the bottom of the oil pan. We giggled like schoolkids for several minutes.

After we regained our composure, we snapped these:
Click for a larger version - it's worth it.

Did you click yet?? C'mon!!


The liquid at the bottom may look like oil, but it's more of a metallic "pudding" I grabbed a magnet, and passed it along the outside bottom of the pan, and you could literally watch the slurry deform as the metal particles aligned with the magnet. I wish I could have captured it with a camera - it was really cool.
At this point, we grabbed a flashlight and looked up into the engine from below.
More laughter - several minutes worth.

The #1 piston top was jammed up at the top of it's stroke. The connecting rod and wrist pin ripped the whole bottom half of the piston into the shards of aluminum that we saw in the pan. Ok - so now we're desperately curious to see what's going on in the cylinder head. A piston can't just stop at the top of it's stroke while the engine is running - bad things happen (as if chunks of said piston in the oil pan aren't bad enough).

Mind you, it's probably 10 or 11 o'clock by now, but we decide that we MUST see the rest of the destruction. It's time to pull the head off. So it's back to the hillbilly engine hugging.
The process of removing a cylinder head is a fiddly procedure even when you do it the right way. Much less, our way....
We stubbornly forged ahead, and a mere hour or so later (don't ask), our curiosity was satisfied. We were greeted with one of the best piston "grenades" we had ever seen:

clickee for biggie™




The destruction was very, very impressive. Notice in the 2nd picture you can see the clean area where the piston top was beaten into the top of the combustion chamber. That's not just clean, the metal is actually depressed there, resulting in the crack. Also notice the four distinct gouges where the valves were repeatedly smashed into the piston.

Well that was quite a discovery. As near as I can tell, this engine is nothing more than scrap. After the piston let go, the connecting rod and wrist pin slapped around in the cylinder, gouging out the walls in four places. I'm pretty sure even a .030 or .040 overbore wouldn't take care of it. Even if it did, the expense of the engine work, oversized pistons, and all the labor involved would seem stupid when you can get a fully functional engine for $300.

At least this engine provided some chuckles on it's way out....

'Old' Motor Extraction

So I managed to con Brent into yet another LONG workday out in a cold garage. The mission was to pull the engine out of the white car to make room for the soon-to-be freshened up 'new' engine.

Usually removing an engine involves pulling lots and lots of electrical connections, hoses of every size shape and description, battery trays, and various engine bay parts. Not so in my case. Thanks to the previous owners random disassembly methods, most of the work was already done for me. Mind you, it wasn't done right, and many of the parts that were removed are nowhere to be found. Many of the bolts and fasteners that formerly held all the missing parts on were found in several piles scattered around the engine bay. I pretty much had no choice but to gather them all up, organize them by size and style, and put 'em in a box - maybe as I put things back together, I'll figure out where most of them go.

I had been chipping away at the car throughout the previous week, removing the drive shafts, engine wiring harness, intake manifold and various other small parts. As with all things that the previous owner worked on, there were a few amusing discoveries along the way. This time it was the shifter cables. On both ends of the shifter assembly, Neons use little rubber grommets that snap onto shift linkages. Inside the car, the bushings are fairly protected and live long happy lives. On the transmission end however, conditions are tougher - heat, cold, vibration, and the elements all conspire to bring about a swift end to these poor little bushings. It's a common problem that's normally fixed with a trip to the local Dodge dealer. But that clearly wasn't an option for Whitey's resourceful previous owner. Nope, why fix something properly if you can do it completely, and utterly ass-backwards? Apparently an enormous gob of epoxy will do just fine in place of the proper parts....


In the above shot, the bushing on the right is completely gutted - missing it's entire center portion, but was left to perform it's duties as best it could. The one on the left however, was apparently so bad that it had to be addressed. A big old glob of epoxy was smooshed into the bushing and slathered, and smoothed all over the entire repair - much like an ugly little cake.
I had to chip the stuff off just to get down to the main bushing and end link. I can't figure this guy out - the proper fix for this, even using upgraded parts is maybe $25. Go figure...


With the shady shift linkages out and most of the other fiddly work done, all that was left was to disconnect the exhaust and unbolt the motor mounts, and yank the damn thing out. I borrowed a 2 ton capacity shop crane or "cherry picker" from one of the other Spec Neon racers and it made quick work of lifting the relatively light (maybe 400 lbs?) Neon engine/transmission combo out.






And with that, we were done.

So, the engine was out, but the 'new' engine wasn't ready to go back in yet. Ever curious, we decided to take a peek inside this engine and see what really went wrong with it. Blown head gasket was my guess. That'll be coming up in the next post.

'New' Motor Teardown

Ok - time for some honesty. I've only helped with one engine transplant my entire life....

I was 17 and the slant-six 225 in my 1965 Plymouth Valiant had popped. My dad and I found a donor car, pulled the engine out, painted it a nice chrysler blue, and dropped it in.
That was a long time ago and the details are very fuzzy. Looking back, my Dad probably did all the hard work. I was 17, and probably extremely useless. Since then, I've only done light shade-tree mechanic stuff. Hell, I've only ever seen the intake valves (from the outside mind you) of one car since then.
I've never even held a piston or connecting rod in my hand. I know what all the parts do, but have very little hands-on experience with them. So I guess it's only fitting that I'm tearing apart a perfectly good 2.0 liter SOHC Neon engine in my "spare time". It started out innocently enough - the engine clearly had an oil leak. Everything from the valve cover on down was coated in so much oil that it had taken on a texture that I mistook for the factory finish.

When I smeared my finger through at least 1/8" of oil buildup, I knew it was time to strip some parts off and see what was leaking.
I pulled off the intake manifold and found about 1/4 cup of filthy oil pooled in the bottom, which promptly spilled all over the floor when I wasn't paying attention.



Hmmm...that's a lot of oil.

The intake ports of the head were also carbon/oil stained.


I'm not 100% sure what this is a symptom of, but I knew it wasn't "normal" since the intake air is supposed to be nice and clean. No reason to have lots of oil in the intake charge. Looking further into the cylinder head revealed oily residue and lots of carbon on the intake valves.

Most likely valve guide seals. This was unexpected, but not devastating - I was planning to take the head off to put a fresh head gasket anyway. I know nothing about valve-train work though, so it was a bit daunting. I started this whole undertaking because I wanted a new project where I could learn a few new tricks right? Well, here was a new trick.

The neat-o discoveries kept coming. When the exhaust manifold came off I was greeted with more carbon than I thought was possible under normal conditions. There were literally sheets of the stuff.

I'm sure others will tell me this is nothing out of the ordinary, but I'm still amazed. This engine was clearly run on cheap gas and ran lots of short trips. Nothing shows any signs of neglect, but definitely no pampering either.

Time to pull the head - this is officially the deepest I've ever been into an engine.

Oh good grief! The intake valves have freaking mineral deposits on them - the contour of the valve is completely obscured.


Damn cheap gas.....

Top of the pistons show similar evidence




Top of the head shows signs of equally cheap dino-oil. Lots of varnish on the cam and all the followers.

At this point, the engine that's already in the car is starting to look more attractive. Despite it's unknown mechanical status, it's clear that it was run on better gas and oil. Varnish is virtually nonexistent, and the intake ports are spotless.

Unfortunately, I've just finished pulling it out of the car....details on that in the next post.

Stompin' on the Regulars

So, it's winter here in MI, and most of the racing series ground to a halt back in September. But not the hardy souls of the SCCA Detroit Region RallyCross scene. They had their last event of the season on Saturday (12/8). I managed to con my pal Brent into driving out there to check it out.

Rallycross is the messy little brother of Autocross. In both events a course is laid out using cones in a large open area and competitors run their cars through one at a time. Hitting a cone earns a time penalty - usually +2 seconds for each cone you hit. Times are taken over multiple runs, and then added up at the end of the day. Lowest score wins - just like golf.
The primary difference between the two is that autocross takes place on a paved surface - usually a parking lot, while rallycross is run on dirt or grass. Both emphasize car control, and precision, it's just that you get to slide around sideways in rallycross. No special equipment is necessary to compete - just a helmet and a car - any old car will do, in fact most people drive their cars right to the event. Only one car at a time is allowed on course, so the potential to wreck your car is really minimal. For those reasons Autocross is hugely popular. It offers people a worry-free chance to test their limits, along with their car's. Rallycross is still in it's early stages, but will undoubtedly prove to be very popular.

Our initial goal was simply to spectate. Check out the event and see if the rallycross scene interested us. In gathering info on the event, I managed to make a few contacts that offered to let us ride along during their runs if we wanted - all we needed were some helmets. I've got two, so we were good to go. As the day got closer, Brent started to show some interest in actually competing in his car. His car is fine choice too. A 2000 Subaru Impreza. It's got a zippy little boxer engine with 165hp, nimble handling, and one of the best all-wheel-drive systems on the planet - It's the perfect car for a rallycross. He was a bit unsure at first since it was his only car, so I left it entirely up to him. The day of the event arrived and he was positive he wanted to give it a go - YEAH!!

With that, we drove out to the event, got registered, got teched, walked the course (twice - first time was the wrong direction) and attended the driver's meeting. At the meeting we learned that when you're not driving, you're expected to lend a hand running the event. For the untrained (us) that meant standing at a corner waiting for cars to hit a cone, running out to reset the cone, and radioing it in to timing and scoring. Sounds like fun right? Maybe on a nice summer day - but this was not to be one of those days. The expected high temp was 26 degrees. We froze our asses off out there for about 4 hours before our first run.

Behold! The tundra...


Brent lined up for his first ever rallycross run and I was along as "co driver" (more like dead weight). We pulled up to the start line still futzing with helmets straps, seatbelts, gloves, and just generally being nervous.

The starter waved us on to the course and it was time - I wondered what Brent's approach was going to be. Brent's a pretty laid back guy, but lemme tell ya - he freakin' FLOORED it! I had no idea he was going to attack like that. The whole first run, I kept thinking "Oh man!! Too fast, we'll never make this tur----Holy crap - we made it!"
We clipped a few cones on the first run, but never spun out or did anything too silly. We pulled off at the end of the run and stopped at the timing truck for our time. 102.603 - we had no idea how that compared, but didn't really care. We were just there for the experience.

We ran 3 more times before lunch, then it was time for the afternoon runs. Brent got faster and smoother with each run - still tagging the occasional cone here and there, but we were having a blast and weren't too concerned with it. We think he had one really fast clean run, but the timing got all messed up and he had to re-run. The re-run was good, but the previous run felt way faster.

Unfortunately, before long the event was over and we had to head home. Brent had some obligations that evening, so we couldn't stick around for the final results. We'd have to wait a few days for them to post on the website.
They finally posted the results Monday evening - I just about crapped my pants when I saw them. Brent took second in the 'SA' class (stock all-wheel-drive). 2nd IN CLASS!! I was stunned.
Scanning the results, he also beat out most of the cars in the PA, and MA classes (prepared all-wheel-drive and modified all-wheel-drive, respectively) DAMN!!

Here's some photo evidence of the day's events. In retrospect, I should have let Brent do the afternoon runs alone so I could get some shots of him in action. Oh well...how was I to know he was going to do so well his first time out??

Tradin' Motors

A few posts back, I mentioned a potential "no cash" engine deal I was working on. In the car & parts package I purchased, I got my choice of two engines: the single cam (SOHC) that was already in the donor street car (blown - cause unknown) and a twin-cam (DOHC) engine that had a rod knock. I hadn't witnessed either engine running, so I was left to choose based on gut instinct. The mystery engine in the street car was very frightening to me because it was clear that the previous owner was, to put it kindly, a moron. It's obvious that after the engine let go, the guy decided to pull it out - either to work on it, or just put a new engine in. Problem is, that he just started yanking miscellaneous parts off and cutting any hose he could reach.
The lack of any sense of order or common sense is probably indicative of the maintenance history as well. Take into consideration the 160,000 miles that it has seen, and my guess is that the engine needs a full overhaul. Not my cup of tea - at least not right now. So the DOHC was a sounding a little better. It ran, but had a rod knock. It was most likely a spun rod bearing, which is a fairly straightforward fix as long as the engine is out of the car. Which it was, so I wasn't too worried about that. What I was concerned about was all the extra "bulletproofing" that was needed to make the DOHC reliable on the track. A little (ok, a lot) of research on Neon engines revealed The DOHCs history of top-end oiling problems when driven hard, and the connecting rods were also a concern under race conditions.
The solution for many of the oiling issues is a very nice oil pan made by the fine folks over at Moroso. Unfortunately, the pan cost $375.00!! That's right, almost $400 bucks. I just about fell out of my chair when I saw that. You can find a damn nice, used, RUNNING engine for that. If you're smart (and budget conscious), you'll get a SOHC that doesn't need any of that crap to be reliable. Now, before I get a bunch of DOHC hate mail, let me state that the DOHC is a fine, powerful engine when all the oiling issues are resolved - just not for a guy who's on a shoestring budget. So that put me squarely back to the scary SOHC - poop!

Cruising the usual Neon websites, I found a guy who had a running 50,000 mile 1995 SOHC engine that he wanted to sell. His asking price of $200 was a pretty good deal, but that nagging budget thing kept popping up. After talking to him, I found out that he was looking to put a DOHC engine it it's place. "Wha?! Hey!! I've got one of those!"
After a few weeks of negotiating, we worked out a deal, and the week of Thanksgiving ('07) I traded a rod knocking DOHC and engine harness for a low mileage, running (I'm told) SOHC and it's harness. The best part is that everybody's happy with the deal.

So, there ya have it - my best trade to date. I have a new engine, and I didn't spend a dime. A little preventative maintenance and it's time to pop it into the car. The next major project is to pull the current SOHC out of the car.

Uhhhhhhhhh, what?

Just read a big forum discussion about National Auto Sport Association's (N.A.S.A.) decision to eliminate the Spec Neon class from their lineup.
Are you freakin' kidding me?? I haven't even finished building the car, and the class has been killed?

Great. That's just great.

All ranting aside, the decision doesn't really affect me in the least. You see, the track that I'll be racing at (Waterford Hills) is THE Spec Neon motherland, and will continue as such because they run by their own set of rules - so I'll have a place to race for a long time to come.
I'm still upset by N.A.S.A.'s decision to kill Spec Neon because it means that if I should decide to race somewhere other than Waterford Hills, I'll potentially be "re-classed" into a class where I'm seriously outgunned.
If you consider the fact that the entry fees for a race at some of the national tracks can be triple that of a Waterford race, this reduces the "YIPPEEEE" quotient considerably. I can't speak for everyone, but I don't imagine spending $300-$400 a weekend in entry fees to helplessly trundle along in last place will be heralded as the "BEST WEEKEND EVER!!".

Spec Neon was conceived as a low-cost, entry level way to get racing. This latest move is a baby step away from that. We all know what happens after baby learns to walk....That's right - N.A.S.A.'s going to trip on the living room rug and hits it's head on the coffee table.

BWWAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAH!

Got a new toy last night. Good times
That is all.....