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| engine swap 96 to 98; purchasing wreck car for engine | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 24 2013, 01:03 AM (620 Views) | |
| billianna | Oct 24 2013, 01:03 AM Post #1 |
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I own a 98 geo metro in florida. No rust, drives great (33 mpg) automatic 4 cyl lsi. I got it for 400 with bad cylinders. Failed compression test (90, 60, 30, 60). Have been driving it daily and feeding it 16 oz of water every 100 miles and a quart of oil every 600-800 miles. Just started getting a puff of smoke when starting in the morning. 200k plus on car. Lots of new parts though. Auto transmission works perfectly. No problem with lose of power or acceleration. We love our zombie. PO replaced the top part of engine (new header, water pump, radiator, belts etc. 10 months and 15k ago). Not sure if engine problem is in the bottom half, top half or both of the engine. Not sure if way to tell other than to take her apart and see. Today found a possible donor vehicle ($600) 96 manual 5 speed 4 door sedan 1.3 engine with under 50k that was in a minor wreck but radiator comes within a half inch of engine now. Bumpers good as a taller car was hit. Engine still runs good. Near perfect interior, new tires. Headlights are unbroken. Checked the engines and bottom of engine (block, I think) is the same. Both 4 cylinders but tops are very different. Dad and my brother have not worked on geos much but both have swapped engines and trannys on their trucks and cranes. So my geo is on the other end of the size zone. Plus good friend is a metal smith (Fabricator) and knife machine so decent machine shop available. Dad was a welder for years and still owns a bit of welding equipment. We can use a friends small lift for a few days for only $50 or so. I will be paying brother for his time as I am not a mechanic. Dad would be a volunteer:). Bet he wishes he had taught me about cars, too. Any advice? I prefer the auto but I'm able to drive a stick. Just not sure I want all my cars to be manual at this time. A handy friend looked at it today with me. The mentioned that they might want to trade the engine and tranny at same time so they can assemble more of it out of the car. Then bolt them back into car at same time. First idea was to take my new top and marry it to the bottom block of the 96. Then re-home the low miles header and all parts from the 96. I was willing to place the 5 speed working low miles tranny in storage in garage until the automatic one goes out. Otherwise there looks to be a lot to swap including possibly the computer brain. So is it worth the trouble or do I keep looking for a different donor engine? Is their a shop in the Tampa area that you would trust to rebuild an engine. Do I need the donor just to be a decision bottom block. The numbers on side of blocks were the same and mechanic verified that those parts of the engine match. I'm not a mechanic but 250k seems a bit much for the beginnings of a rebuild. Thanks for the advice which is always great here. |
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| Old Man | Oct 24 2013, 02:21 AM Post #2 |
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have your brother help you tear the bad sheet metal etc off of the wreck. use the good body parts from your old metro use the engine and manual tranny stay where it is this way you are doing nothing but body work and no wiring, changing engines, tranny, or any mechanical stuff. When you get that one running pull the engine and tranny out of the automatic one and put it on the bench. At that time, with this forums help, you can tear down and rebuild that engine and make it ready to run again. or: pull both engines/trannys out. put the bare block into the 98 and use all the rest of the 98s parts except the bare block. put the 98 engine on the bench and learn to do an overhaul while you are driving Edited by Old Man, Oct 24 2013, 02:25 AM.
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| Deleted User | Oct 24 2013, 02:47 AM Post #3 |
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Deleted User
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What Old Man said, I think. The 96 and 98 engines differ by the head and a few other parts. One way or the other, you can Frankenstein a Geo Metro together. Or, there's a new engine on Ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/140900368989 |
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| Woodie | Oct 24 2013, 05:29 AM Post #4 |
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Do a genuine rebuild on the '98, it's a very different and much better engine than the '96, and uses a COMPLETELY different engine management and wiring system. Your puff of smoke in the morning is valve seals, probably needs valve guides too. |
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