Rebuild or Replace

Dirty Deeds needs another engine. Current engine probably burns a litre
of oil every 500km. I'm thinking its probably valve seals that are done
but I'll do a compression test on the engine tomorrow. Either way its got
to come out and something better needs to go in.

On one episode of Top Gear they each had to buy an old beater and
perform various tasks one of which was to get the cars dyno'd. Well
each had lost at least 50% of their horsepower so I would have to
guess that if you only have half the original horsepower then your
fuel consumption should double. So I could save a couple grand a year
just in gas.

So I have 3 options

-rebuild 1 of the engines I have

I like the idea of rebuilding one of my 3sge engines but I don't have many
options for a machine shop. The place I would use wants $2000-$2500.
Now that to me is overkill but it would basically be a totally new engine.
The drawback to this is all the engine accessories/ sensors/ electronics
are still 25 years old and have 200,000-400,000km on them.
I have 2 3sgte engines, 2 3sge engines, 1 extra 3sge head so I would like
to find the best block and head and get a valve job done on the head and
hone the cylinders with new rings but I don't want to pay more than $600
for the valve job and cylinder honing so that may have to wait until I go
back to college and see what sort of machine shop they have. So rebuilding
for now at $2000-$2500 is ridiculous even if it means an all new engine.

-get a JDM 185 or 205
this option would cost me anywhere from $1600-1900 depending on whether
its a 185 or 205. This would get me an engine/sensors/accessories with under
50,000km on it so its an option but the drawback I see is that I still need to get
an inter cooler and piping and connectors so that is probably another $400 so
the total again is going to be $2000-2400. The only problem here is that I have
to join the 185/205 engine harness into the 162 engine bay harness.

-get a 1994 GT4 front clip
I can get a 1994 GT4 front clip for $2400 with 32,729km and that to me is
the best deal. I'm pretty much guaranteed that i have everything I need to
complete the swap, inter cooler, dual core radiator ......GT4 hood scoop,
And for basically the same price as the other 2 options I get a bunch of extras.
ST205 front suspension and brakes, 2 half shafts which should both be the
same as a drivers side ST162 GTS half shaft. Not sure if 1994 uses the newer
version of AC but if it does that would be a bonus and it also seems to have a
Momo steering wheel so I think it would be tough to go with either of the other
2 options when this one is available. Once again the only problem here is that I
have to join the 185/205 engine harness into the 162 engine bay harness.









Soooooooooo I'm probably ordering me a front clip

 

It would be an ST205 front clip

Well I did the compression test and was very disappointing.
I am actually shocked as every cylinder is doing very well.
They ranged from 188 psi to 192 psi
manual says they should be 178 psi or more with a minimum
pressure of 142 psi and not more than 14 psi difference between
cylinders.


So that kind of sucks cause it means theirs really not to much
wrong with the engine. Probably some new oil seals for the valves
and I should get rid of the oil consumption problem.

The engine in Dirty Deeds is a 3sgte engine run without a turbo
on GTS injectors and ECU. So since I have a spare GTS head I
will put new oil seals on the GTS head and swap it in.