I know some of you have recently gone through similar, so I thought I'd try and get some feed back. My truck a '97 DI needs some serious engine help. It still runs and I plan to wheel it until the trails around here close in December. But in a nutshell, it has almost no oil pressure at idle (has been that way for years) and is leaking coolant from the drivers side head gasket. So it's time for something newer.

I have another engine that came out of a '96 parts truck. The problem is I know nothing about the engine and the previous owner was less than honest. The original add stated that it was a 60k motor. When my buggy picked the truck up he told him that it was the original motor. There were two gauge clusters one was 9Xk and the other 10xk so even if it was original it's still lower than my 150k motor. The truck had not run for 2-3 years. Had a bad fuel pump and gas that looked more like jello than gas. But I did manage to get it running after playing with it for a while. There was an initial knock but that disappeared after the 2nd or 3rd time it started. It ran like **** but that was probably more due to the ****ty gas and half the sensor including the MAF being unhooked.

I ran a compression test on it most of the cylinders were in the 150-160psi range and a few in the 170+ range. I've been told that with the engine having been cold and not really having run in several years that this was not necessary bad.

When I pulled the engine it did seem like it had recently been pulled. There were a number of missing bolts and the exhaust manifold bolt were barely finger tight. So it is still possible that it was a 60k replacement.

Anyway before I drop this thing into my truck I want to make sure everything looks good. So my plan is to start to tear it down and at the very least pull the heads off and have them cleaned/machined etc. Then replace the front and rear seals and maybe throw in some new injectors.

My question is how far should I dig into this engine to make sure? I initially thought about pulling some bearing caps and checking the bearing. But I've read that is a bad idea on an older engine. So should I pull them and just spin in some new bearings? Or should I just leave them, hope for the best and just do the top end?

One thing to keep in mind is, this is going into my trail truck that see's less than 1,000/year so I don't want to completely rebuild the engine because I don't think the cost benefit is there. I'd rather throw my $ at some Ashcroft Lockers with 4.75's than totally new motor.

One other question I have, my truck is a '97 w/ AEL and the other engine is a '96 w/o AEL. Are there any differences to look out for or should everything swap over.

Sorry for the rambling post just thought I'd try and get some opinions.

 

On a 60k motor you shouldn't see hardly any bearing or journal wear unless the oil was never changed. Conrod bearings are always good to check, they take the most punishment. If you do pop a cap or two on the rod bearings or crank bearings it's paramount that you use new bolts as they're a stretch type - TTY - Torque To Yield. I replaced all my shells @ 120k, down to copper, crank and rod .010 oversized. Polished the crank with crocus cloth.

Remove the front cover and check timing chain and gears, check oil gear-rotor clearance and crank and cam oil seals, same on timing cover, crank seal for sure. Top end is simply removing baked crud just like any of the top end posts. Very easy to do. Head gaskets I wouldn't bother with until they fail. Easy job, shave heads, new head bolts, head gaskets and valley gasket.

Again, a 60k motor should look pristine compared to a 150k one. Sensors are fairly easy to replace and a CEL would point you to which ones. Usually the engine coolant temp for ECU, O2's and that's about it. SAI? You really have air injection? You can block ports or get heads without SAI ports. Will Tillery, Paul Grant or Marty (Drillbit).

 

Sorry you're right, I don't it's been a long day. I was thinking AEL and read a post on where someone mentioned SAI and got them mixed up.

 

Lol, no biggie.

 

buy a complete gasket set, strip the heads, front cover and oilpan check and inspect everything, paying close attention to the oil pump,
re-gasket it and hope for the best.

as mentioned earlier if you are going to check the bearing it means new rod bolts, if you have to replace the rod bolts why not the bearings, then why not the rings while your there,it goes on and on.

 

Start with pulling a valve cover to see what your dealing with, at this point you have 2 running engines

If it looks clean inside I would just flip it over pull the pan, if everything looks good throw on a front and rear crank seal and reseal the pan

I mean once installed you can put that time and effort into rebuilding the original engine

 

Perhaps a stupid question, but is there that much of a savings by rebuilding the current engine vs. buying a re-manufactured long block from AB or similar supplier and just dropping it in? I know mine is beginning to get a bit long in the tooth and will be needing attention before too long. I just keep debating which would be the best way to attack the impending issue.

 

seeing re-manufactured engine run $6k, i would think their would be a saving

 

I do worry about the unknown aspect of the engine, but I'm also worried about scope creep on a otherwise good engine. Because for all I know it could be the 60k replacement motor he said it was.

Any you're right if I do one thing why not do the whole thing. I might just start off with Tom's suggestion and start small pull the covers and intake an see how things look. If everything looks ok I drop it in as is and hope for the best. Worst case I can rebuild my current motor and drop that one back in.

 

This really depends on if you're going to rebuild yourself or pay a shop to do it. I would think even if you pay a shop to do it. You would still save at least 1-2k between shipping and resale markup by AB.

You could build a pretty mean motor for what AB charges for just the long block.