Hi!
Alright, thought this would be in the distant future, but I now find myself registered for the engine rebuilding class ...which starts in 2 weeks!
I have a 1990 colony park wagon, with the stock 302 lopo engine. It runs well: good oil pressure, good compression, runs smooth, though just about every seal leaks some oil ;-)
Now, it's an 8week class so it only makes sense to rebuild a different core and then swap it out with my stock engine in a day.
Before I run off to the junk yard this weekend I have some questions.
--Can you clarify the gt40 versus gt40p question? Did all explorers come with the gt40p heads, or as someone claimed, did the 1996 explorers have the gt40s? Which do I want?
I was told that the exhaust manifold and spark plug locations are different on the 40p's. However, if I'm pulling the exhaust manifold too, will it mate up with the rest of my exhaust? I might not mind a newer explorer engine with the gt40p heads if it fits right in.
--MILEAGE. I'm going to a junkyard, probably. Crazy Ray's has any engine, you pull, for $200. How high is too high? And, if someone destroyed their engine by say, running it out of oil, will pulling just the valve covers tell me enough? I don't plan on pulling pistons until I've pulled the engine, paid for it, brought it to the school shop, and started taking it apart 2 weeks too late to discover that it's wrecked.
Furthermore, my budget is really pretty tight. $200 for the engine, $500 for rebuild parts, $200 more for miscellaneous (better alternator for example, while i'm at it; maybe dual exhaust if it can be done on the cheap: or just the unforeseen).
No room in the budget to take it to a machine shop to rebore the cylinders and regrind a crankshaft!
Should I be looking for 100,000 miles or less?
Mostly this project just scares me: never rebuilt an engine, never even pulled an engine at a junkyard before, and I don't have money to waste if I pull a bad engine!
How new can I go? I've heard '95-'01. Did '01 have a distributor still? If not, is that OK, even better, than the old distributor model: so long as I pull a matching ECU? Is there a newer model that has no fallible tv cable, and uses some other means to remotely connect with the trans, perhaps with a servo motor at the tranny instead of the solid cable that can fall off? Better fuel economy? How new can I go?
FINALLY: who makes a good rebuild kit, manufactured to excellent tolerances? Don't need to pay a steep premium to go that extra step for racing performance, but I don't want crap pistons either. I'm figuring on new pistons, a full rebuild kit, while I'm doing this.
thanks!!
-Bernard
Anyone live in MD and plan on junkyard picking in the next couple weeks, btw?
Alright, thought this would be in the distant future, but I now find myself registered for the engine rebuilding class ...which starts in 2 weeks!
I have a 1990 colony park wagon, with the stock 302 lopo engine. It runs well: good oil pressure, good compression, runs smooth, though just about every seal leaks some oil ;-)
Now, it's an 8week class so it only makes sense to rebuild a different core and then swap it out with my stock engine in a day.
Before I run off to the junk yard this weekend I have some questions.
--Can you clarify the gt40 versus gt40p question? Did all explorers come with the gt40p heads, or as someone claimed, did the 1996 explorers have the gt40s? Which do I want?
I was told that the exhaust manifold and spark plug locations are different on the 40p's. However, if I'm pulling the exhaust manifold too, will it mate up with the rest of my exhaust? I might not mind a newer explorer engine with the gt40p heads if it fits right in.
--MILEAGE. I'm going to a junkyard, probably. Crazy Ray's has any engine, you pull, for $200. How high is too high? And, if someone destroyed their engine by say, running it out of oil, will pulling just the valve covers tell me enough? I don't plan on pulling pistons until I've pulled the engine, paid for it, brought it to the school shop, and started taking it apart 2 weeks too late to discover that it's wrecked.
Furthermore, my budget is really pretty tight. $200 for the engine, $500 for rebuild parts, $200 more for miscellaneous (better alternator for example, while i'm at it; maybe dual exhaust if it can be done on the cheap: or just the unforeseen).
No room in the budget to take it to a machine shop to rebore the cylinders and regrind a crankshaft!
Should I be looking for 100,000 miles or less?
Mostly this project just scares me: never rebuilt an engine, never even pulled an engine at a junkyard before, and I don't have money to waste if I pull a bad engine!
How new can I go? I've heard '95-'01. Did '01 have a distributor still? If not, is that OK, even better, than the old distributor model: so long as I pull a matching ECU? Is there a newer model that has no fallible tv cable, and uses some other means to remotely connect with the trans, perhaps with a servo motor at the tranny instead of the solid cable that can fall off? Better fuel economy? How new can I go?
FINALLY: who makes a good rebuild kit, manufactured to excellent tolerances? Don't need to pay a steep premium to go that extra step for racing performance, but I don't want crap pistons either. I'm figuring on new pistons, a full rebuild kit, while I'm doing this.
thanks!!
-Bernard
Anyone live in MD and plan on junkyard picking in the next couple weeks, btw?
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