Well thanks to Fotown I finally got my hands on some 10.5:1 pistons.




Ended up going .020 over to give my machinist some room to work with the spare block I gave him. These were the last of what I needed to build a bottom end. Monday Im taking these to the shop so Carl can bore my block out. Hopefully more pics/progress to come.

Nice! +1 for another higher than stock comp build!

Is it monday yet? :P

I know right! Its killing me. While my block is getting worked on Im going to start the time consuming task of unhooking all my MS wires and ready the motor for transplant.

Well heres the progress so far. I must say, Im about to pass out from all the excitement. All Im waiting on is rod bearings, gaskets, and me to get my motor out of the car.






On that note, is there anything I should know about assembling a 420A lower end that I might miss? I know I need some anerobic sealant for the bedplate, any special kind at that?

double post

Mopar Bed Plate Sealer. anaerobic sealer part # 04773257. Don't forget that stupid O ring that goes in the bed plate also.

If you got the mains, then get that crank in there! Then you can do crankseal (you can actually do that when you do bedplate) and oil pump and other stuff. I use Permatex anerobic (just because of access).

Im not sure if I have anaerobic gasket maker on my bed plate, when I was installing the motor it was black(Not sure what the shop used) But good build Colby I cant wait till its done!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rebuild-Dodge-Neon-Plymouth-Mitsubishi-2-0-2-4-420A-Engine-Video-DVD-/380413734773?pt=Motors_Manuals_Literature&vxp=mtr&hash=item58926cef75


I think this would help you or others. In case you forgot anything during the rebuild. Seller has good rating and fast ship. Bought one last month, received it three days later, even though it said like 5-10day delivery. He used that sealer bullet mentioned. In the video, he tears down an stock rebuild of a 1997 sohc neon engine but similar to the dohc.

Does it cost 40 to 50 to have a head milled/deck an valve job, from a machine shop.

Nice, block are you sure you really want to get that dirty.

My head work was like $60. And I thought the same thing, this is too nice to work on now lol.

Well, managed to peel myself away from the tv long enough to do some work on my motor.

So you spent 15 minutes away from the TV? Damn separation anxiety

Looks good so far. Did you plastigage the bearings to check clearances?

Originally posted by SilvrEclips
Looks good so far. Did you plastigage the bearings to check clearances?

Yeah, I ended up with .0015 for all the main bearings using green plastigage. Rebuilid in wiki says between .001-.0023 is good so Im happy.

Originally posted by bullettdsm
So you spent 15 minutes away from the TV? Damn separation anxiety

It was like 4 hours lol. First motor build and first time using plastigage!

Originally posted by 740 turbo brick

Originally posted by bullettdsm So you spent 15 minutes away from the TV? Damn separation anxiety

It was like 4 hours lol. First motor build and first time using plastigage!

Heh heh, you know I'm only bustin' balls. Like I always say, it takes as long as it takes for stuff like this. Taking your time is WAY more important than trying to match somebody's quoted fastest time.

Todays progress

What brand torque wrench are you using??

Also how much did the block work cost??

Good job bro looks good so far..don't forget to remove the extra anaerobic sealant that oozed out :)

It was a harbor freight torque wrench, but its better than guessing. Also to bring in a stripped block, blasted, cleaned, bored, honed, rings ground, pistons mounted to rods, crank polished, it was about $300.

And thanks for the heads up, yesterday I wiped all that off and painted it black with a few coats of engine enamel. Looks pretty nice now. About to try to mount my oil pump and pull my motor out of the car.

Got my block painted, Im happy with it, came out pretty nice. Oil pump installed, and progress on the motor pull.

Finally got the bastard out, taking the head to get checked at the machine shop and then the assembly continues.

Woah, woah, woah....where'd you get that header? It looks pretty nice. Is it OTS or custom made? I'd like to get one for my 2.4 if there is enough oil pan clearance.

Btw, love the motor build. Can't wait for you to fire her up.

That, my good sir, is an OBX header believe it or not. Its a direct copy of Greddys 420A header. I love the design, alot better than some of the ebay 4-2-1s out there. Its as close as Ive seen to an LTH.

Pics! Almost break in time!

So Close!

Take your time buddy. Looking good.

Got it started up, took a quick vid of the 2nd time it was started. At first I was getting worried, it took a min for oil pressure to build up. Solid 75-80 psi when first started though. Not particularly happy with how its idleing again, but Ill post a video of that if I cant get it tuned out.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OrsVM2IJec8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Nice. The fun begins........

Well after driving around for a few miles Ive found out I have the same problem I did before the rebuild. Good compression in every cylinder except #3, which had 70 psi. Im thinking either theres something wrong with my cams or the head itself. I noticed when I first started it, it had that healthy starter pulsating sound. Now its back to actually being able to hear a weak cylinder as it cranks. On top of that, I cant get the thing to idle right. It will oscillate no matter what I do. Im getting very close to just selling every car and part I own and buy a bike.

Do a leak down test. That will tell you where your issue is.

Did you find out the problem?

Originally posted by fast420a83
Did you find out the problem?

Not entirely sure what the cause was, but after i took the head off my machinist and I decided to take a few thousanths off the valve stems of cylinder 3. It worked so..... *shrug*