Very BAD!

I'm still waiting on valve springs (guess who ordered from, against all better judgement). So I'm digging deeper into the engine to make sure all will be ok for the first fire-up.

$350 car included problems such as:
- Warped head / blown gasket
- TB butterfly caked almost 1/4" deep in goo
- Intake mani caked in same goo as TB
- Intake valves caked deep in goo as well
- Holy exhaust
- The best one!!! Compression rings were oriented in a manner that had the gaps 1cm away from each other! Wonder what that compression was like.

Rings and lands look ok (just BAD alignment), so I'm cleaning them up and putting them back in with the rings positioned correctly. Cylinder walls check out, cross hatching looks great.

Rod bearings look perfect, along with the rod journals.


So far on my "getting it running stock list" of things purchased and *still waiting on*.
- Head machined / Valve job
- MP 60mm TB - Manifold machined to 57mm and tapered to 60mm to match (wall was too thin)
- ebay knockoff of a Tsudo N1 (fit was good)
- Megan resonator for cat delete
- ebay intake
- valve springs *still waiting on*
- Not yet ordered.... Timing belt kit from PD, mechanical conversion... old belt looked ok, but this is considered insurance... never know if the old was replaced or not.


Since I'm still waiting on springs, it gave me a chance to smooth out the roughness in the head casting, and in the process of gasket matching the manifold and runners.

My goal is not for HP right now, just to breathe life back into this motor that has been dead for over 2 years.

New pistons, rods, rockers / lifters, and cams will be later down the road when the turbo is affordable and I'm bored.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Sounds like a great start man, and I would probably go the same route. Clean out all the gunk in the intake tract, have the head seasoned and machined. New valves, valve seals, springs, retainers, rockers/lifters, etc. Make sure to get a nice MLS headgasket of course. Timing belt is also a great idea, and maybe consider the mechanical tensioner kit. I like that you went for the MP 60mm and port matched the mani. How do the lobes on your cams look? Another great mod you might want to consider if you have some extra cash to throw around may be an aluminum UDP. That along with the TB will show some good gains.

How are the spark plugs and wires? I would recommend you change them as well if you havent already. Also, considering how many miles are on your coil you may want to change that too. Have you looked at the injectors? Make sure they are clean and flow well. May want to get them professionally flow tested and cleaned as well. Finally, if you got the time, might want to test all sensors too. Oh yea, get a new PCV valve too.

Good luck!

Spark plugs dissapeared with the garbage a while ago... Wires look ok, but i have not checked them yet, nor the coilpack.

I would get a UDP, but I can't seem to find one on Howell, and the Ebay ones say they are good for both 420A and 4G63... doesn't sound right.

Mechanical tensioner from PD is a must for me, I do not trust the hydraulic one, I had a mechanical tensioner on my old 2GNT, and I loved it.

PCV valve was bad, all the hoses connecting PCV and such were cracked, so those will be replaced as well.

Cams looked great.

Good deal. I will say though, I do NOT recommend buying anything from Howell unless for some reason you enjoy waiting months for parts to arrive..

Originally posted by Ebster1085
Good deal. I will say though, I do NOT recommend buying anything from Howell unless for some reason you enjoy waiting months for parts to arrive..

I made the mistake of ordering from somebody else.

Finally found a pic of one of the pistons I pulled out with the rings set wrong...


A 2nd intake arriving on monday... ebay one was junk... didn't lose too much on it, so no worries. PD mechanical timing kit coming in monday as well! Now waiting on another member to send me those rockers and lifters I paid for.

Nice find