Well I guess it is time to start the official build thread. Gotta have a place to keep everything documented, ask questions, and throw down random rants whenever the mood hits me.
Quick background on the truck. We (wife, daughter and I) drove about 100 miles to pick up this find, paid a whopping $375. Figured if nothing else it should be worth at least that in parts. It hadn't been driven in 2 years and had a flat. So home it came...
The down and dirty. As soon as we got it home the carb came off and got torn apart for a cleaning. Boy was it nasty in side that thing. So I gave it a good bath in the carb cleaning tank at work and gave it a once over. Unfortunately there are a couple of parts that look like they are damaged that I don't believe I can get replacement parts for. But that is fine because I was leaning on changing that setup anyway. A few days later I pulled the motor out and started taking it apart to access the rest of it. The head was shot, both of the rocker rods were broken in 3 places and the center cam cap alignment dowel holes are way out of round, and the cap inst flat on the mating surface any more. And here I was worried about cracks in the head from the air jet valves...... O yea and the cam bearing journals and balance shaft bearings aren't what they should be.
On to the bottom end. After getting the oil pan off and the front cover off I thought there was good news coming my way..... Almost everything in the timing cover looked good except for the obviously loose balance shaft chain. But of course it didn't stop there. After pulling the remaining internals out I found that the crank needs to be turned and there is a some strange wear in the number 4 cylinder so it would need a bore and hone...
I figured I would probably need a new engine when we purchased this little truck for its price. Now I just need to figure out what one to put in it. I want to keep cost of a swap to a minimum and ease of install would be ideal, the fewer "custom" parts the better (I don't count wiring as custom parts, it is too easy to modify). So I suppose if I had to put my options down on paper, they would be...
1. See if I can find another G54B that is in better shape than this one and build it up or drop the money to have all the work done to the block to make her new again. If I can I would like to up compression using a G52B head and possibly thinner head gasket shooting for about 10:1. Also one thing I want to do is swap from away from the carb and move to TBI at the bare minimum, MPFI if I can find a manifold that will work on the 54/52 head. Figure TBI from a dodge v6 or GM 4cyl and megasquirt.
2. Start junkyard assembling a NA 4G64 wide block using a DOHC head from a 7 bolt Eclipse or Talon (this should put the exhaust manifold on the correct side of the block for routing) I would also like to shoot for that 10:1 ratio here as well, Pistons from a newer Eclipse or Gallant should help with this. The only issue I have with doing this swap is the intake manifold but I think if I can get my hands on an intake manifold from an overseas Montero 4G64 I will be good there. For this one I would probably use an ECU from a newer Eclipse because I already have tuning abilities for that.
3. V6 from a Montero. Engine, ECU, Wiring and trans. Nothing fancy. Simply refresh the engine with new gaskets and drop her in.
If I had to put them in an order of what I would prefer to do it would be 3, 1, 2.. But in all actuality it will probably be going with a toned down option 1... (stock rebuild, non jet valve G54B head, and the TBI conversion)
So with all that said it is time to sit down with the wife and daughter and figure out what we want to do...
O, Yea... Pictures.......
The rocker rods
Cam caps
The damage to the head
The cam
The balance shaft chain... Can you say jump rope....
The pistons...
#1
#2
And last but not least the cylinders. Well Cylinder #4 anyway
Bookmarks