did i get slipped a turbo engine, minus the turbo?

[cody93]

well, heres that truck i bought for 600$ last year for parts, new battery, distributor and tires... the ad said it had a 2.0 in it... plans changed and now i want to get it road worthy but it ran poorly. i was certain it was the carburator so i bought a weber 32/36, pulled my intake manifold off and found out the head is D-port like an efi engine, so today i get a rebuilt 2.0 head to match the manifold and noticed something when i started pulling it apart.

picture 2 shows the extra nipple found on turbo blocks, the others show the roller style head. im about to pull the head and im betting there those low compression pistons in it.. well guess im SOL. didn't want a turbo engine.

this is what the engine bay looked like when i got it.

so now what am i gona do to get this thing running decent? i have a fresh 2.0 head with intake and rebuilt weber carb and a header. will the increased compression from the 2.0 head counter affect the 8:1 pistons? if its not enough, could the head be milled down a little more to work? shooting for 9.4:1 compression

 

[Hagan]

Does it have turbo pistons?

 

[86 slo-vo]

It's a non turbo block I can tell you that much. The oil drain is not drilled and tapped.

 

[cody93]

got the head off, nope, just regular 2.3 pistons, not the turbo ones. i thought only the turbo blocks had that nipple on the side, couldn't tell for sure if it was a plug or part of the block. the engine looks like it was dissasembled before from what ive seen.


the head looks like the ones off the turbo motors, same combustion chambers, not sure if the N/A heads looked like the turbo ones.

 

[Scrambler82]

You are missing four cylinders though !

 

[4b316]

What does your bore measure?2.0 is a smaller bore than the 2.3

 

[Mikel89us]

the turbo head and the 4 plug NA heads are the same head.

 

[4b316]

Mikel,are you saying some turbo heads came with roller cams?

 

[Mikel89us]

No im saying the head is the same, not the cam. I dont know what cam the Turbo motors had.

 

[Mark_88]

this is what the engine bay looked like when i got it.

You may find the block is the original 2.0...

If you pull the head, check what gasket they used...if it was an after market then they just changed the head...otherwise the PO may have just plunked a whole 2.3 in there...

I guess the question would be "is it running now"?

And another one would be "why not just do a complete rebuild..." I know the cost can be prohibitive, but my thinking is if you're going to do it and you have a spare...go for the whole shot...that way you won't be second guessing and worrying about what parts are the oldest and may need to be replaced...

Buy lottery tickets...lol

 

[cody93]

its 2.3 block, cylinder bore looks good, has N/A pistons after all. the engine had good compression before i tore it apart. just got to drain the oil and flush out a few small bits of old gasket that fell into the oil passages.

 

[Mikel89us]

I would do a rebuild. I dont ever put used engines in my vehicles. If i dont know what the bearings look like i wont throw it in. And a full rebuild kit will run you about $250 from northern auto parts, and 100-200 for the cyl boring depending on the shop. Sounds like a good deal to me.

 

[cody93]

if i had the cash and time id replace the whole dang engine, wich i probly will, get an old long block and rebuild it and drop it in when the old 2.3 clunks out. the engine wasn't pulled apart from physical damage and doesn't show much signs of wear so im just gona cross my fingers, its a beater so...