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Engine rebuilds ideas


Johnnyboiranger22

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
226
Age
29
City
St Petersburg, FL
Vehicle Year
1991
Engine
2.3 (4 Cylinder)
Transmission
Automatic
Tire Size
215/75/14
So I have my engine all tear down and getting ready to pull it tommorow, What do you guys recommenced i do as an easy rebuild new pistons? turbo? v8 swap? and suspension upgrades?
 
So, you've already started the project but don't know what the project is??? Heck. See if you can shoe-horn a big block with blower and twin turbos into that thing. We'll watch.

This message composed solely of recycled electrons. Go green!
 
So, you've already started the project but don't know what the project is??? Heck. See if you can shoe-horn a big block with blower and twin turbos into that thing. We'll watch.

This message composed solely of recycled electrons. Go green!

Nope your assumption is accurately incorrect if you go take a look a my previous posts. that's plural. You will see I was diagnosing a oil pressure issue which ended up being a defective cylinder head cam bearings and had to to resend back, but at that point I already tore down the engine so i may as well do something interesting per say.
 
You could always rebuild to just stock spec. That's what I did. It's good practice. You could get turbocoupe factory forged internals and put those in as a cheap way to prepare for boost, because tbh that's what I'm kinda wishing I did.
 
You could always rebuild to just stock spec. That's what I did. It's good practice. You could get turbocoupe factory forged internals and put those in as a cheap way to prepare for boost, because tbh that's what I'm kinda wishing I did.

Thanks man, I think I'm going to do stock spec I already have rod bearings and everything and my neighbor gave me a trailer so I'm really ready to drive this thing now lol.
 
If you plan on keeping it a long time it needs to go to a machine shop. Every 2.3 I've tore apart needed to be bored, usually the #1 cylinder is out of round. If it does that's a perfect excuse for forged pistons. You might be alright having rod bearings already, the cranks usually stay standard and just need to be polished. Go ahead and double your budget for the build. Once you get it all the way down there's all sorts of things you'll want to upgrade. For instance if you want ARP bolts then the rods need to be resized and that's more machine work and more $. My last build I had a $700 budget and by the time it was running I'm around $1300 with me doing all the work. I could have gone completely stock for $700 but when you're in there, why not build it to last.
 
Agreed. No question that it needs to go to a decent machine shop for an inspection of the block and heads.
 
There is actually an industry term for an "easy" rebuild. Its called "done wrong".

Take the block, head, and crank to the machine shop, or don't do the rebuild at all. Also, keep in mind that if the block needs bored, you need new pistons. Go either forged, or hyperuretic. Also, take your connecting rods down and let them install them, doing pistons at home by yourself is almost impossible to do correctly.
 
Dunno where you are in this project, but given that you are doing the work because of low oil pressure, you should inspect or have inspected the cranshaft main and rod bearing journals. If they are withing tolerance, and not scored, get a set of STD sized(or if the crankshaft has been ground, the correct undersize. Old bearings would be marked, and a micrometer will tell you the diameter compared to stock grind.)
Get a good gasket set. If you want it to run reasonably well, don't bother with all the expensive parts. It will run well without them, and you are doing this for the first time. Messing up expensive parts on a first-time job is not encouraging. Do the job decently, but don't invest a lot in performance parts, until you are comfortable deciding what you want. No point in having an expensive set of pistons installed to putt around town.
My opinion.
Check the cylinders for damage & wear. Look at the cylinder walls for scoring, scratches, etc., along with checking for a ridge near the top. If you can still see the crosshatch machining marks and the ridge is minimal, measure for taper and out of round using a micrometer and a snap 'T' that you put in the bore, release, and then set. Remove and measure across. I do not have one, but you can pay a machine shop to do all that. Of course most will recommend boring, oversize pistons & rings, forged pistons, etc. You can get by with a standard set of most everything for a good while. No boring, no grinding, etc. But the journals and cylinder walls need to be in decent shape.
Remove the oil pump bottom plate and inspect the gear teeth. New pumps are not expensive, and if you find wear on the teeth, replace the pump. AND pickup tube/screen unless you can clean yours to bare metal, no gunk.(carb cleaner will do it, as will a 'hot tank', but new will work also. Get a good gasket set from a known maker.
I have done 'shade tree' work for a long time, and have had reasonable success without resorting to machine shop work in many cases. Most times, the cylinders are a little worn, and the rods/mains worn also. Just polishing the journals, and replacing the bearings got oil pressure back to normal. Cleaning the lands and grooves, giving the cylinders a light cleanup using a 'bottle brush', and replacing the rings, resulted in a 'freshened' engine that ran pretty well. Unless you plan on building a high performance engine, do a minimal job to see if you like the work and have an interest in dumping a lot of money into the engine. Anything you spend will NOT be returned if/when you decide to replace or sell. If I was told 'It has forged pistons, chrome rings, new full-floating wrist pins, Edelbonk bearings, Mullins oil pump, etc,', it means nothing. Who do you trust to actually put those things in properly? Who did the work? Are you sure they did not swap this block for that block? Performance parts are mostly hidden, and can be 'sold' even if they are not there, so the market for USED is very small. "was only driven short distances on Sundays by my aunt". 1320 feet distances? Who do you trust?
Sorry to disagree, but I'd limit by Buck$ invested in a first-time, and a 16 year old truck.
Do the job, using standard replacement parts, and see what happens. Sort of I don't care what the bores look like, replacing the rings, rods and mains should improve compression and oil pressure if nothing else, and that is the original problem.
I have no problem with your decision, either way. I just have had different situations where dollar$ were always short. I once did a re-ring of a Chevy overnight. Flipped the rod inserts as the uppers were more worn than the lowers, and replaced the rings after reaming the ridge. New head & pan gasket, and back together. Before it was 'fogging for mosquitoes' with blue smoke, after it didn't smoke at all. Back then, a set of rings was ~$12, gaskets ~$20, at 'Fleenors', a new "discount" parts store. Every other parts store sold at full retail. Anyway, it was a vast improvement, and it ran pretty well. Previously, oil was required at each fill of the gas tank. Cost was less than $50. My brother was really happy. No machine shop work was done, and we lapped the valves, as I remember, to get 'reasonable' sealing. We were not going to race a 235 Chevy stovebolt six with Powerglide. But I digress.
tom
 
I had the shop magnaflux the head and block too to make sure there were no cracks.

This is from the actual paperwork from the machine shop when I did my rebuild:

Valve Job 4cyl SOHC 8 Valve - $225
Plane 4cyl Head - $45
R&R Cam Bearings - $50
R&R Oil Galley Plugs - $15
Deglaze 4cyl Block - $100
Deck 4cyl Block - $100
Polish Crank - $45
OLM EPA - $12
Cam Bearing Set - $14
Valve Seal Set - $15
UPS - $8

Total - $630

I got new:
Full Felpro Gasket set
Head bolts (you need to because they're torque-to-yield)
Main bearings - No plastigauge

The machinist told me that based on how he ground the crank that I was going to be within spec for standard size bearings on the mains and journals, I trust the guy

Rod bearings - No plastigauge
Piston Rings - I verified the ring end gap w/ feeler gauge

I didn't check the pistons or rods at all since the shop said there was no indication of the cylinders being out of round or tapered, I cleaned the snot out of them with zep 505, put new rings on them, and put them in the block. I know it was stupid, but I don't have a micrometer. Hasn't blown up yet, over 5k miles.

Various Sensors
Flywheel
Clutch

Slapped the old cam and followers back in on top of that nice new valve job and bearings.

Overall rebuild cost around $1300 and it's my daily.

Got all of my parts off rockauto.

Just go to a good shop, and ask your machinist the right questions. Pick their brain when you go into the shop.
 

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