JDM Engine/Trans Swap with CA Smog Pending

[transparentdsm]

id say marvel mystery oil or seafoam. wait and see what other people say though. put that in, run the car a little hard and get a few high revs for around 100 miles then do a oil change.

 

[oldman_tau]

You got pm

 

[fuel]

who supplied the engine? perhaps you could go back to them? also $3500 for an engine swap??

 

[91_427]

^^^ That's what I was thinking!

 

[transparentdsm]

depending where he got the motor from yeah 3500 sounds right. it was a full jdm swap, motor trans ecu and im guessing harness. that in its self can cost around 2200, then the time and labor at the shop cost around 1300, all the fluids(oil, coolant, gear oil, mt-90, clutch fluid) another 200 give or take a few bucks. then anything else that could have happened along the way to getting the motor in.

 

[acustark]

Quoting fuel:
who supplied the engine? perhaps you could go back to them? also $3500 for an engine swap??


$2000 for the engine and $1500 for labor/parts. Tranny needed to be dropped 2nd time due to issues with parts I supplied. The clutch was rubbing and would not disengage and no adjustment left. (Does anyone know why I can not use a ACT 2600 PP and xACT lightweight flywheel with the stock clutch?) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
I was thinking that I may be able to sell things from the old engine to offset some of the cost.
Some good news: My mechanic did not swap the turbo yet so I can see if it's sticky rings first. He did not like the thought of engine cleaner since he had experienced bad things in the past.
I fly out of town today, so I have to wait until Monday to see if it the rings.

Any more thoughts on what the tranny noise might be? It sounds similar to lifter ticking.

Thanks for all your help

 

[transparentdsm]

called it.

 

[belize1334]

Some JDM transmissions have a different final drive ratio that is incompatible with the USDM rear differential. I'd double check that so you don't destroy the center diff. Also, as mentioned the JDM engines had bigger injectors so you better make sure that you're running whatever was in the car before since that's what the chip is expecting.

 

[acustark]

How can I tell what final drive ratio I have on the JDM tranny?

 

[luis84one]

The serial number

 

[belize1334]

You get the serial number and then you cross reference it to known transmissions.

click

click

 

[fuel]

if you paid $2000 for the engine it sounds like it came from an engine importer and if that's the case you need to go back to them if it's smoking like that. $2000 doesn't buy you a smokey engine.

 

[acustark]

My issue with the engine is that it took more that 30 days to install.
Also, I need to consider all the cost of removal and re-installation.

 

[acustark]

Just got off the phone with the engine supplier and he mentioned a couple things.
1. The engine may have sat for a while and that synthetic oil can leave a film and moisture can adhere to it.
2. Bad turbo.
3. Bad valve guides.
4. PCV lines routed incorrectly.
He said he had the same issue and had to run the car for a couple days and til it went away.
He mentioned that a "Leakdown test" could pin point the issue. Is that true? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

[fuel]

leakdown test would check compression and see where it's going - ie into the cooling system, not going through the PCV system, exiting either valves through either manifolds etc. It wont tell you if your valve stem seals or turbo is bad. If you've swapped turbos and the engine is the same then you can rule that out. The PCV system on the 4G63 is very simple so hard to think that it's been routed incorrectly - at worst the PCV valve could be blocked but it wont cause a huge amount of smoking and things like the valve cover gasket or oil filler cap gasket would leak/blow out before enough pressure develops in the engine to cause so much oil burning.

I do agree that you should give it time for things to free up - perhaps there is a stuck ring or two which may take a few miles to come right. My money is on valve stem seals though - one or more is probably partially torn because it had been sitting for so long with the valves in one spot and no oil there for when the valves started moving again.

Either way, at the end of the day you paid $2000 for the engine and I think for that amount the engine supplier should be putting it right at their cost.

 

[FlyingEagle]

I had my 4g63t motor sit for two years, without any cranking. Never burned oil or puffed anything other than stoich,10.5:1 at WOT. It started up and puffed blue within a few minutes. Huge cloud behind the car and my parking areas.
I freaked, but said f*** it. Must be sweating seal in the turbo that relaxed, or seals let oil down the valves. I only ran Mobil 1 5w30 synthetic oil in the motor.
Put my foot on the accelerator, brought the RPM up slowly to 2500-3000 RPM and let it sit there for a few minutes.
Cloud got bigger, then slowly got better, and eventually was completely gone. Oil had to work out of the head, turbo, catalytic .. or wherever it was.
If the tech is willing to run the engine this way out back of the shop, it's a few minutes worth of work to see what happens.
I read most of the postings, but if the turbo from your last motor was used (and not smoking), then seals/rings, would be my thoughts.
Not the end of the world if seals are bad, and the importer is willing to cover the shop installing new ones, and a new valve cover gasket w/spark plug center area gaskets.
Swap the PCV valves between the motors, or better yet, spring for the $7 part anyways. These are items worth switching out now anyways.

 

[acustark]

Thanks to everyone for there input. I did some reading over the weekend and found that I might have a PCV routing issue. So my thought was to verify the routing and run the car without any cleaners to see if it would work itself out. Reviewing it with my mechanic I saw that the catch can was routed directly to both ports of the valve cover. The PCV valve was installed backwards into my old intake manifold. We checked to see if it was clogged and found a ball bearing sealed with epoxy. In other words at some point the previous owner blocked it off. We corrected the issue using the JDM PCV valve, used the stock routing and bypassed the catch can. I just wanted to know if that may fix my smoking issue. I then drove the car to work hoping that I would not get pulled over. The first block was pretty bad and over the next few blocks it seemed to be thinning out. By the time I had gone 2 miles I could not see any traces in the rear view mirror. After arriving at work (~8 miles) I parked and saw that all smoking was gone. I revved it hard a couple times and looked again with no signs of smoke. I don't know if it was the PCV routing or just residue and some things working themselves out, but I am extremely happy.
Now to route the catch can correctly and figure out where the noise in the tranny is coming from.

 

[transparentdsm]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif I'm glad everything cleared up, i wouldn't say it was the PCV 100% but could have contributed, I'm convinced it was just build-up in the engine from sitting and crap left over from the old motor inside the turbo and the exhaust that needed to clear out. and the trans noise is probably the throw out bearing.

 

[oldman_tau]

Nice to hear that!

 

[luis84one]

now how about you sell me your old block