Great can it get any worse???

[ducky]

Well Long story short is that my 92 rt stealth n/a has been down for 2 years due to a blown diff. Well I get a used tranny in the car about 3 weeks agao and changed all the fluids and make sure everything is as it should be and with some issues with the tranny finally get the car moving and it runs just as it did 2 years ago which was great. Not a problem in the world. So I dump some more money in it and had a nice ss downpipe installed and new wheel bearings up front on both side and now it runs and drives like a dream.

My plan was to get a TT engine down the road and do an engine swap and go fwdtt but at the same time drive the car as is till I get the new tt engine done over and setup then set a weekend aside and do the swap. It just seemed to me as the easiest road to take for a tt upgrade simple and easy and almost just the same amount of money. So the day before yesterday I was driving down rt309 and got on it a little as I have been babying it for a 1-2 weeks and everything was looking fine. So I'm in 4th doing about 70 as i'm coming up as the road opens up and I drop it to 3rd and punch it. God I missed this car. The stealth pulls nice and I take it to about 95-100 as no one was really on the hwy. God i love it when you get that rush of adrenline going. Well I noticed that the temp started going up to about 3/4 so I let off it and pulled off the next exit to go to best buy to get a noise filter for the amps I bought (love infinity amps) so I notice that the voltage is ticking up and down as I'm stopped so I turn all the lights off and the radio off and it is still pulsing with the blinker signal. At this time I'm really listening know and notice a ticking coming from the engine. So I pull into best buy and by this time the temp is back to were it usally is which is the half way mark and the oil pressure and almost half way as well and looks good but holy shit the engine is starting to creat music of its own. As I rev the engine the ticking speeds up and goes with the rpms. I get out and man this is loud. I drive it home and all is fine with it but I do notice a drop in power it now seems like a 4cyl tempo and doesn't really pull hard at all. I get it home drain the oil no shaving and I pull the plugs and all looks good I look down into the heads and the top of the pistons look good with very little carbon and the plus look perfect for having 8000 miles on them. Ok I have done my homework for the last 2 days and read pritty much every tread on here about this. Half say spun bearing and half say lash/lifters.

Ok so every clip I listened to and watched seem to point me no were because the same sounds produced different problems and solutions to different ppl. So I took the valve covers off and I found one that I can sorta wiggle and the rest are solid. I ordered 99 lifters and had them over nighted to me so I can install them tonight.

To recap:
1. Loud tapping/knocking which tavels everywere in the engine but seems like its in the front.
2. Loss of power.
3. Drained the oil and no metal but smelled sorta like gas and the exhaust sorta smells of gas as well.
4. The tapping/knocking goes up in rpms and when the engine has a good load almost can't be heard. i.e. when doing about 40mph in fifth going up an incline. Seems like the harder the engine works the less the noise.

So if the lifters do nothing and I'm praying but I don't know. One part of my brain says ya it can be possable but that other parts is saying ya the engine is shot you spun a bearing and thats the end of it. Ok I can rebuild but that seems like a waste of time and energy on a n/a dohc engine with 161000 miles. So I guess i'll just say screw it and buy a engine/tranny/ecu combo.

My question is does anyone have any experance buying the engines on ebay ~$2699 + free shipping for a 92 jdm spec engine. The jdm engines that they "claim" has only 40,000 - 50,000 miles. I know its basiclly everything I will need for the swap except the intercooler and some piping. But I will also have to do a quite sizable tune up on the engine basiclly the 60,000 mile tune up and When I get it I can look over everything and replace anything that needs replacing before the engine goes in. Were can I get a bad vcu and would someone be willing to trade a bad welded vcu for a good one? Anything else that I may need? What else should I check out on the engine? Plus if these lifters are not a fix I can take them out and do a valve job on the new engine. Anyone have any suggestions? In the last 3 weeks I dumped more money into the car then what I can get the tt engine for so I really want to stick with the car as it has basiclly a new front end (Bearings, tierod ends, springs and so on). I also like the color which is a pearl white and is 1 of 72 in 92 plus the custom leather seats and everything else. If I sell I will basiclly get shit for it and will still need to buy a anoughter one tt/vr4 and I may just be getting someone elses headache. At least I know what I have now and what I have into it and there has to be a point when nothing else can go wrong, lol wait its a 3s something can always go wrong. Should I geta lsd insert before I drop everything in or can it wait? Should I upgrade the turbos while the engine is out and upgrade the injectors and of course i know I'll need a better gas pump and 1 last question. What questions should I ask about the engine before I buy it?

Thanks and sorry about the long post as this car has given me hell for the last few years of my life.

[ducky]

Ya it was indeed a spun bearing. I had to drop the pan in order to see the metal. So I went ahead and bought the engine. $2700 shipped. I also bought a 60k kit and now i'm just looking for an nice intercooler, the piping, downpipe, fuel mods(pump and injectors), and i'm looking for maybe some 13g's or 15g's to change the stock ones out since the engine will be out of the car.

Anyone have any other sugestions?

[Mike1992]

Shitty ordeal man

I'm pretty satisfied with my ebay/jdm imported engine/trans. I paid $2200 shipped and the motor is smoke free and the tranny shifts like new.

[jphilbro]

Any update?


Thanks,
Jamie

[RBY3KGT]

O snap old post lol, but interested in how this turned out as well.