life of my 97 neon

Do you have a project going or will you be starting a project here very soon and just want to keep a log of everything you and when? Share with everyone every step of the way what sort of progress you are making on your project.
08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:19 pm

so the car was giving me some weird overheating issue on shutdown and whatnot but long story short i have a minor blown head gasket and the compression from the engine is pushing air into my coolant system. this is the cause of my weird overheating issue as well as it running hotter than normal. so in a bit i get to go spend like $220 on a felpro head gasket kit, new head bolt kit, and a lifetime warranty water pump because it was the only thing that didnt get replaced when i did the timing belt when i put this motor in the car. and they are supposed to be changed together. plus its supposed to be changed at 100,000 miles and its now up to about 140,000 lol.




well went and got my gasket kit today. also got a new water pump and the new head bolts are made by felpro as well, so that was kind of cool i thought. after i got home i looked into the gasket kit and was surprised to see that it even came with new valve stem seals. which was awesome............. that bad part was i had to go back to town and get a valve spring compressor lol. so tomorrow i plan to wake up at decent hour and start tearing the car down. my goal is to hopefully, and i say hopefully get the car put back together tomorrow as well. i also picked up some feeler gauges so i can check and make sure head and block are both still square and not warped.




wow so i really need to update this................. short version............. nothing is warped from the blown head gasket, got plenty of pics from all the work. still not done by the way though. so i think i will just wait to post it all at the end. updating it on the neon forum as i go. heres the link if anyone wants to check it out before i get it up.

http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=397207



Removing or loosening that pivot bolt=imminent disaster.
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Another reason to ditch the hydraulic and go with a Litens mechanical tensioner.
http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=276308
Years ago when there was no other way except hydraulic, there were many reports of the pivot bolt grenading engines when people mistakenly loosened that bolt.

08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:20 pm

ok, heres some pics fo the work

this is why i originally thought my car just needed a coolant flush

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battery and 3.0 cai removed

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my setup in case it started to rain (which it did)

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anyone got a good fix for the broken battery box? seems i see alot of neons with this issue

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so would this be the diy shift mod? it just a spring that keeps tention on the kickdown cable. seems to work way better that its there.

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battery box removed, one fan removed

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other fan removed, intake manifold removed

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motor mounts off, crank pully off, timing belt off

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i have more pictures still but i need to upload them. i got the head pulled off all the way and i got all the valves pulled out last night. debating more and more on if i should block off the egr. think imight have while i have it all off though.

08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:21 pm

so i dont think i could get any luckier. called junk yard and they had 2 options. one was for an 03 but didnt know if it would work. if it did he said i could have it for $30 since the head was already pulled on it and it was right there in open. the other was for a first gen, but it was a good assembled engine he would have to pull it out of so he said $45 for that one. so i drove in to look at the 03 and guess what :) its a mechanical style aftermarket almost brand new. some surface rust that will come right off by the looks of it and thats only because theres no timing belt cover on it now. but i still get it for $30, so ill post a pic of it later just so you guys can see the light surface rust. im going back tomorrow to pick it up.

08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:22 pm

out with the old

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getting ready for the new

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in with the new

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the evil pivot bolt that apparently is never supposed to be touched.................

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just replaced the pully not long ago.......... can you tell?

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08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:24 pm

you know what they say..... a clean engine is a happy engine

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head bolts all loosened

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head pulled off. i think cylinder 4 was the leak. not by much but worst of the options and its like you can see a small gap in head gasket marks.

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cylinder 1 on left, 2 on the right

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cylinder 3 on left, 4 on right. notice how 4 is the only one remotely dirty compared to others? only one with dirty intake valve as well.

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not 100% sure but i think this is the head side of the head gasket

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meaning this should be the block side of the head gasket.

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08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:25 pm

how she sits waiting...... rag covering block with valve cover on top holding the old head bolts

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bedroom mechanics going down now lol. sucks not having a garage lol

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tearing down head for new valve stem seals

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all valves out

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white soot build up in manifold and covering 02 sensor? what causes this?

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heres how i found the litens tentioner in the junkyard on an 03 neon

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gotta make sure she stays dry with no head on car.

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all back together valve wise atleast

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prepping egr block off brackets to be made

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08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:26 pm

picked up this chrome fuel rail a while back in the junkyard. was always to lazy to put it on till now. i figured since i got new injector o-rings why not install then along with the chrome fuel rail at the same time.

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so the pully spins freely but after a little light sanding and some pb blaster it looks decent again and spins amazingly.

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look any better? lol

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rough cut done on the egr block off plates

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08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:27 pm

intake side of egr block off done and installed with new gasket. also cleaned the throttle body which was black. its now spotless......

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head side of the egr block off done. just need shorter bolts now.

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fit great with the new bolts. other then the plate wasnt thick enough so it bowed leaving a visible gap on its own. heres how it looked though

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so here from left to right is the egr, egr block off plate, gasket, head

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bolts together nicely now. ill get a thicker flat plate made one of these days lol

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rear timing cover trimmed for the mechanical tentioner

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08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:28 pm

oooohhhhhhhhhhh shinny................ new head gasket for the win :)

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starting to look like an engine again

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i spy with my little eye........... an egr block off plate :)

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now i see why the sleeve needs cut down............. just had to break the nut free

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and cut down sleeve now

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so shes pretty much ready to go back together now the rest of the way

08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:31 pm

tensioner installed

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and for all little conversations missed check here.

http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=393328


and here

http://traxxas.com/forums/showthread.ph ... my-97-neon

FER24NEON
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Posts: 132
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:06 am
Location: Davison MI

Post by FER24NEON » Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:55 pm

That was a big update! good shit!
1996 Neon 2.4 swap
1981 Chevy C10 355

08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:10 pm

yeah its been awhile since i mostly just post up on the big neons.org forum lol. i also got rid of the 96 coupe that is in my sig and had a couple other vehicles come and go as well. but now i have a 96 sedan that has a 2.4 swap :)

FER24NEON
1GN Registrant
Posts: 132
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:06 am
Location: Davison MI

Post by FER24NEON » Wed Oct 03, 2012 8:36 am

Sweet! i also have a 2.4 swapped sedan. I'm also on neons.org haha.

I like posting on all forums. It would be nice to get this forum and such more activity. I hate watching forums die lol.
1996 Neon 2.4 swap
1981 Chevy C10 355

08kgraves
1GN Registrant
Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Tue Oct 16, 2012 6:20 am

yeah, i think its cus theres just so much more on the other forum plus people with more than just 1gn neons can easily browse more in one spot.

northern
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Posts: 119
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 2:06 pm
Location: Midland, Tx

Post by northern » Tue Oct 16, 2012 7:30 pm

Nice progress, on both your cars.
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