These are a few pics from when I had to take my
motor all apart. You might ask why I had to take what should be a
good motor with only 12,000 miles on it and take it apart. O.K.
here it is but it is a long story.
It all started out at work. One of the guys I work with had never
seen just how fast my car is with nitrous running. So I told him
that I will lay on it when I get up to the highway. We where
coming down the gravel lane and I firgued I would run out the
nitrous in the lines and low the pressure to optimium. But I didn't
want to throw gravel all over the side of my car so I figured
that I would put it in 3rd or 4th and push on the nitrous and it
wouldn't throw rock everywhere. About the second that I stepped
on it the car started shaking. So I stopped becuase it died and
tried to start it again but it wouldn't. So I called my dad and
we towed it home and I took out all the nitrous stuff and taped
up the hole in the intake hose. I called my local dealership and
had them come and get it and work on it. I called them the next
day and they said they didn't know what was wrong with it. They
asked my if I had put nitrous on it (they must have seen the hole
in the intake hose) I told them "NO", they kinda gave
my a funny look and said "O.K". I should have known
then that I was going to have to pay out of my pocket for repairs
but I was hoping that the warrenty might still pay. I come back a
few days later and they said that they still don't know that is
wrong but they are just going to put it back together. So I
called them back later that day and they all of a sudden know
what is wrong with it. They said that the piston rings were brown
out. They wanted $4,500 for a short block to fix it. I am not
rich and don't want to go in debt for something that I can
probably fix myself. So I payed them $506 for doing nothing for 2
weeks. The voided my warrenty too.
I took it home and started taking it apart. It took me most of
the weekend to get it all apart. I thought that I wasn't going to
find anything and I didn't until I took the pistons out. The
pistons looked fine from the top. When I got them out everyone
was cracked in the same place. So yesterday(march 19,99) I went
into the dealership and ordered $798.11 worth of parts. I got all
new pistons, rods, rod caps, bolts, and piston rings. I get my
parts monday and will start putting it back together that night.
I would like to do some performance mods. while I got it all
apart but $506 plus $798 about emptyed my bank account and I need
some money for any tools I might need when putting it back
together.
Now that I have thought about it, it makes sense why the pistons
broke. It is not the motor's falt but only my stupidity. I was at
too low of an RPM about 1,000. At that RPM if you add 70hp of
nitrous you are really adding a massive amount of fuel/air to
each cylinder. At 3-6000RPM that 70hp of nitrous is being cut-up
into lots of smaller peices, at low RPM you get much more nitrous
in every cylinder.
Update:Well it's April 11,99 and my car has been up and
running for about a month. I've put about 3,500 miles since the
repairs(2,600 of that is when I went to Flordia last week.) It
has been running good with no problems other than the alt. belt
was breaking but I fixed that problem.
Update: Well it's April 23,99 and my car F-ed up again
today. Back to driving my VW Rabbit Diesel with 207,000 miles. I
can't spend $1000 ever month on pistons and one of these times I
not going to get lucky and just crack my pistons.(more soon)
Update:(May 1, 99) I took off the oil pan today and to my
suprise it was full of metal. My 2nd piston broke into thousands
of little pieces. It scarped the crap out of the bottom of the
cylinder too!! I don't know what to do now. I'm about ready to
give up on neon's all together. My brother has a 85 Feiro that I
might buy and fix it up. But the car is only 6 months old and I
have about 4 1/2 years of payments on it.....
Update:(May 29, 99) Well I haven't given up on the neon
yet.... I am now running it on three cylinders because there was
too much damage to cylinder #2. I am trying to get up the money
for a single cam short block ($1300). I am almost certain that
there is no difference between single can block and dual cam
block except some sensors and the pistons.
Update:(Sept. 27,99) Well it's been several months now
that I have ran my car on 3 cylinders. And it is holding up great!
I have put a wapping 20,000 miles on it since May. That is
increadable! I never thought it would last over 5,000 miles and
it still runs great. It still has alot of power, idles good and
gets good gas mileage. I am getting my new motor here in October.
I can wait!
Update:(Nov. 12,99) I havn't got the new motor yet, but am
still having fun in my neon. It is still as faster than alot of
cars. I've now put over 23,000 miles on the car as a 3 cylinder
setup, I am amazed that it is still running. It runs as good as
the day I put it back together.
Update:(Dec. 28, 99) Car still running great. I've now put
nearly 27,000 miles on it since it has become a 1.5 litre 3
cylinder. As you probably noticed I put alot of miles on my car.
Update:(May 24,2000)Well the 2.4L DOHC motor is kicking ass. I am keeping the 1.5L as a back-up, you never know when you will need a spare motor. And I'll probably need it sooner or later.
Check out how I set it up as a 3 cylinder motor at the link
below.
Infomation
about my 3 cylinder Neon
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