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Why I Have A "Spare" Motor

    One night my wife and I were out picking on Mustangs, Camaros, Corvettes, and any other V8 stupid enough to mess with our 99k mile Talon.

    We got home and parked the Talon at the end of the night and were letting the turbo cool down. Rather suddenly I heard a clack sound that was not normal and did not sound good at all. I shut off the motor immediately and checked under the hood. It was dark enough, so everything looked fine. I tried to start it back up but it would not run and it made some more clacking and wheezing sounds. I knew immediately what had happened, the timing belt broke. I got opinions from a couple of friends and we were all sure the valves were bent.
    The timing belt only had 39k on it and had been replaced by the factory as scheduled at 60k. After tearing the top cover off the motor I discovered that the timing belt was still intact, actually, it looked pretty darn good. But the A/C belt was literally shredded into spaghetti. The spaghetti worked it's way in through the timing belt cover and wrapped around the lower timing gear. This of course threw the motor out of time and let all the valves meet the pistons.
    I went to All Engine Distributing the next day and got the only 4G63 motor they had for about $1,200.00 with the core charge and tax etc. It came with all the accessories, alternator, power steering, manifolds, harness etc. It happened to be a Japanese market Gallant VR4 motor. It had a bigger turbo(16G), dual runner intake manifold (Cyclone), unique exhaust manifold, bigger (BP510) injectors and all kinds of other cool stuff on it. It took me three days start to finish to change the motor and all went quite well. It has been running like a champ ever since.
    This was a horror story to say the least. The A/C belt that caused the problem was purchased at some discount auto parts store that starts with the letter "K" a couple months earlier. It was properly installed and tensioned. I now only use Goodyear belts and have yet to see one even show a sign of wear. The Poly-V and Gatorback belts are great and I use them on all my cars.

Important Update: I am now convinced that the hesitation problem on my car was caused by a separated crank pulley. After talking to a mechanic friend I learned that even when separated a pulley can continue to function for a very long time. What appears to have been happening is that the pulley, although totally separated, would only occasionally slip causing a voltage drop or other anomaly that induced a hesitation in the motor. You can look at the pulley visually or try putting a timing light on the motor. The timing light should jump around all weird if the pulley is separated. It must have been the pulley pulley that "walked" and gave my a/c belt enough room to get into the timing belt cover and destroy the first motor. When my wife pulled into the driveway after the pulley totally failed the a/c belt was once again working it's way into the timing belt cover. I have heard several people on the list talking about a mysterious hesitation that no part swapping could fix. Look at your pulley. It may be a total waste of time, but it may not.

 The original motor will live again!

    The old motor was not damaged very badly. Bent valves and very small dings in the pistons were the only real damage I could see at first. Later on I tore down the motor and found one main bearing that was scratched a little. The motor has been to the machine shop and bored out for the 1mm over stock '95 pistons I purchased from DSS. 
    We put ARP rod bolts and main studs in the motor. I ported and polished the head. The balance shafts have been removed and all the rotating parts balanced. All of this should leave me with a very good foundation for a tough as nails 12 second daily driver.