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Ha, that's like the low milage JDM motor I got.

First red flag was it had brand new head gaskets.
Second was different spark plugs on one head vs the other.
Third was new style brown cam seals on one head and the other had the older black ones.
Forth was timing belt was off a couple teeth.

Final result, no start, 0 compression on all cylinders.

I got them to admit they pieced it together to try and make a good motor. It wasn't even a JDM, it was out of a car they swapped a motor into.

jrobe wrote:Ha, that's like the low milage JDM motor I got.

First red flag was it had brand new head gaskets.
Second was different spark plugs on one head vs the other.
Third was new style brown cam seals on one head and the other had the older black ones.
Forth was timing belt was off a couple teeth.

Final result, no start, 0 compression on all cylinders.

I got them to admit they pieced it together to try and make a good motor. It wasn't even a JDM, it was out of a car they swapped a motor into.

Wow, that sucks. This is definitely a JDM motor from what I can tell. The heads and block match. The turbo definitely seems to be a slap it on there ordeal. It has decent compression and leak down on one side. But seems like someone partly disassembled it at some point. I contacted the seller and they offered to refund me $400. I paid ~1k shipped for it. I think I can get a valve job and new gaskets for less than $400 and maybe a replacement turbo. Just seems like a much bigger hassle. Also the timing belt seems good, but the tensioner is dead, so it wasn't far from throwing the belt a few teeth.

I think I am going to try to get them to give me $500. Any thoughts on rebuilding the turbo??

Well got a refund of $450.

Checked out the turbo, it is a TD04L 49377 04100



Think I am going to tackle the rebuild on this first. Seems like a rebuild kit is around $50. Not too bad.

Ordered up a trans from KCR.

I ordered a 73 and later case with 72 nose cone, super street plus which has the super diff, H/D Side cover, welded 3/4 gears, steel forks, 4.12 klingelnberg ring and pinion, 3.78 super beetle first gear, chromoly pinion retainer, and a 0.82 4th gear (freeway OD).

Hoping it will last for a little bit.

Rebuilding the turbo was surprisingly easy. The only bastard was the 3" C-clip snap ring that holds on the compressor volute. You really need an industrial size pair of lock ring pliers for those.

what rebuild kit did you get?

standard internet kit with brass heat plate, brass bearings, new seals and seal plate and small parts. I think it costs about $35

Well got my trans from KCR today. Also ordered up some new CV shafts. And got a disk brake kit from AC industries with drop spindles for the front.

At some point soon I should have some time to work on this.

I did start working on the engine. Pulled left side head off that had bad exhaust leak down in one cylinder. Got lucky and all it needed was some corrosion and gunk cleaned off of the exhaust seats. Put it back together and the exhaust valves sealed up well.

Wow, got away easy!!

I'll be following your build, your a couple steps ahead of me.

Actually got time to work on my harness. Just need to get the pan together to put trans and motor in to test

jrobe wrote:Wow, got away easy!!

I'll be following your build, your a couple steps ahead of me.

Actually got time to work on my harness. Just need to get the pan together to put trans and motor in to test

Sounds like you are pretty far ahead of me I am just collecting parts at this point. The car still has the running 1600 single port in it... slowest car I have ever owned by a lot. I don't think I will have time or garage space to work on the car until next winter, so I am just going to focus on redoing the engine in the mean time.

Awesome, can't wait to see how this turns out. Sucks about the motor though, hopefully it works out.

Well I got the long block put back together. Leak down on the cold engine was 2-8% tested at 50 PSI. So pretty good.

Now working my way through all the crazy fuel, vacuum, and coolant hoses and getting rid of as much stuff as I can.

This fall/winter the bug will go back in the garage and work will start.

Meanwhile here is the engine with new timing set and new (thick style for EJ20G) head gaskets.

I do have a question about the IAC and PCV systems. My plan was to use a small breather filter on each valve cover and connect the pcv valve on the intake manifold to the crank case vent. That way under normal operation manifold vacuum draws blow by from the crank case and fresh air in through the valve covers. Under boost/pcv closes off and the breathers let out blow by gasses. For the iac i am just going to stick a filter right on it. I am going to use a mass air based microsquirt system... So i am not concerned with metered vs unmetered air.

Does that all sound right to you guys?


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Will the crank case breath under boost ? Are you plugging both the crank case vents on that 'Y' ?

So the "F" or "Y" fitting was gone from my engine to begin with and the PCV wasn't hooked up.

But the crank case should vent through the valve cover breathers under boost. There are two fairly sizable oil drain backs from each head to the crank case.

Makes sense right? This is the way I have always run the PCV system on small block fords, just making sure I am not overlooking some oddities with the subaru motor.