after the crappiest month of my life....

i got my car running. after pulling the block a second time and sealing it up right - i fixed the TOB. I have about 100 miles on the new engine now. it vibrates a little bit when it first starts up. i have to take in the fact that it has a prothane race mount insert up front and a mopar performance bobble strut in the back.

also - we picked up a 98 R/T in hagerstown maryland with 418,000 miles on the stock engine. no. its not a typo. and it runs and drives no problem and has never been rebuilt. its got some shake from outer tie rod ends and it needs a few seals but it doesnt drip any oil spots on the ground or burn any. some leaks out of the rear main at operating temp tho. body and interior are excellent. has a mark in one bolster where the guy got in and out of it, and a mark on the floor mat where is foot rested. thats it. body has one rear quarter panel dent. not too bad. guy had a 70's porsche and corvette in his garage. so i guess the neon didnt matter too much anymore. it was heating up - so he wanted it gone cuz he didnt wanna fix it.

wired the fans to a fuse so they're on all the time (since they werent working at all) and wala. 98 blue r/t enters the neon family.

 

Good job! What was the malfunction?

 

with mine? i didnt read enough on the .org i guess. silly me thought i could trust the FSM and the haynes manual. there was about a 2 inch section of the block - where it meets the bedplate - around the filter housing that needed sealant. the books said it didnt. so i didnt put it there.

hours and hours of work later - turn key and oil goes drip, drip, drip, drip, damn! i had to pull the engine completely apart again.
also my old TOB had a broken tit, so it just fell off the fork whn i took the trans. apart the first time. so assumed they just sat there. so i didnt clip the new one on right. so it just got all binded up and shredded in the pressure plate. so i had to pull it all, replace the bearing and clip it correctly. sounds easy now, cuz its done. now i have to baby the pedal till the piston rigns seat so it doesnt become an oil burner.

 

Well, with new rings, you should be driving hard. Very hard, so the rings seat good. Seek hot_neon on the big org for conformation on this. He is another wealth of information. My machinist friend says the same.

 

i heard the opposite. that to seat the rings you go easy on it for 500 miles?

 

I will give you confirmation. Dont beat on it. You would be stupid to break in new parts by heating them up and let 2 metal objects runs on un-even surfaces against each other.

 

I'll let you know when my 2.4L is done.