With no tap the best I could do was to clean the bolts as best as I could. I used a wire brush on them and they cleaned up pretty well. I didn't use the torque specs in the book for the rod caps but took the advice of Mike at the local machine shop. Instead of torque to tolerance, I just went with 45fp. It turned out to be about 5 degrees less of a turn than the 20fp + 90 degrees the book called for.


I had a few issues getting it back together.
1. I had the rod caps mixed and it put the crank in a bind. I made double sure I had all the caps in their proper places. The crank spins just fine now.

2. Since I couldn't get the gear off the front of the crank, I was wasn't able to take the oil pump off. That was not a huge issue until I realized that I needed to put gasket sealer on those contact points too before I bolted up the bed plate or I would have to tear it all apart again when it came time to bolt up the oil pump. Luckily I figured it out before I got too far.

I'm a little concerned that I put too much gasket sealer on the bed plate before bolting it down. Not too concerned though. I'm sure it will be fine.

I'm very happy to have changed the rear main seal. After inspecting it, I think this may have been the cause of my oil leak. Not 100% sure though.

I have a timing belt coming. I know I should change the water pump too but I don't want to spend any more on this than I have to. If this works, I won't have to tear the engine apart again until the water pump goes out, which won't destroy the engine. The timing belt however shows considerable signs of wear and would cause great damage if it broke.

I discovered a few Neon's near me and am looking forward to checking for parts. Besides the damage I've caused from this misadventure, the car also needs some cosmetic help.

I still don't know why the car was stalling. My first two choices are fuel filter and O2 sensor. I'm about half guessing on both of those but since their cheap and somewhat easy I figure it's a good place to start. Any help would be appreciated.



And yes I did put the oil pick up back on before putting the pan back on. I also used lithium grease on all the contact points. When I go to start the car for the first time, I'm going to unplug the coil wire and just crank the engine until the oil pressure comes up as a further precaution against unintended wear.

 

I don't know if this is a lot of wear but it looks bad to me.

 

I think that instead of focusing on the stalling problem, I should start thinking about how I can test
the components that I think might be faulty. I was going to change the
O2 sensor but have to wonder about the wisdom of that given that the
Check Engine Light, "CEL" hasn't been coming on. My original plan was to
change the fuel filter which on this car is back by the gas tank, then
see if it still does it. If it does, I'll check for codes and think
about how to test for what I need to know. I'll have more time to work
on it over the course of the next two weeks and hope to be able to make
some big strides towards getting it back together.

I wasn't getting a CEL prior to tear down so the problem must either be in the light, or in a component that wouldn't throw a code. To test the light, I should be able to remove a battery cable while the car is running, or maybe unplug the o2 sensor. If one of these cause the light to come on, then -----or maybe I could just turn the key to the Acc position and check all the dash lights at once

This is the point where I wish I knew more about the finer workings of the engine.

Would the o2 sensore flag an improper fuel mix condition?

Edit- No because it doesn't come on when a dirty fuel filter condition exist or the car is out of gas.

 

The old water pump

The block with pump removed

New rear main seal

The flywheel bolted on with it's crazy bolt pattern that only goes on one way.

 

The new dampener. I sure hope I don't ever have to take that bad bitch off. After putting this one on, I understood why the other one was so hard to get off. I don't understand why they didn't just use a cotter key?





I got the new timing belt, tranny, starter, and brace plate on today too. It's almost ready to go back in the car. Tomorrow I go to the j/y and see what I see.

I asked a guy at the machine shop if he knew anything about 1st Gen Neon's and he referred me to Rick's garage. If worst come to worse, I can always go talk to a Neon guru.

I have a three day weekend next week. If things go as planned, I just may be able to wrap this up.

 

I got down to the j/y finally. Out of the 5 1st Gen Neon's I saw there, I found no DOHC's. Weird.

I picked up the power steering reservoir tank, an EGR valve, and snagged a coil pack. I don't know if the coil pack will work from a SOHC but I'm gonna try it. It's just an experiment anyway. I have 30 days to return it. One Neon had a pretty complete engine. Nice

 

It turns out that the power steering fluid reservoir for a DOHC is not the same as the one for a SOHC and wont fit. Since all the Neon's at the j/y are SOHC, and since my local parts houses doesn't seem to be able to source one for a 99 Neon, it looks like I'll be doing some leg work tomorrow.

The rest of the reassemble is going well so far. I have the accessories on the front of the engine and have the belt on and tight.

I'm going to bolt down the motor mounts next so I can start on the exhaust. I might take a look at the wire harness before I bolt it down too. So far so good.

 

Got motor bolted down
gort wiring harness hooked up on back side of engine,
got injectors hooked up
got exhaust hooked up
got axles in

Need to put the wavy little washers on axles still

Need to buy,

oil and filter
ATF
gasket for tranny
RHD tie rod end
power steering fluid
power steering reservoir
TPS sensor
pcv valve with hose
brake cleaner