Well, I bought a parts car thinking it had a DOHC for my '98 that needed a motor. Once I got the car, I found out it has a SOHC. I have a couple of questions:

1) What needs to be changed if I swap in the SOHC motor? I have a complete, running car, so I have all of the parts.

2) What is the difference in blocks? Can I put my DOHC head, wiring, ect on the SOHC block? Are they compatible?

on edit: Is the SOHC better than the DOHC, or the other way around?

Thanks for your time...

Josh

 

motors will swap fine but you will need the pcm swaped between the cars to, the blocks are the same, i think i heard somewhere here that the pistons are diffrent between the two so a head swap might be a no go but not sure, and the dohc has about 20 more horse but is more money to fix

 

the dohc pistons do have a kinda seat in them for the valves....otherwise the bottom ends should be the same....and i do believe that you will be able to do a head swap, i dont think that it will matter....otherwise the pcm should be the only thing as long as the years are the same...and the timing belt will have to be changed.......if you wanna do a complete motor swap, then just throw it in.....performance wise, the sohc is better from like 0-90 and the dohc is better from 60-120......i havent found much of anything to be more expensive on the dohc then the sohc.......but ive been around exhaust and gas fumes all day, so i cant exactly remember right now

 

I just did a SOHC to DOCH conversion last year - I thought they were going to post it as I documented it

The piston are different on the bottom end - and of course the PCM - but my car is already a DOHC and I took a SOHC block - changed out the Piston and it bolt right together with no issues.

I found you can find a SOHC every where - but it is getting hard to find a DOHC sitting any were around.

I am speaking from experience as I thru a rod thru my DOHC block - could not find another and took a SOHC block - bought the HowellAuto Bottom end kit and was up and running in no time!

I have also added pictures of the DOHC Piston - you notice it has 4 notches for the Piston were the SOHC did not have these indentions.

 

I have the Dohc and as far as parts being expensive there about the same until you come to things that you need to of, which basicaly seperates the two( and other things) things like camgears and shafts, and having it fixed will cost you more when your dealing with the headgasket, and parts that can be easily installed and uninstalled because of the room and location of the part

 

The DOHC will make more power if that is what you are looking for.

 

cobra if you dont wanna fool with swappin from a DOHC to a SOHC i might would like the SOHC if you want/can find a DOHC motor i could just a thought to throw at cha e-mail me if interested wikkidillusion@hotmail.com

 

1) Depending on the year, you may have to swap over a couple of sensors (pigtails are different). You will have to run the coolant temp sensor wire to the back of the SOHC head. You can use the DOHC PCM, you'll just run a little richer at idle and WOT.

2) The blocks are identical (except minor differences in the SOHC block). If you put the DOHC head on a SOHC block with SOHC pistons, you'll have ~8.8:1 compression ratio. Nice for turbo, sucky for n/a. Other than that, the head bolts right on.

The DOHC has much more potential than the SOHC hands down.

If SOHC's were better 0-90, they would have faster 1/4 times. They don't. They aren't.

Best of luck!