Well here is the story. I figure it will be apperciated on this forum to read something like this.

I started off with a 97 dodge neon highline that burnt and leaked oil, lost water like crazy and shifted like crap.

My daily driver is a lifted chevy 4x4 with a tired motor in it. I decided that it was time to build a little fuel efficient commuter so I decided to fix up the Highline. I made my way to the auto auction and won a 95 base model with a sohc and a manual transaxle. I fired it up and it ran and drove great. It was a total loss write off so it can't be re-insured. I decided that I was going to swap it into the 97 to get it back on the road.

So far I have both motors removed, the pedals from the 95 and the seats from the 95. (all this has been taking place in about 3 evenings) Today I am going to get the shifter out of the 95 and ready to go in the 97. I have both motors sitting beside each other to swap over the sensors from the 97 motor to the 95 motor. If all goes well the motor will be ready to drop into the 97 by the end of the weekend.

As for the motor out of the 97. It looks pretty good on the old motor stand and could be taking some upgrades in the future. We will have to see.

 

Good to hear it's coming along...how many miles on the 97 engine? You might want to replace the timing belt, water pump, and tensioner pulley while it's out on the engine bay.

 

not too up on the neon eng family. i understand changing the water pump, you have everything torn down and it's not that much more of a job to do the pump, it's about at the end of it's service life anyway. what's up with the pulley? i'd think the tensioner would go first? bad pulley casting or what?

 

The tensioner pulley is what I was referring to...or maybe I'm not understanding your question

 

i'm about to do my belt this fri/sat. have the belt and pulley. not worried about the pump 'cause i'll only have the car for MAYBE 6 months before i go state-side.

the pulley and tensioner are 2 parts.

my question is: is the "pulley" prone to failure or is it the "tensioner" that puts pressure on the pulley?

 

I'm not wuite sure which one gives out, but most people just replace both for insurance. Don't want to have to do it all again.

 

the bearings inside the pulley are the ones to go out.....i havent heard of the actual tensioner going out before

 

ITS ALIVE

 

Woot! Another neon back on the road

 

thanks to everyone that helped me out. It was the first multiport fuel injection vehicle I have ever worked on. Hell its the first 4 cyl. I have ever really worked on. It still needs tuning but the hard part is over.