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Just picked up this super clean find

I

IKeelULotz

New member
So yesterday i traded a 96 civic DX for this beautiful 99 gtp. everything looks mint! car has a ton of mods but the engine is locked up. already has full SLP exhuast, F body front brake swap with braided brake lines, built trans with a cooler, and was told it had 383 hp and ran a 12.8 before it locked up. havent had time to really look at it, but the engine oil was a 2 qts overfilled and when i drained some oil coolant also came out. tried to just start it for a second to see what knocking the seller was describing and the starter wont turn over the engine.
 

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I'd just try turning the crank bolt with a big breaker bar and see if you can get it to move at all. Also drop the oil pan and look for metal shavings or chunks.
 
what size is that pulley? looks small for no intercooler, unless he was running it on e85.

first thing to do when the new engine goes in is to ditch that oil cap breather, its not helping any thing, its hurting you.

engine could be hydro locked, take the spark plugs out and try to crank it over. seems like a blown head gasket to me, if it was knocking, just find a new block.

if its got ported heads get em looked over at a shop and re use them if you can of course.
 
the pulley is 3.3 right now. the engine will rotate easily with my breaker bar, i took out the 3 front spark plugs and tried with the starter and it wont crank it. so i guess it has a starter issue? but i cant start it to know what is knocking to determine what shape the engine is in. i think he said something about it having stage 2 heads??? not sure but i do know he said something about the heads having work done to them
 
take rear plugs out, try to turn it. if it dont turn then something inside is really broken.

with heads and a 3.3 im sure it has a cam. you'll want to remove that inspect it real good.
 
pulled the plugs, rotated the engine and it was doing fine then it just stopped. it has to be hitting something, because i got it through a compression stroke and it just stopped. so its most likely a bent rod from a hydro-lock issue because of the head gaskets failing. so now i get to decide if im gonna pay a machine shop and redo the bottom end, or get a stock engine from the salvage and start over...
 
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ok im gonna pull an engine from the salvage and start from scratch. drive the car with the salvage engine for a couple thousand to be sure its a good engine then tear it back out and begin! Some things i want to do are the gen V eaton swap (already have the gen V eaton and lower intake), NIC cam, redo the cold air intake (the resident of the car decided to use it as a latrine), intercooler, and maybe a 2500 stall torque converter from zzp. any recommendations from there?
 
dont be a fool. do the cam when the engines out still. replace all gasket except for the heads, clean and paint it and then drop it in.
 
well the local salvage doesnt cover the engines (leaves hoods open) and gives only a 30 day warranty. rain, dirt, and all that jazz is very likely to get into the engine. also i dont know how to check an engine to know if its good. obviously if i rotate the crank and something keeps it from rotating its bad, but beyond that the only thing i know of to do is a compression test, but they take the batteries out so i cant use the starter to do the test...

and i dont trust salvages that already have the engines pulled, i got a trans from a place and it detonated in a week... i have zero trust in the local salvages

why not do head gaskets???
 
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if your going to a u pick place you look for a car that was crashed. that engine still runs. or if they pull the engines and have them tagged they test ran it before it came out.

open hood means nothing but the engines dirty. its water and dirt proof.
 
ok, ive read that a series 3 3800 has a better bottom end. also that doing a gt bottom end with gtp top end has a higher compression ratio. because the L26 is so common, would you recommend pulling that engine over a L67 and doing a "top swap" with L67 heads??
 
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if you guys wanted to know why it failed, so far ive found 4 reasons. #1 he foregot one of the blue lower intake valley gasekts. #2 he somehow got the 2 aluminum lower intake gasekts BACKWORDS. #3 oil was in cyl #2 intake valve port in the head. #4 he ran too small of a pulley without enough supporting mods and cracked cyl #1 in HALF! and the head gasket was blown, but that is robably from the cracked piston... and when i mean cracked i mean its missing a chunk and cracked in half! i havent even pulled the rear cyl head off but im sure more.... interesting? finds are to come. but i do know the "tick" was loose exhaust header LOL
 
I bet if it really had 380+ HP it would have run much better than 12.8's. I did basement 13's on 100+ hp less than that.

Looks clean though.
 
well i just got stuff for a genV Eaton swap for $80. my dad traded in his 04 grand prix, so his plans to top swap his car are gone lol. question is use the newer series 3 heads or my series 2 heads? i think i read somewhere they are basically the same but the sereis 3 heads flow a little better?
 
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