Junkyard swap, covering the basics

[DaveyDaveDaveDave]

So Im throwing a junkyard L20b in my 620. Guys at the yard said it ran "good" and I used to work with a couple of them, so i believe it. With it out I want to do what I can to keep it "good" while I rebuild the original.  This is my DD. Its a 78 motor, barnacled with smog equipment, and was backed by an automatic. w58 head. common stuff.

 

Short plans for the JY motor are

front and rear seals

timing component inspection

oil pan gasket

thermostat

less emissions (different manifolds)

tune up stuff

VC gasket

water pump

 

Am I missing anything?

 

One other question, did they come with timing covers painted to match the block? This one is. Maybe some insight to previous work?

 

[Eagle_Adam]

timing covers were always aluminum, if painted a PO did it. Maybe you got lucky with newer timing stuff inside!

[ggzilla]

If you do all that, you'll probably void the junkyards warranty.

 

So start with a compression test. If it isn't 'excellent', return the motor.

 

Then start the engine while it is sitting on the ground. It can run 30 seconds without water. If it smokes, return it.

[datzenmike]

Keep the intake and just disconnect the EGR vacuum line from the carb to disable it. (not going to improve anything anyway) The earlier intakes have smaller ports and there is no gain from this. Keep the exhaust manifold you have as it's a round port and an earlier square isn't a good match.... in addition you would also have to change the single down pipe to twin pipe to fit an earlier square port exhaust manifold. This is a huge amount of work to remove the EGR just for looks.

[DaveyDaveDaveDave]

So the engine I pulled came from a truck with AC. Mine never had AC. Whats the difference in water pumps?

[Eagle_Adam]

the size of the fan clutch an f the fan its self 

[DaveyDaveDaveDave]

Soooo.... it doesnt really matter? Cause thats what it sounds like!

[Eagle_Adam]

nope, the ac WP will swap to any L4 motor - but you need a specific fan for the AC pump 

[cruznude]

You know I was going to do all you were saying also and after pulling motor and trans and re-doing all could be done,  I ended just removing the old Hitachi and replacing with a weber and making a block plate for the EGR valve.  Then after cleaning with Purple stuff and painting everything and this includes exhaust manifold, heat sheilds, and puttting all new rubber lines and puttting everything new in the engine compartment, it looks outstanding and the most work I did was putting it all back together and re-installing everything. Wish I understood this photobucket thing I'd show you.

[MikeRL411]

 Wish I understood this photobucket thing I'd show you.

 

It's covered in the "General Discussion" entry at the top of this site, it's the tenth pinned discussion item.

[DaveyDaveDaveDave]

^{My volvo should be back on the road end of the week, so I'll have time to doll it up the way I want. Might as well do it right, since I dont know howlong itll take me to get the original engine rebuilt. Ive done all the emissions delete stuff before, but I dont want to bother capping all the hard lines for the smog rail, egr and all that. But when the original is rebuilt, I want this as a known good spare. Or an excuse to buy a datto that needs an engine.}

 

^{So... new timing set (the chain was friggin sssttttrreeeeeeeeetched) and seal it up. The smog and egr can be done in two plugs and I can have the cleaner intake I want. I know, Mike. Wasted effort. I'll buy a new weber when the original engine is rebuilt. Until then, I have good stock carbs. We had sub freezing for a week here, this thing fired up and drove on three cylinders without complaining. I dont mind my stock carbs.}