Gogo's Tent, Got a motor. Lots of work to do. Options

[H8TRAIN]

Latest Update: Engine bay ready. Looking for an engine.

Update: Got engine out. Must be beginners luck.

Gogo has a tent.





It's not much but I'm lucky Gogo even has a tent. By this stage in my life I probably could have a garage with an S2000 or a restored 300ZX in it. But I don't. Life's not a fairytale and we don't always get what we want. I've never had a garage of my own. One day I will. But I'm tired of waiting for that day to stop talking cars and start doing cars.

As luck would have it, I currently have access to a sideyard! It's not too level but it's paved. And there's a small toolshed. I can put a damn tent up, scatter some tools about and it'll be like a garage. Close enough, anyway.

So all I needed was a car to start on. I chose a Toyota Celica because it was in Sega Rally Championship back in 1995 when things were good. I found one only 100 miles away with a freshly blown motor. I rented a car dolly and towed it home. This the first time I have ever dragged a car behind a truck. I was nervous about every step of it because I had never done it. After learning that is quite impossible to back up a tow dolly, my friends helped me push the Celica up and into the sideyard.







It's a 95 5spd GT. I named it Gogo. And put up a harbor freight portable garage - I like to call it a tent - over Gogo.







I have never changed an axle. I have never changed a clutch. I have never inspected a distributor. Never used a timing lite, or a bearing puller. I am a complete novice mechanic. I hate that. The point of this project is to change that. It's working already. For example: I didn't know what a wiring harness was or what one looked like. That changed quickly on Friday when I ripped the ugly mother****er out with my own two hands. Now I know.




6GC, I'm very impressed with your knowledge and your community. I joined the site because I want help. Me and Gogo both want your help.




This post has been edited by H8TRAIN: Jan 20, 2014 - 10:50 PM

[H8TRAIN]

Today I took a trip to a garage that deals in well jdm engines. It was a healthy distance and an equal amount of fuel in a borrowed f-150. I intended to buy a beams. Either a redtop set or a greytop. Curt phone conversations with the owner had prepared me for some "get what you pay for" customer service. In this case the price was low.

The place was a mess. Heaps on heaps of scat everywhere. Car's guts and severed bits all over in tangles and stacks. All beyond filthy of course. The owner is, as expected, slightly warmer in person than on the phone. Like icy-asphalt compared to icy concrete. He was a new man after clarifying my desire to get rid of some cash and get the hell out of his nasty shop. There's a place for shops like this and I was not offended. Making deals in cheap dirty places is not enjoyable (to me) but at least it goes quickly.

Unfortunately, I found the engines themselves to be in sad condition. I inspected the lone redtop (not the 3 he told me a week ago. nor the 2 it dropped to days later). The motor was ugly. Signs of spending time in a pile of motors. Perhaps not upright. Signs of significant time spent outdoors. Broken plugs. Surface corrosion. Plenum all banged up and dirty inside. Rust in waterlines. Oil everywhere. Oil in the plenum. Some kind of organic matter occupying much of the engine. This mysterious dust smelled like hay. Hay like a horse eats. After he ate it. And after the rain washes the brown part away. I was born on a ranch I know this smell. Not worth haggling over. Much less putting in my car. One of the 2 greytops looked nice from afar, but given the way merchandise was treated in this place, I was not going to waste anymore of anyone's time.

Quick question. The 100,000km sticker on the timing belt cover. does it mean the service is to be done or the service has been done?

So I'm headed home into traffic with no engine! And then Mr Mandela died! Mr Mandela's death so upset me that I stopped at McDonalds and ate a McRib about it. Not as an act of mourning but as the thrashing of a helpless and normal man trying to fill the void left by a Heroic Giant with limited edition suicide food. I took a wrong turn on the way home being distraught with the state of leadership among our species. I pray there will be a really good movie about him every 10 or 15 years, lest we forget what a statesman could be and should be. It took a long time to get home.

As a first timer learning the ropes, I would advise a would-be swapper that obtaining an engine may not be the smash-and-grab affair that it appears when internet window shopping! I have the luxury of time so I can laugh it off. If this was a daily driver I'd be riding the bus for weeks now!

I'm stuck in neutral until I get an engine. My options, as ever, are open. I'd like to discuss one engine in particular, tho. The 3sfe and specifically as an alternative to the 5sfe. These are persistently available for low low prices. In fact, the motor I pulled out of Gogo is a 3sfe. It seems to be reviled as a downgrade but I'm not so sure. The longblock appears to be nearly identical to the 5sfe. Bore& stroke, compression differing. Sometimes flywheel bolt pattern. If you are going to turbo either motor then I don't think there's really that much between them. The major caveat being that the 5s has a lower cr and will take more boost. But at the 10psi level, I'd reckon it's six of this, half dozen of the other. Of course the 5sfe has the extra cubes, but that does not make the 3s useless. I think if you want 200hp, either motor will do it. Discuss?