Offroad-Express

After ingesting water into the engine the compression in cyl. 1 and 2 were down. Bent conrods were suspected so I sourced some 2nd hand conrods from Benorange and a gasket, ring and bearing kit from the states and set about rebuilding the engine. Here are the pics:

Before.


Engine out.




Engine bay, was cleaned before engine went back in.


Long block


The damage, 1 and 2 bent con rods.


V6 crank shaft, note the offset crank pins for an even firing pattern, weird.


Pistons in.


Rods bolted in.


One of the heads after cleanup. Deburred the intake port a bit as well.


Heads on.


Timing gear on, this is the most complex timing setup I've ever seen. 3 chains and tensioners, its easy to line up if you have an assembly guide or know how to do it otherwise your fcuked.


Covers on.


Manifolds on.


Ready to drop in.






All in.


Water pump replaced, new thermostat, hydraulic lifters refilled, all manifolds cleaned out, AFM cleaned, all bearing replaced and plastiguaged, new crank and valve stem seals, new fanbelt, air con bearing replaced, radiators de mudded and started cleaned out.

Started first pop, got to love EFI. I remember sometimes cranking over old carbie engines for ages before I could get them going.

Parts came to $600 and there was about 8 days labour in it for me, I'm sure an experienced mechanic would've done it in half the time. Anayways, I saved a bit doing it myself.

Have done 150km so far and everything seems to be going well.

good to see its all going again. Now for the snorkel

Cheers' man. I'm out of money now...

Nah, I bought one soon after the event. Not gonna let that happen again!!

good to see rods in use. i still not got ours going yet. looms dont seem to match. the motor has a big white plug like yours but it not in the truck wire loom. (got truck cheap and with half the motor puled to bits

Check this out, no pics but says to use the H25a block, H25a injectors, H20a manifolds so it should all plug into the original loom.

http://www.suzuki-forums.com/suzuki-sidekick-escudo-vitara-geo-tracker/29174-h25a-into-97-vitara-2.html

who did you get your parts through?

I got the rings, bearings and gaskets through ebay, $220 landed here. The gasket set contains 75% of all you will need so I had to reuse some gaskets. The rest of the parts came from BnT and Suzuki.

Bloody legend mate, very impressed. Any noticeable power difference while driving ?

Thanks man, there's definatly a power difference over the damaged engine but not much over stock. New diffs go in tomorrow, changed the seal and drive flange on that one I got from you. Tried to tighten it but ran out of room with shims so had to leave it standard. Looking forward to lower ratios though!

You should come out with us one day, I know your busy but if you get the chance let me know!

Absolutely, will let you know, really keen to get out for a bit of fun over the next few weekends, will give you a yell.