Eclipse DOHC VVT questions

I have a customer's car in the shop getting a junkyard engine replacement. Its a 91 Eclipse 2.0 DOHC. The 'yard sent a replacement from a 91 Talon that ended up being a lemon. It hemorrhaged oil, and the compression measured anywhere from 90 psi down to 30... and that was with ATF in the cylinders. So, they sent another engine; this time a 2.4 from a 94 Galant. The engine is basically identical. I've found that things like motor mounts, vacuum lines, sensors, and other things all look compatible, and even seem to have the same connectors with a couple easily surmountable exceptions.

I have three concerns:

1- The "new" 2.4L has VVT on the intake cam which obviously won't be functional. I also know that some VVTs time the cam fully advanced and retard as needed, others time it fully retarded and advance as needed, while others time it in the middle and advance or retard as needed. What would make me blissfully happy is if its that latest one because there is a chance I can just take the fixed sprocket off the old engine and put it on the new. Maybe swap the old cams and followers into the new engine?

2- Are there any major functional differences between the two that would confuse the 91's computer? Injector flow rates? sensor value ranges? I'd swap over the old sensors but some of them are in places that the harness won't reach or they're different sizes/mounting.

3- Money. Several things are in play here: We have a very valuable/loyal customer who is itching for his car, he's very excited about the prospect of 2.4L, and I want to make him happy, but I also have to look at the bottom line: am I going to be wasting several hours of my time to get an engine that may or may not function properly? I have already installed and removed an engine twice on this car and I need this to be a slam dunk. The 'yard doesn't have any more of these engines, and this one is a particularly low-mileage pristine example with good compression. Since the longblock is basically the same, I'm sure I can make it work without any issues, but we're not a performance or custom shop. I can't be paying for crazy custom work to "upgrade" to a 2.4L. If its easy and straight forward I'll do it. If not, I'll look for another engine.

If it were mine, I'd just take the time and strip it down to a longblock and put all the 2.0 stuff on the 2.4, but since we are a volume-based general repair shop, this needs to be a walk in the park. I can't take the time to do an engine swap/upgrade when I'm only really authorized to bill out for an engine R&R.

Hmmm, I was thinking that number one sounded good, till you mentioned the time and money constraints. Unless there's a solid knowledge base somewhere online, I'd go for the 2.0.

Don't know if this applies to your situation but here's linky

I'm snooping the interweb to see what else I can find.

Good link, thanks. I posted a new thread over there, too.

Its not so much that I personally mind doing the work... as a customer service guy, (and a completely psycho hotrodder) nothing would make me happier than surprising a loyal customer with a 2.4L upgrade that I accomplished by spending a couple of my own hours tinkering and learning... but we are seriously backed up with tons of work to get done, so I can't really waste time or resources. If the answer is, "put the sprocket on and splice these three wires" then I'm down with it. If the answer involves stripping it down to a longblock and transferring everying, then burning a chip for the computer, I'm gonna have to pass.

Robert Bowen could tell you more than I can. That motor is for a 1994 Galant GS. That's the only car it comes in. I'll bet it'll run in the Eclipse with the 2.0 cams. They also WERE OBD II. I think you need to run the Eclipse CAS. Also, the clutch is different, the motor mounts were different between the 1g and 2g (which is what a 94 Galant is basically)

Robert Bowen is on this forum. PM him. He knows Robert Garcia well (Road Race Engineering.)

Ok, thanks.

After more research (til 3am) I discovered that its just not plausible for a general repair shop. This is a budget junkyard swap so this guy can drive to work, not a big-dollar engine upgrade.

Gonna send it back :(

That blows, I was really hoping it'd be a straight forward swap.

Me too. bottom line is that we billed for 8.5 hrs which is a standard R&R. I wouldn't mind putting in an extra couple hours to please this loyal customer, but extra labor plus head gaskets, exhaust gaskets, custom motor mounts, cam swaps, custom electrical, and the additional 10 hours of my own time (all for an engine that might need a chip and hours of tuning to get it to run right) is just way beyond what I can logically do for this guy.

My shop deals with volume and quality/accuracy. Myself personally... I would do whatever it takes having spent years as a hotrodder, but this isn't the time for that.

Hop on one of the DSM forums and buy a good take-out motor.

www.dsmtrader.com www.dsmtalk.com www.dsmtuners.com

Stick with a 90, 91, or early 92 for a direct bolt in.

Its not stated in your thread, but is this a turbo or nonturbo?