Race weekend #2 at Waterford Hills today in the SpecNeon. Corded a tire yesterday in testing. We're still learning the rotation schedule that is needed. Before that, the window net mounting broke requiring a weld job to be done instead of testing in the first session. Today, we discovered a loose spark plug causing a miss. Still qualified 2nd though. However, we also discovered a collapsed hydraulic lifter. Car owner said run it. So we did. And in the famous words of David Hobbs, "Done blow'd up!".
Here's the #3 spark plug...er...what's left of it...
And here's how to get a dead racecar off a trailer by yourself.
And on that note...
WTB: '97-'99 Neon 2.0L DOHC engine!
Ouch. Just the thought of what the piston is going to look like makes my skin crawl.
Follower punched the center out and converted itself to a keeper remover?
I wonder how well the thing would have run if you removed the follower on the offending HLA. Or if oil pressure would have blown the now-unrestrained HLA out of its hole and the loss of oil pressure would have eaten the engine anyway...
Sorry to hear of your loss.
But I am cheered by your use of the lawn tractor.
That sucks... but at least the car can race another day, with a new powerplant. 
looking for a core, or a runner?
im pulling a running acr motor in the near future for a fresh one. it smokes. a fair bit. 147k, much abuse and neglect. good oil pressure!!
In reply to Dusterbd13:
Looking for a runner. We're too cheap to do a rebuild right now. Know why it is smoking?
Debateble.its either shot oil rings or wear on the valve stem seals/guides. Dunno. Compression/leak down good, decent power, good fuel economy.
Its my daily. So I'm just building a fresh engine to swap in.
Vigo
UltraDork
6/9/13 7:26 p.m.
Help me out on how your floppy lifter turned into shrapnel in the combustion space?
Vigo wrote:
Help me out on how your floppy lifter turned into shrapnel in the combustion space?
Pre-2.4 DOHCs had stamped followers. If you allowed the oil to foam up enough to cause the HLAs to collapse, the lash could hammer the center of the valve end of the follower out. It then stops pushing on the valve tip and starts pushing on the valve retainer. Dropped valve happens very quickly. A 2.0 DOHC with a lifter tick is a grenade with the pin halfway pulled...
In reply to Knurled:
Someone pulled this one out all the way...
Vigo
UltraDork
6/10/13 8:42 a.m.
Knurled wrote:
Vigo wrote:
Help me out on how your floppy lifter turned into shrapnel in the combustion space?
Pre-2.4 DOHCs had stamped followers. If you allowed the oil to foam up enough to cause the HLAs to collapse, the lash could hammer the center of the valve end of the follower out. It then stops pushing on the valve tip and starts pushing on the valve retainer. Dropped valve happens very quickly. A 2.0 DOHC with a lifter tick is a grenade with the pin halfway pulled...
- SOHC Fan
Thanks.
And both my neons have been SOHC and i have little to no desire to own a dohc. Ive even searched '2.4 sohc' on neons.org (admitting this there may have me flamed).
cdowd
Reader
6/10/13 10:21 a.m.
I was walking through the pits on Saturday with my boys when i overheard the discussions whether to run it or not. sorry it did not work out.
Chris
Hmm, I just pulled the runner from my rallycross car over the winter, but was planning on at least keeping the head as a spare. Plus, I'm not sure you want to put an unrebuilt 210,000 mile engine into a wheel-to-wheel race car.
It's not used, it's seasoned!
Tested and proven?
Would you believe, low-friction?
In reply to eastsidemav:
Where in OH are you? Are compression and leakdown decent?
In reply to CGLockRacer:
No idea on either, I pulled it for a 2.4 swap. I might be able to borrow a leakdown tester, but I'm betting its not perfect. Seemed a little weak all last season, but the only other Neon I've driven in anger was turbocharged. Any idea if you'd be interested in just the short block?
Oh yeah, I'm about as far as you can get from MI. I'm just outside of Cincy.
In reply to CGLockRacer:
Thought about it overnight. If I'm not too far to go to get an engine, let me know, and I'll see about borrowing a leakdown tester in the next couple of days. I'd want $200 for the engine with head but no intake manifold, and missing some external stuff (used for the engine swap), or $100 for the shortblock.
In reply to eastsidemav:
Cool. Let me talk it over with the car owner and I'll let you know. Thanks!
Vigo
UltraDork
6/11/13 11:28 a.m.
I sold a 260k mile 2.0 sohc for $200 once. I was kinda shocked. But it did run fine with no oil pressure or smoke issues. Go figure.
ive also got spare dohc head and a couple of intakes (3 or 4, actually)
Pulled the valve cover and intake tonight. It broke the rocker, and dropped the exhaust valve on #3 cylinder. There were metal flakes in the intake port and on the fuel injector. Haven't gotten the head off yet. I've never pulled a FWD engine apart and need to figure out how to get the timing cover and belt off. I have a factory manual, so I'll use that as a guide.
On a side note, wow does the factory manual suck! The Mazda RX-8 manual makes things look easy. Good pictures, clear instructions, exploded diagrams, etc. The Peon manual is wordy, with poor pictures and not many exploded diagrams. I may grab a haynes or chiltons manual for better pictures
Timing cover is fairly easy. Might want to look into this:
http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=276308&p=2512128
