Some of you may know I've been through hell couple of months ago, one of which includes my engine going 'pop'.

It happened like this...

Normal day at 8am, started my 30miles journey to work. Half way, I went round a roundabout and about 300 yards down the road at around 5k rpm, my engine suddenly stopped, revs dropped and lots of white smoke blew out of the engine then went back from the exhaust.

RAC man thinks it's a blown head gasket. There was no oil on the road and my radiator is emptied.

So I then decided to call my good friend Chris, he then took of the engine head and found a broken pieces of the cam follower? (Thing that connects the cam and valve springs) above the pot 4.

Anyway, next was the spark plugs. We took off one by one. The one in pot 4 was stuck, likely to be bent. Things were not looking good.

Later we took off the engine head and we could smell burnt oil, very bad smell. Once it was off, we found this...







One of the exhaust valve was broken and pieces had dropped and melted inside. All the other cylinder walls were badly scored and Chris concluded I needed a new engine.

After weeks and weeks searching for one and being let down by breakers!!! I eventually found a MY04 engine with 17.5k miles on it from ASM Auto Salvage.


New engine after a good clean.

It was time to rock and roll from then on...






Old engine


Alternator taken off


A/C compressor disconnected


Disconnected gear lever




Disconnected ECU


Engine loom out and disconnected all other pipes etc...


Disconnect drive shaft


We then dropped the front subframe by 75mm






Jack supporting the Gearbox ready to be dropped








Gearbox out




Guess where this photo was taken from


Crane ready




engine head had to be put back on to be on, then strapped on.


carefully lifting the engine out, making sure no cables/pipes were still connected




engine out!!!






where's my engine gone?




preparing to install new clutch plate






Fork fits in nicely and all lubricated up


Trial run to see whether the Gearbox fits in ok


getting dark so we turned on the lights


new engine going in




oh yeah!!!


new gearbox on, it was such a bugger to get in and damn heavy!!!


After the gearbox was on, and drive shaft connected back, the subframe was put back up.


Took us quite a few hours to connect all the pipes/cables back in, making sure everything was put back exactly the way they were. Oils in, coolant in, double and triple checked everything!!!


Done! It's in and started the first time! It was soooo good to hear it roar.

Afterwards we did the idle learn procedure, reving at 3k rpm until the fans was on and then stayed off for five minutes.

So far, after 60 miles in it, it feels great. I'm using my original JDM ECU with this UK engine, and so far it's running fine. Vtec's good and running smoothly.

I want to say a big thanks to Chris for all his hard work. I've seen and learnt so much. Also Dave for his constant support.

Enjoy the pics...

Cheers,

~ Man.

 

I was wondering why you hadn't been on here for a long time. Sorry to hear about your old engine.

Very comprehensive write up. Didn't realise Chris Franklin did this too Definitely someone you can trust to do a job properly.

Does the 04 engine feel any different? You still have the same ECU so I assume no different.

Hope you have better luck now

 

Excellent write-up
Well done! This must have felt good.
I didn't link the name Chris to Chris Franklin until I saw the pics. You've had the very best helping you there

Oh, and this pic is a classic

 

Nice work! And very nice documentation. Good stuff!

 

Man! Didn't know a thing about your engine failure. Great pics and write up. Hats off to you for getting it sorted

 

Excellent report Man.

Great to have someone like Chris to do a proper job

Dave

 

All I can say about Chris is

 

Very good writeup and photos.


Were there any problems with the valve retainers?

 

So how long did it take to swap engines ?
isnt it worrying that quite a few have had there engine go bang :S

 

Every time I see a post like this one, I seriously cosider titanium valve springs and retainers upgrades for my stock engine.

Didn't know about your misfortune but it's good to see you back on the road Man.