Stalling while clutching in? That almost sounds a thrust washer failure, but that's beside the point right now.

As long as you do the transfer of accessories correctly, there really isn't an issue.. just watch out for the regular caveats like forgetting that infamous ground behind the cyl head, and that top starter bolt. Any competent mechanic should be able to do this for you without any issues

 

Thanks bro.

Would you say this project is doable for someone with little to no knowledge of engine swaps? I can get the help of a couple friends that are more mechanically inclined but they aren't certified mechanics by any stretch. Assuming I follow the correct procedures, is it hard to mess something up during the swap, or is it pretty straight forward?

I'm just trying to save on the labor. A good local shop quoted me 4k for sourcing out an engine and the swap, but if I were to buy the longblock and swap it myself it'd only be a little over 2k. Can anyone that has first hand experience doing the swap give me some insight?

 

Here's some inspiration for ya:



This was my first time swapping an engine in any car. After reading the factory manual for an entire week and literally memorizing it, it was not that hard, just lots of work. Feel free to PM me if ya need more details.

 

Oh, holly crap you had rod knock and he basically just replaced the bad bearing!!!!!

That is why your engine is screwed. By the time you get rod knock that you can hear, everything, including the crank is typically out of wack. The only time a bearing replacement is adviseable is if you are finding shavings or if you maybe have a VERY slight knock. If he just replaced the bad bearing he screwed you, any good mechanic should know this. How much did he charge you to replace the bearing? You do just realize that all he did was drop the pan, find the rod with some play and replace that bearing right? A mechanic could do that in less than 1 hour.

I would file a lawsuit for sure.

 

Here's what he did to my car:
-inspection
-replace clutch disk(clutch was going out)
-machine flywheel
-send my crank to get crowned
-put on new bearings
-replace oil cooler
-seals, etc.

I don't think he did what he intended to do poorly, but maybe he did not do everything he was supposed to do, or maybe the machine shop didn't do a good job. But the point now is he is trying to say by not replacing the engine after finding out my crank was bad, I was basically accepting the fact that other things could go wrong. The thing is he never told me this before delivering my car to me. Maybe he assumed I knew but honestly that's a grey area.

Regarding what the mechanic did, I'll try to talk to him. What are some things I should point out?

 

You should point out that he's a complete moron.

Ask him what the bearing clearances were. I don't even know what a crank 'crowning' is, but if it's like polishing, the bearing clearances need to be set. If he's worth his mettle as a mechanic, he kept notes on it and can tell you. If he just says it was "in spec" then I personally think he is lying.

The first thing he needs to do is pull your motor and tear it down. The only problem I see is that if he did such a crap job on your motor I would not trust him to change you plugs, let alone pull the motor again. At this point I would probably find a good mechanic to do a proper diagnosis and repair, then present that to him along with the bill. If he balks then you can take him to small claims or at least seek arbitration from the BBB or the court.

The noise sounded to me like TCT at idle, but rod knock or piston slap at higher RPMs. I'm guessing you will find the "repaired" bearing shot, or possibly the cylinder wall scored. When a bearing goes, that piston & wall usually go, and a bore & hone with oversized piston are required. By nature, unless the engine was new, when you rehone the cylinder you usually run out of piston-to-wall clearance spec and have to go oversized on the piston.

You should NEVER re-ring a used cylinder/piston in an FRM block.

An FRM block has to be rehoned SPECIFICALLY to the Honda procedure.

If the cylinder-to-wall clearance spec was out of spec (most rebuilders CANNOT hold Honda's tolerance) you will hear a "rattling" noise, that's mild piston slap. You get it at .005 or .006 or greater clearances in honda FRM blocks.

At this point I'd find someone good to diagnose the motor and see if anything is rebuildable. If you can find a good motor to swap, that's great, but it's hard to do. Usually they will have issues and rebuilding makes more sense or costs about the same. A proper rebuild, though, will be as good as a new motor.

 

This is the second time you've used this term. I'm not familiar with it. Can you elaborate?

 

I am not familiar with it either. That is what he said the machine shop told him they had to do to make my crank work.

By the way aftermarket bearings were used to fit the clearances after the crank was "crowned", or machined whatever you want to call it.

So marcucci, when you spin a bearing you cannot just machine the crank and fit aftermarket bearings on? You have to bore and hone?

He indeed did not even mention this to me. If this is the reason of the engine failure the second time then I will definitely bring this up to him.

 

To make things a bit more clear here's some of the rest of the story.

When he found out my crank was no good he gave me two options. He obviously recommended me to put a new running engine in as the best choice. The second choice he gave me was to fix my broken engine. He told me what needed to be done and what parts he had to buy, as well as what work the machine shop would have had to do.

Of course I was trying to save some money, so I asked him if I just fixed the engine would it be reliable. He told me that the machine shop said it would be okay after they do the necessary work. So I gave him to okay to fix my engine.

He delivers the car to me after it's done, and tells me to take it easy under 5.5k for the first 1000 miles, then change the oil with 10w40. I never went past 5k the first 1000 miles, and revved to about 8k after I finished breakin. Keep in mind I did not change my oil yet when I did this, would this have altered things greatly?

Anyways right after I got off the freeway I start hearing the sound. I call him the same day and he tells me he will check it out. The next day I bring it to him and he listens and listens, even took off the valve cover to inspect the valves. He said everything looked good and he couldn't figure out what it was.

At this point is when he brought up that he only took apart the engine to the extent that allowed him to diagnose where my original noise was coming from, which was the shortblock. He said he left the head on, and did not do any measurements regarding the head or pieces that goes into the head. He basically tells me that I accepted the risk of something going wrong when quote "insisting to fix it the cheapest way possible". Basically the last time I talked to him he wasn't going to do anything about it.

Keep in mind I never kept insisting to fix it the cheapest way possible. If he had told me when he called me with the list of damages that there might have been potential damages elsewhere that he did not measure and check, I would have shelled out the extra 1k and gotten a new motor.


Now that you guys know everything I know, what should I do?

 

I'm familiar with crankshafts that have been "ground" but not with "crowned." I still don't understand your terminology.