Thread: Junkyard Engine

I'll have to be getting an engine from a junkyard soon in order to put it into my car. I was going to to do ALL the gaskets I could, since the engine would be out of the engine bay anyways, and I was also considering of putting in a cam, but that required me to upgrade other things, so I said screw it.

I won't be tuning the car anytime soon either, so what could I do to the engine besides changing hoses and gaskets that could possible give me some more ponies without having to tune and without it being too expensive?

dont commit to "ALL NEW GASKETS"...

First off, your headgaskets are something you want to not disturb from stock... you never get that "factory fresh" headgasket again...

Secondly, most higher mileage motors have already had a LIM gasket change, and recently most all had some form of valvecover gasket change.... If they look new, dont mess with it, those gaskets add up to $100 really easily.

SC/TB gaskets rarely fail but need to be replaced if anything was removed... stock exhaust gaskets are awesome, and hardly ever fail....

Rear oil cover and rear main seal gaskets are some known trouble issues... might consider doing those, but they are a major pain and you need new flexplate bolts....

oil pan gaskets never fail... the steel pan does... the fix for the oil pan is: clean the block surface/oil pan surface with ALOT of degreaser.... apply a good bead of RTV to the pan (maybe some to the block, but its not typically needed), reinstall with old pan gasket.

There are really no performance gains found in the motor other than possibly deleting the balance shaft.... stock is good enough anyway so I wouldnt touch it... headers/pulley/intake are the best mods out there for the average guy.

Well, I was going to have the mechanic that was putting the engine in do it.

Should I have the LIM and Coolant elbows replaced anyways just to be sure? I'd really rather not have him do it only to find out a few months later the LIM gasket is leaking and end up having to pay around $900 for the job.

But other than that, should I have the mechanic check for the Rear Oil Cover, and Rear Main Seal gaskets, and the steel oil pan?