Replacing cylinder head (n00b)

Well this is my first time on these forums. Anyway, my family has a 97 DE Galant that had a timing belt snap, followed by timing tensioner snap due to a bad mechanic. The car starts up but runs rough and only on 2 cylinders

Now from my research, I'm pretty sure it has bent valves (running a compression test to be sure tomorrow). I'm planning on replacing the head (assuming there's no damage to the bottom half when i pull the old head). My dilemma is whether it's safe or not to go to a scrapyard and buy a used 80 dollar head as a replacement or get a re manufactured one.

My budget to get the Galant running again is $400 max. So, is it worth getting a remanufactued head or saving the cash and getting a used head from a junker?

Also, I'm only 16 and a complete noob to mechanics, but I've been researching the car for the past month, and I have the service manual and haynes manual. So tips when replacing the head would be also great!! :icon_neutral:

It will probably be cheaper and quicker to just get a good used complete motor. On the other hand you could have a machine shop do just the damaged valves and check guides. That should be fairly cheap.

yeah i would have to agree go to the machine shop and try to price out how much it would be to fixed the damaged valves because if you pick up a junkyard head you have to know what you looking at to determine if its good or not

Well at this point if getting a junkyard head is that risky I'll check up the prices at the machine shop to fix the valves but if it's more expensive than just buying a 300 dollar remanufactued head than I may just do that. Opinions?

How many miles on your motor?

About 141k I believe. But dropping in a complete engine isn't an option for me because I don't have the money or the tools for the job.

I wouldn't put a fresh head on a higher miles motor without freshening up the lower as well. That doesn't sound like an option for you so just get your head looked over and maybe repaired. Valves are only around $10 each guides around $5 then you have labor, headbolts, gaskets etc. I think you will break your budget or be very close. FYI; If you have the tools for a head job then you have what you need for an engine swap except a picker and you can rent or borrow it cheap. I have found these motors for as little as $150-300, it takes less time to swap motor than a head and its cheaper.

If I do get another motor what should I consider when buying it? (how many miles, etc.) I just did a part search for the engine and have about 10 engines in various auto wrecker places that are in range for me.

Hard to go wrong if you find one under 100k miles. Decent compression would be 150-190 as long as they are all fairly consistent and oil pressure around 30. Many place don't give you those readings though.

If you do the engine swap and have a manual trans, consider also replacing the clutch. You'll be right there and sooner or later it will need to be replaced anyway. I don't recommend pulling the engine and trans as a unit . It is more work (exta trans mounts, shift cables, extra electric connectors, etc to discounnect) but you gain more work space to align and bolt your trans to the replacement engine. Generally the hardest part of mating the engine to the trans is aligning the two, The actual bolting them together is not a big deal. You can pull the engine out the top without having to remove the hood. It is a close fit but if you keep the length of the chain between the engine crane and engine short it will fit. The actual swap can be done in a day but unless you have some help or are extremely motivated plan for a couple of days. Invariable there will be rusted bolts or something that will slow you down.

Lastly, If you decide against fixing the car and have a 5 spd trans consider selling it here as usually there are members here looking for the parts for a 5 spd swap. If you go that route it would be easier on you to sell the whole car and let them take the car and pull the parts.

Will it be necessary to replace the clutch if it was replaced recently before the galant broke down and wasn't used for 4 years?

Even if I do get the car running again, I'm sure they'll be much more work that needs to be done seeing how it's an old car that has also been sitting out in my driveway without any protection from anything for 4 years.

Lastly would this Harbor Freight 1 ton engine hoist be suitable for the job?
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-ton-c...ane-93840.html
Seeing how I can get it for only $100 dollars with a coupon, it seems like a pretty good deal

That engine crane will work great.

No need to replace the clutch if it was replaced shortly before the car was parked. The clutch is a wear item meaning it eventually wears out and has to be replaced. Depending on the way the car is driven (stop and go traffice vs long distance, driven normally vs beating on it), a clutch will easily last 100K+ miles. The reason I suggested replacing it when doing the engine swap is you avoid all the labor involved in replacing the clutch at a later date. So if you have less than 30K miles on the clutch, leave it alone/do not replace. Before installing the replacement engine I highly recommend you replace the timing and balance shaft belts. This way you'll be able to track when it is time to next replace them at 60K miles. The other thing to look at on the replacement engine is the water pump. Check it for signs of leakage. If it looks like it has leakage problems go ahead and replace it before installing the engine. With the engine out of the car you'll have all kind of room to do these jobs.


These galants are pretty solid cars and even after sitting you should be okay. If there was nothing wrong with it other than the timing belt breaking (replacing the engine fixes that), I'd expect you only have to worry about old gas in the tank. You might consider bleeding the brakes as brake fluid tends to attrack moisture over time. Swap the engine, change the oil and filter, replace the gas in the tank and see what happens when you drive it.

If you have space, save your old engine. You can play with it to learn how to work on the one in your car. 7g is a great first car. It has aged well, has decent performamce and is a pretty economical car to own and operate. This website is a great source for information for fixing and building your car.

One other thought, I can't remember if you have to pull the trans to pull the engine. Check you Chilton or Haynes manual on that. If you do need to pull the trans to get the engine out of the car I can tell you from experience that you can pull both at the same time (still bolted together) and remove them without having to remove the hood. Good luck with it.

So I'm doing the swap this week now, but my Haynes manual says "Have the air conditioning system discharged by an automotive air conditioning technician."
Is there any way I can get around this?

The old r12 freon was the stuff that damages the ozone. Our systems are 134 not r12 so I would just crack it open and get to wrenching. On some cars you can unbolt the compressor from the engine keeping all the lines intact and not have to discharge anything.
I don't really care for or need the ac so I haven't even tried to do that on the 7g's.

So I can just unbolt the compressor to remove the engine and drop the new engine in without any problems with the ac? I also have the service manual from these forums and it doesn't say anything about discharging the compressor.

Yes, you can unbolt the AC unit and leave it behind in the car when pulling engine and/or trans without the need to discharge the AC system. Just be carefull not to crush any of the metal AC lines and you are good to go.

From experience I can definitely tell you that you will go over $400. You will probably spend half of that alone simply taking the junkyard head to the machine shop to have it decked. That NEEDS to be done. No room for error here, as skimping out on it could cause you to blow the head gasket in very short order. My two cents

myGalantwasfree, h
e has bought a JY engine and is going to just swap the whole engine