Picking up a "new" used engine soon.

[FrancisTheGook]

Well I'm planning on picking up a used engine from CT, about 2 hours away from me. It has 114k on it and it's from a rear end wreck. It also has good compression test results. They are asking 300 for it. Good deal?

I was originally looking for something under 100k for 300, but I just can't seem to find anything within 2 hours of my area. There's a few engines i can get for 400 on Long Island with 80-90k, but I figured the engine in CT also would have been taking less abuse than the long island engines since everyone here drives in the city a lot.

I really need a second opinion on this since I don't know much about cars. I'd rather not shell out an extra hundred on the engine, but if 30 thousand miles is worth it then I'll go for it.

[qnz]

does the engine come with a warranty? Sometimes it easier to deal locally if there is a warranty with the engine so in case you put it in and the engine doesnt start or something is broken, you dont have to drive 4 hours to exchange it. Long Island driving are all highway miles anyway so the engine should be ok.

[FrancisTheGook]

The engine in CT has a 90 day warranty so I certainly should be able to exchange it if it doesn't work. I'm just weary about shelling out an extra hundred dollars cause my budget is really tight since I'm only 16 and don't have a job haha.

[eksz]

Call the place that is closest to you and tell them you have 2.4 galant engine with 80K miles and a 90 day waranty for $300 and you'd like to know if they can beat that deal. There is not a lot of demand for our engines so their choice is sell something they have in stock for $300 that may never otherwise sell. The worse they can tell you is no. Don't take it personnally if they say no. Realize even if they say no you are no worse off than when you called. Besure regardless of how many miles on your engine that you have the compression checked before buying it.

I believe there are slight differences in the engines between the early (94 and 95) and the late (96-98) galants so be sure you are getting the proper year engine for your car. Seems like the crank sensor is in a different location on the early engines. The differences may not matter if you are swapping the entire engine but someone more up on that kind of thing would have to speak up on that.

[98mgalant]

Why not go DOHC? It'd be more work but you may be able to find an engine easier.

[FrancisTheGook]

Well unless a DOHC would drop right in with no problem then it'd probably too much work for me because this is the first time I'm dropping in an engine in any car haha.

[galantboost]

does the engine come with a warranty? Sometimes it easier to deal locally if there is a warranty with the engine so in case you put it in and the engine doesnt start or something is broken, you dont have to drive 4 hours to exchange it. Long Island driving are all highway miles anyway so the engine should be ok.

completely agree...i brought parts from CT n then i ended up having to return them so it was a like an 8 hour trip over all and a waste of money so if you can deal locally then i would say do that

[Galanttuner10]

Why not go DOHC? It'd be more work but you may be able to find an engine easier.

you cant find the DOHC 2.4s anywhere and when you find a running one the want 6-700 bucks from when i was looking and then you have to rewire many things and find a way to work it with the stock ecu or try and find a GS ecu if ur a 94-95 if not ur kinda in a tough spot.

get the motor you feel best with and def call them up saying you would rather stay local and all that jazz, and remember the distributors are different between the 94-95 and the 96-98. so keep in mind the year of ur car in correspondence to the year of the car the motor was pulled from

[FrancisTheGook]

I'll attempt to keep it local.
I also have another question about doing the engine swap. Do I have to remove the transmission first or can I pull the motor with it attached and then just swap it over?
The service manual along with the haynes manual says I have to, but I feel like removing the tranny outside of the car would make the job easier. Oh yeah, and it's a 5 speed.

[w/oarctic7g]

Its faster for me to just separate and pull the motor out the top. If you want to do engine/trans together it needs to be lowered to the floor and scooted out the front.

[Galanttuner10]

i seperate them and pull the motor out of the top. not very hard to do and no matter how long you let the damn thing drain coolant, there will still be some lol

[eksz]

You can pull the engine and trans as a unit out the top, no need to drop it out the bottom. If you keep the chain on the engine crane short you can even do it without having to remove the hood. When putting it back in you need to angle the engine and trans so the trans is lower than the engine. I pulled and replaced the DOHC/5 spd on my 94GS like this. At the time I wondered if I could just pull the engine and leave the trans in place but the Haynes manual and things others had written convinced me to go ahead and pull them together insead of pulling just the engine. I was also concerned about aligning the trans to the engine when it came time to drop the engine back in. I could have saved myself a bit of work (pulling axles) had I know for sure that the trans could have stayed behind.

[FrancisTheGook]

Wait, so I don't even have to remove the transmission at all? That would save me a lot of trouble. But every manual I have says that I should remove it?

[w/oarctic7g]

Books lie, welcome to the real world. I still remove all the mounts and passenger side axle. I leave the drivers axle in but just break it loose so it can slide within the tranny you have to be careful not to ruin the boot especially when reinstalling.

[eksz]

W/oartic7g, if you have to remove the axles do you really save much time and effort by leaving the trans behind. Having all that extra space to unbolt/bolt up the trans when it and the engine are out of the car was enough of a pay back for me. Now if you could leave the axles in the trans them I'd definitely agree with only pulling the engine. I've pulled four 7g trans over the years and it always seems like one of the suspension bolts is seized, a bushing gets trashed or an axle refuses to come out. Guess it is a judgement call but it is good t know that you could leave the trans in the car if you wanted.

[w/oarctic7g]

Technically only one axle is removed.I have done several engines this way and can remove by myself and reinstall in 5 hours(2 hours out, 3 hours in) it works for me. I guess to each there own. I hate doing the trannys mainly because of the suspension as you stated above.