I had a coolant seal go, tried the Bar's Leaks fix but that only worked for about a week. I have limited financial resources at the moment, as I see it I have 3 options. 1: Go to the local Pull-a-Part, which has 4 s4 fcs, and try to find an engine that has compression. This would be the least expensive at $80-$100, but the reliability of this engine would be questionable at best. 2: Get a seal kit, crack the engine open, and install. The engine only has 60k miles on it, so everything else should be in fine shape, but I've never done a rebuild before and am slightly hesitant to crack open a running engine (I have disassembled a junk engine before, so I do know a little, however). 3: Build up and do an s5 swap. I've been considering this for some time, and the timing is right, but it would also be the most expensive of the three. I would apreciate any advice you have to offer on which is the best course of action, and thank you for anything you have to offer.

 

i would go pull an engine, and pull yours take them both down... find the best parts to use from both and rebuild it

 

Well I believe my internals are in good enough shape due to the low miles in the engine, and I'd still have to buy new seals if I went that route. Also, if I tear this engine down I'm thinking about porting. I know very little about porting, where's the best place to find out what I need to know? I definatly don't want anything major, as fuel economy is more than ever a great concern.

 

I would highly recommend having porting done by someone with experience.

It seems like an easy concept but it takes alot of skill and practice to be able to port without fudging something up.

6 port engines don't have much material in the first place compounding the risk of accidentally digging into a water jacket.

If you want to do it yourself, get a few junk irons to practice on first, it's much harder than it seems.

 

rotaryheads.com


for the porting

 

We have been seeing a lot if inner coolant seal failure on the front plate due to erroded retaining walls. It has been most prevelent on the lower mileage cars that have sat for a long time. I would be prepared to replace the front iron if you are planning on rebuilding the engine. Pics of the area most commonly effected are at the bottom on the page, here is a link

http://www.banzairacing.net/winnie_breakdown_02-05.htm

 

The engine was put into the car 2 1/2 years ago by it's former owner, it sat for a couple of months befor I bought it, but that's about it. I know he had the engine installed localy, that the engine came from the west coast, and the short block itself cost him $2000. And any porting I would do would be very minor, as I like my low-end torque and fuel mileage.