Just got my spare block back from the machine shop with a fresh .020 overbore and cleaned deck. I'm going to start taking pics of the basic engine build and posting up. But first a little back story.
I bought my Tracker with 63 K ( verified carfax ) miles on it about 6 years ago. It had been neglected badly but was basicly in decent shape, no rust and panels straight. The big issue was a bit of piston slap, only at idle, and valve guide seals that leaked enough to make it smoke on start up. Looking at the oil in the engine when I bought it just confirmed my fears, black as coal and thin as water.
I didn't want to tear it apart because a compression test still showed 180 + across the board, and very little leakdown, so I replaced the valve guide seals ( major PITA ) with the engine in the truck and have been driving it that way for almost 60K. The majority of that with the turbo installed and a 7/8 lb boost limit. The engine noise never got any worse, just an annoying little taping at idle. Doesn't smoke, or use more than a bit of oil between changes. Still runs strong, a testement to the durability and quality of these little Suzuki engines even when subjected to ridiculous neglect.
I picked up a 98 16V 1.6 from a member on another forum with the intention of doing a complete rebuild while continuing to drive mine. He stated he didn't know the condition or milage " but it turns over." I drove 3 hours to pick it up, as he was only asking $100. When I got there I tried to turn it over with a socket on the crank bolt, it wouldn't budge. Solid as a rock. I was a bit pissed but for a buck, it was still a deal seeing it was almost complete, including fuel injection and intake.
Once I got it home and on the engine stand I began by removing the intake and head and what I found shocked me: the cylinders were almost filled with mud and rusty water. Pistons and rings stuck. I soaked it for days with every penetrant I had and finally resorted to scraping the rusty cylinder walls with a dull knife to get the pistons out. I thought the block might be junk, but the machine shop got it cleaned up with only a .020 over bore.
Now the good news. All the crank bearings, rod bearings, and crank journals were in amazingly good shape. No visable signs of oil starvation, and the crank journals measured out to stock dimensions. The cylinder head was the same way. Camshaft and cam bearing surfaces were damn near perfect.
I shopped around and picked up a complete engine builders kit off ebay for $212 SHIPPED! It includes the afformentioned .020 over pistons ( made in Japan ) with rings, pins and circlips, oil pump, water pump, timing belt with tensioner and EVERY gasket, seal and o ring to completely rebuild the engine. New King crank and rod bearings too. Great deal I think, especially since I got to choose the oversize of the pistons and bearings ( I chose stock there.)
So, I've got 100 for the engine, 175 for machine shop work on the block which included boring, deck clean up and hot tanking, and 212 for the rebuild kit. Under $500 and I should have a fresh strong new engine to mount my turbo too.
Pics and more to follow.
