not really sure what's going on

[nizmainiac]

here's my problem, going to hospital for chemotherapy blood tests the other week , i overtake 2 cars the engine decides to drop a valve head , mash a valve seat and throw it out on the inlet side , and the valve head is stuck between the piston and cylinder wall ( so that engine is scrap)

So i source another engine, pull the old one out , do a straight swap (all bits and sensors included ) put the other one in , run it without coil lead on to get oil pressure and it starts up fine, now i know that the cooling system can be a bitch to bleed but i've done that o.k., everything is wired up o.k. too but my speedo isn't working and i'm getting alot of steam from the exhaust.

would the steam be due to the old engine lunching itself and sending most of the coolant out through the head because i noticed that the radiator was less than half full when i stripped it, so could the exhaust hold a certain amount of water and emit steam until it's boiled off ( i noticed that there was antifreeze droplets in the tailpipe just after it happened)
i also have a strange vibration that i can feel throughout the whole car and everything went back in as it came out
iv'e checked the other engine out before i fitted it and all appears to be o.k. why the speedo isn't working i don't have a clue . thanks in advance

[mamilapon]

here's my problem, going to hospital for chemotherapy blood tests the other week , i overtake 2 cars the engine decides to drop a valve head , mash a valve seat and throw it out on the inlet side , and the valve head is stuck between the piston and cylinder wall ( so that engine is scrap)

So i source another engine, pull the old one out , do a straight swap (all bits and sensors included ) put the other one in , run it without coil lead on to get oil pressure and it starts up fine, now i know that the cooling system can be a bitch to bleed but i've done that o.k., everything is wired up o.k. too but my speedo isn't working and i'm getting alot of steam from the exhaust.

would the steam be due to the old engine lunching itself and sending most of the coolant out through the head because i noticed that the radiator was less than half full when i stripped it, so could the exhaust hold a certain amount of water and emit steam until it's boiled off ( i noticed that there was antifreeze droplets in the tailpipe just after it happened)
i also have a strange vibration that i can feel throughout the whole car and everything went back in as it came out
iv'e checked the other engine out before i fitted it and all appears to be o.k. why the speedo isn't working i don't have a clue . thanks in advanceand for the speedo check the connection at the diff. Good luck.

[632 Regal]

yes, the speedo hookup is at the hear end on the differential.

Did you pull the trans or driveshaft during the swap? id so you could have possibly messed the phasing of the Ujoints if taken apart causing a vibration.

antifreeze can stay in the cat and muffler for a pretty long drive, not to freak out yet.

Wish you the best!

[nizmainiac]

i left the gearbox in place when i did the swap and the speedo was working beforehand and i didn't have the weird vibration either, and i'm not gonna freak about the steam from the exhaust as i thought that some coolant might stay in there until it has boiled off.
i guess i'm going to have a good look around to see if anything is touching the body in the engine bay because it feels like that sort of vibration, unless , when i did the swap i pulled the old clutch off the new engine because the plate was well and truly stuck to the flywheel and i had to clean the flywheel with some 120 grit paper , could this cause the vibration if it does it would go soon enough as the friction plate cleans the flywheel even more, will keep you posted

[nizmainiac]

well i found the source of my vibration, it's the corner of the sump touching the crossmember , so i'm going to see if i can beat back the crossmember a little bit to make it clear

[632 Regal]

are the mounts soft causing the motor and trans to sit lower?

[genphreak]

are the mounts soft causing the motor and trans to sit lower?The mounts may not be dead. Probably moved on the cross-member. But may need replacing as Jeff said- they do wear out.

Make sure you change the O2 sensor once you know the head gasket seals... it'll be poisoned by the ethylene glycol now.

[nizmainiac]

the rubber engine mounts aren't soft, it looks to me like the sumps are slightly different, the old engine that i removed,the dip stick came out of the sump where as the one i put in the dipstick comes out of the block , so i had to notch the engine mount bracket to make it fit , and the corner of the sump on the old engine looks to be rounder than the one that went in, so i undid the n/s engine where it bolts to the rubber and jacked it off the mount completely and then carefully ground away where the sump was touching on the crossmember with an angle grinder , just enough to give me a good 3mm clearance , no more vibration , and my speedo has started working again, weird, where abouts is the o2 sensor because i must admit that i haven't seen one on my travels around the engine bay, and i'm pretty sure that there isn't one on the exhaust, unless that is, that i'm going blind

[Ausmpower]

Look further back just in front of the CAT it is near there.

[nizmainiac]

thanks i'll check later