Fiat acquisition of Chrysler (in my driveway)

Its an incredible difference. What i had to really beat on the 2.0 to get, i get with half the effort now. And the torque is just phenomenal. 

The availability, cost, and mileage is exactly why i went this route with the acr. 

What's required for the upgrade to a 2.4? I'm not in favor of a bunch of scope creep, but a motor with more power that costs less and is a straightforward swap seems like a no-brainer. 

A motor mount adapter, and in the neon application flipping the trans mount inset and a conversion bracket for the power steering and ac. Repon at the ecm. Done. 

Dude. It sounds like a clear path forward to me. I assume the conversion parts are readily available. Makes me want to swap my own X1/9! 

Mezzanine said:

Dude. Makes me want to swap my own X1/9! 

Lol. Like every other thread on here! 

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Right? I'm fortunate to have ZERO bandwidth for car projects, so there won't be any swaps at my garage. Starting a new business while working full time and going to school full time seemed like a good idea... at the time. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

A 2.4 swap is an amazing upgrade from the 2.0

I had a 2.0 eat a rod bearing in my acr, and an 01/02 pt cruiser engine was cheaper than a ring and bearing kit.

Sometimes the answer is right in front of you the whole time if you know what question to ask.

In my searches for local engines, using cloud cars and neons, I kept striking out. Marketplace and CL similarly bleak. The above tidbit prompted me to search for a PT cruiser engine. This was probably such an obvious thing to think of, but it never occurred to me. I supposed that they would just be there in the interchange. Not the case. 

Two options for 2001 YES or NO EGR. With was a bust. But lo and behold, without EGR gets me a 140k mile engine that is tested 170+ compression "runs nice and quiet." Whooot! It is pulled and on the rack 7miles from my driveway. Should be receiving pictures to confirm presence of alternator brackets. 

In reply to GoLucky :

You should thank professor brap. Hes who turned me onto the pt engines. 

Im assuming you're reading all the 2.4 swap guides?

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

A big thanks to both you and the professor! I have read through the swap guide on Neons.org, is there anything else you recommend? 

This photo the yard sent me leads me to believe that it has alternator brackets. 

With that confirmed I am now the owner of an ‘01 PT cruiser engine. My engine crane is loaned out and my engine stand is holding an eg33 for my stepson so planning on a pick up next week. 

I used the one from the .org and asked brap/other neon guys. 

I reused an earlier 2.0 head that was heavily ported and milled for more compression, bigger cams, and the mindage tray that the midlana build used. 

Tonise the pt head, i think you have to redrill the intake and exhaust. 

The balance shaft delete was worth it. I did the full delete, and then the windage tray and baffles. 

I know a bunch of things im forgetting, but if you read through the acr thread you'll find both 2.4 swaps ive done. And feel free to page me and brap. We'll do what we can!

Woot! Woot! Pt Looser for the win!

This morning I was finally able to get my PT looser engine. The borrower of my crane and stand returned both last night with only 1 jack handle missing (arrgh!). Still was able to unload the engine with minimal fuss. In its glory:

I did notice that the engine definitely does have an EGR. This doesn’t make much difference to me but I remember it specifically was listed as without. 

I’m a little under the weather right now so I found a bolt that fits so I can get 3 more later to put this thing on the engine stand later. Now I’m going to rest. 

Hell yeah!!

The stock intake manifold is wierd. 

It comes apart in stages fyi.

Tonight I got hardware for the engine stand at the home improvement store since the hardware store was closed. It was a pleasant surprise that they had what I needed. 

With that sorted I began the ballet of cherry picker and engine stand. For whatever reason there is not a super direct way for the legs of the two to coexist but nothing too serious. Still absent my jack handle. 

A number of times in my project career I have decided to throw away something that was obviously useless only to need it later. For this reason I’m tossing everything into a tote until I am certain about what I can toss. With the motor on the stand I began removing all the things to acquaint myself to my PT looser engine. The intake manifold came off in sections and had some extra holes already in it. 

Part of the broken bits was here

The dipstick was also the victim of some violence.

On the plus side I’m pretty sure that this is the mechanical tensioner that works better than the hydraulic one. 

Another thing that I have struggled with previously is finding which bolt goes where when they are different lengths. I’m not even sure if this piece will get used but it will retain the bolts in their places either way. Aluminum TIG rod was at hand. 

This is the knock sensor and the swap guides I have read indicate that it needs to move somewhere else or cut the intake. I’m not sure where it should go but hopefully when the Neon engine is out it will shed some light. 

At this point I’m just funnin’ around but also confirming that the Neon header should be a fit. Does look pretty good on there though... Maybe at another stage. 

There are some things that I simply cannot abide and one of them is these balance shafts in a motor on an engine stand. 

I have yet to plug the oil supply hole but full delete in full effect. 

If you are doing this I would recommend using bolt cutters to chop the chain. I don’t have any and used a chisel to pop a link but it wasn’t as quick or easy as I’d hoped. 

My understanding is that the SRT engine uses a pan gasket with an integrated crank scraper. Is that as easy as ordering one up and popping it in or are they somehow incompatible?

I’m into some time and energy spent on oiling upgrades to help the engine survive. 

I ised a pt gasket, and the windage tray/oil pan baffle setup that bgkast has designed. It was a pain to make, but worth it. 

Today I went to all 4 auto parts stores in town and wasn't able to lay my hands on an oil pan gasket for a PT GT but every one of the pictures make me think that it is going to work.

I also went to the hardware store and bought a tap, drill and set screw to complete the ballance shaft delete. Drilling up to let the chips fall OUT of the engine. 17/64" drill to match the tap.

Power tapping. M8 x 1.25 Took the picture but did end up dipping the tap into the oil catch pan before putting it to work. 

By going slow with the drill and tap and letting gravity be my friend the bits of metal I could see ended up in the drain pan. Q-tip treatment for good measure and I stuck my magnet on the drill bit to try and pull out everything I could. 

M8 1.25 x 12mm Set screw plus red locktite installed with 4mm Allen wrench.

I feel like this is staying put. 1. Red Locktite. 2. It is threaded in to a 'stop' where the threads shrink. 3. I hit the threaded hole with a chisel just for good measure. 

I sometimes end up using SAE hardware in my Metric world but it makes me happy when I'm able to maintain the Base 10 purity. 

Will probably order an oil pan gasket with the cool OEM crank scraper tonight or tomorrow. I messaged bgkast here on the forum to ask if I could copy his answers. Either way I'm off to clean up the oil pan. 

Today I washed the oil pan, pan bolts and both alternator brackets and bolts in the bike shop parts washer. Much nicer. 

Now it just needs some oil control mods. 

Wow! Not been spending much time on this project for the last few months. This week I did manage to take a couple of days off with no travel/other adventures so I started making some oil control doors.

I started by cleaning off an ethically harvested parking sign. Heat gun and razor blade.

This is too much like work to be fun, but eventually:

Ran out of acetone mid-clean and so I tried some coconut oil. It worked OK after sitting around for an hour or so. At least I wasn't worried about getting it on my hands. Dish soap for the finale.

With a clean-ish piece of metal I traced my BBQ skewer contour gauge onto cardboard and then the street sign. 

Chopped it out of the parking sign and when I was satisfied with the fit I bent a 90 to give it some structure and to keep the oil from climbing. Torch because it needed it to bend, possibly tempered?

Fits in the pan like so:

Marked and cut a couple of tabs from some 1/2" angle. Drilled 3/32" holes. Cut a door out of a piece of larger thin gauge angle folded tabs up and drilled to match the tabs. This took a few tries for me to sort out. 

I made some big holes in the parking sign part with the step bit.

I do not know what the street sign alloy is but it was not the most awesome to weld. Or I just should be better. Probably a bit of both. Eventually and with low levels of pretty the parts were joined through welding. 

The hinge pin is 1/16" Stainless TIG rod. I used a 3/32 Tungesten as a pin while welding to keep things aligned. The smaller wire lets the door swing easily. The Oil pan was also not that nice to weld. It was "clean" from the parts washer and then I torched the areas I was going to weld. I stainless brushed too, but got a fair bit of contamination. Still, it is welded in and I can't pull it out. 

Hinge pin is bent to limit travel. Seems like it should do what it is supposed to.

That was the easy side. The crank pulley side of the pan has an oil pickup tube that is in the way of things. I am not completely sure what the solution will be. As it sits the pickup drops from the front and runs along the bottom of the pan in order to clear the now removed ballance shafts. I can modify the pickup or connect the trapdoors to block. Either way I went back to the skewer gauge.

The parking sign is just a speck thicker than the oil pan gasket so I'm thinking I may use this piece with some locating holes and possibly mount this baffle to the engine block with the mounting points from the ballance shafts. If it works I won't have to 1. Weld the pan 2. Cut a floor to ceiling slot in my oil control door 3. Modify the pickup. 

This is where it will stop for now. Some progress feels good. 

The skewer gauge is brilliant, effective too.

That is amazing creativity with the skewer gauge. Im stealing that.

Awesome build. I've developed a real liking for the x1/9. And Montana. 
 

whats the deal with the factory turbo PT loser engine? Are they too hard to come by now? 

TJL (Forum Supporter) said:

Awesome build. I've developed a real liking for the x1/9. And Montana. 
 

whats the deal with the factory turbo PT loser engine? Are they too hard to come by now? 

Thanks. I also like the X1/9 and Montana most of the time. They are both a bit frustrating at times though. Haha.

The PT/GT engine isn't particularly hard to find or even expensive. The reason "why not?" right now is that the crank will not play with the Neon ECU that is currently running things in the car. The '02 and earlier 2.4 (all n/a) works with some pins moved in the harness and some Ford Escape/Mustang injectors that I've already got.

It is sort of moving in stages in my mind. This stage is make the n/a 2.4 fit physically into the car and run on the existing Neon swap harness. Already proving to be a slow process.  My concern with making too many changes at once is that I don't have confidence in my own follow through. Turbos, new engine management etc are great future stage fantasy fuel for now. 

I wish that I could take credit for the BBQ skewer gauge; it's a great idea and advancement of Cardboard Aided Design. I cannot remember where I saw it, but it stuck in my brain until needed.