Custard’s Tart

Custardtart · Postby **Custardtart** » Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:12 am

Snowmotion wrote:As my car is a race car only I have removed the stereo and mounted a tablet cover in the whole that it clips into.
Seems to still get good GPS coverage. I have fitted a power cord in there also so now issues on batter power.
That screen is the screen you use during the race / track time but you can scroll to the side to get screens to turn on multiple Gopro's.
The 2 mounts on the dash are now removed as one was for a GPS receiver that failed and the other for the mobile ph.

Thanks for that.
I must admit, lap times are a bit of interest but not the be all and all so a I’ll probably just get a laptimer app to start with and see how we go.

Custardtart · Postby **Custardtart** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:58 am

Thought I'd do a quick tot up of costs for the swap.
One thing I learnt was our friends in the US LOVE to spend more money than is strictly necessary on these things!
The following are the absolute essentials.
2.5 engine - $500 secondhand with 3 month warranty and 15k km's from a 2011 Mazda 6 automatatic.
Oil - $49 for 6 litres - used 5.9
Coolant - $29 on special for 6 litres - used all of it
Serpentine belt - $80
Oil gallery bolt & copper washer - $5
Gasket sealant - $19
Threadlocker - $10
Crank bolt - $35
Crank diamond washers - $30
Flywheel bolts - $50
Tune - $1000
Total essential cost - $1800

Other items I bought.
A dyno session - $1000
Oil filter - $20
Spark plugs - $40
Engine mounts - $75
Camshafts - $1500
Cam bolts - $40
Cam diamond washer - $15
Assembly lube - $10
Inlet manifold gasket - $65
Total - $2765

Now I haven't included the cost of all the tools needed. I'm not considering them part of the costs but some of the main items I had to invest in are below.

Engine crane and level - $279 on special
Engine stand $89
High lift ramps = $99
Extra long socket extension - $50
Cam timing tools - $30
Flywheel locking tool - $50

Contrary to what everyone told me, the pulleys on the 2.5 (crank pulley aside) are identical to the 2.0 so just use these. The same with the oil filter housing and the PCV cover and barb and even the thermostat which has an ever so slightly longer plastic pipe, still fits no problem and as my 2.5 was so much newer it didn't make sense to swap.

Regarding the EGR valve, leave everything in place. I just don't see any point in removing this stuff, it all fits as long as you transfer the items off the back of the 2.0 block.

I also chose to do my own balance shaft delete. By the time you pay shipping for the Massive one everyone uses it comes out at over $100 when all you need is a simple bolt and copper washer. BUT you must make sure you clean all the swarf out after tapping the hole. I used a tone of wd40 and a can of compressed air.

The most time consuming part (other than getting the engine out!) was cleaning all the areas ready to apply gasket sealant. Everything else was straightforward, I honestly think anyone with the right tools could do this. Even timing the engine was easy, there's so much info available on the web these days that with the engine out it's not hard to follow the steps.

The final word of caution would be to remember there's a sh**ty little bolt that sticks out from under the crank pulley and WILL get caught on the front crossmember. If I'd know this I'd have saved many, many hours of frustration. :lol:

ozace · Postby **ozace** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:16 am

nice comprehensive update. I am surprised you didn't update the clutch while you had the mechanicals separated though.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:51 am

That's a good cost guide. How many hours in total do you think it took (that will blow the cost out considerably)?
That engine was cheap.

Snowmotion · Postby **Snowmotion** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 11:36 am

Great write up... Thank you

Custardtart · Postby **Custardtart** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 1:02 pm

ozace wrote:nice comprehensive update. I am surprised you didn't update the clutch while you had the mechanicals separated though.

It turned out the previous owner had fitted a exedy clutch two months before I bought it so it had less than 5000 km’s on it and looked in very good condition. Otherwise I definitely would’ve.

Custardtart · Postby **Custardtart** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 1:22 pm

bruce wrote:That's a good cost guide. How many hours in total do you think it took (that will blow the cost out considerably)?
That engine was cheap.

I honestly have no idea on hours as I just grabbed an hour here and there. If I was doing it again it would take a fraction of the time. I’d imagine a shop that had experience on this swap would turn one around in two days easily, probably a day if not doing a cam swap - so maybe factor $2000 for labour.

I had to return the original engine I bought which had more km’s so definitely worth getting one with a warranty. There were a number of these engines on sale at the time locally and not much interest. All were up for $750 but happy to negotiate.