Beretta.net

I'm actually not sure what paint was used on the cam towers; The previous owner had painted them before I got the engine/car. It is flaking a tiny bit, but it looked good enough.

I got everything bolted in and we did a little fab work on the main mount to get it to fit. I put the cradle back in and got it back down on all 4 wheels.



After doing it this way, it is definitely a nice, easy way to do it. It wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be - Lifting it up from the bottom you don't have to go in at some crazy crooked angle, and once the cradle is out, there is NOTHING in the way of lifting it up into place.

Back in 2001, about a month before Bfest2k1, I had to replace my engine in my previous 93 GTZ. The local Chevy dealer actually let us use their shop after hours to get the swap done. It was MUCH easier with a lift, but ya gotta work with what you've got.

Circa early June 2001:

So you got lucky on the paint? That is great. What a match!

I see your "new" PS pulley worked out well.

Money pit Beretta wrote:So you got lucky on the paint? That is great. What a match!

I see your "new" PS pulley worked out well.

Yup - Everything is SLOWLY coming together - I'm probably jinxing myself, but if all goes well, the car will run this weekend. I'm not preparing to drive it just yet, but it'd be nice to know that everything, engine-wise, is working nice.

I'm shooting to have mine drive this weekend. Gonna be tough cause I have some work on the house to get done before Thursday, so that will kill tonight and tmo night. But I don't have that much left.

Yeah I guess it's better to know that the engine is running right before the drivetrain is hooked up.

LOL - It's still not done yet. I keep discovering more and more parts that simply DO NOT FIT! Apparently, my 1993 GTZ was sold to me with a WTF engine. I firmly believe that the engine was from an 89-91 car; tons of little things that have been incorrect or simply didn't fit... Sucks, but I'm making my way slowly towards the finish line. Just got the P/S pump/belt in place tonight - As soon as I can figure out how to route the wiring, the intake/TB goes on and then it's just a matter of exhaust manifold, fluids and bolting the injector rail on and hooking the lines up.

what parts dont fit? im not a genious with the quad 4. but ive been around them some time, and took a 90 engine and put it in my 94 quad z26 wich is the same as your 93 quad 4 so i might have some stuff you need. except a half shaft. =p

speedy wrote:what parts dont fit? im not a genious with the quad 4. but ive been around them some time, and took a 90 engine and put it in my 94 quad z26 wich is the same as your 93 quad 4 so i might have some stuff you need. except a half shaft. =p

The engine, which was given to me out of the car, was supposed to be the original engine. The block/head/cams/timing stuff is all the same, but it's the peripherals that are different. Aside from the jackshaft, the engine main engine mount was wrong, the fuel rail/lines were wrong, the fuel injector harness was wrong, intake manifold, TB - both wrong.

If you literally took a 1990 Quad4 and put it directly in place of a 1994 and used all of the 1994 accessories with it, you wouldn't have a problem. If you do it the way I've had to and take a 1990(ish) Quad and put it into a 1993 car, the 1990 stuff doesn't fit. It just sucks because none of this was disclosed when I bought the car - I was led to believe that the engine I was given was THE ORIGINAL engine from the car. Based on the history of the car I was able to track through posts and such, the car simply had a blown head gasket when it was sold to the person I bought the car from. Based on that, there was zero reason to have been given so many wrong parts. There was NO way that the old engine was running with all of these wrong parts - Simply couldn't happen.

Oh well, sometimes a gamble turns out to cost way too much - At least I still have a Quasar GTZ - There was a void when I sold my previous 93 Quasar GTZ so this is as close as I was ever going to get. In the end, I will _never_ sell this car and at least I know everything about it as far as the engine/trans is concerned.

dam, let me know if you need something.

If you have a true 92-93 HO intake manifold and TB so that I have a correct one for my year (intake needs to have 3 bolt holes for the TB throttle bracket (2 at TB, one on the backside for the bracket)... I also need an oil separator correct for my year. I found the oil separator heater thing, but my separator box doesn't have an opening big enough for it to go into. Again, another blindingly obvious reason this is NOT the original engine.

IT RUNS!!! It doesn't drive yet, as I'm still waiting for the jackshaft and some other misc things, but IT RUNS!!

I was able to get the final few things bolted up tonight and I cranked it with the ignition disconnected (to prime with oil) and then started it. First RIGHT up. This is a 100% fresh rebuild from the ground up. I did panic however, when I saw my oil pressure drop to ZERO! I let it run for about 10 minutes figuring it was a bad sender - I ran and got one and after pulling the old one and seeing tons of fresh oil spill out, I figured I was on the right track... Changed it and it still reads absolutely nothing - Maybe a bad ground somewhere? The gauges reads 1/4 when the ignition is off but as soon as the ignition is on, the gauge drops off........ Any advice?

Onto the next thing; I have to take the car to an exhaust shop to have the downpipe fixed - It's not at quite the right angle to line up properly. This downpipe is a 90-92 style and the car originally came with the smaller, more restrictive 93+ manifold.

This project has been a living Hell and I'm glad it's finally ALMOST over. I can't wait to drive this thing...

Brian I have to ask one thing did you prime the oil pump before installing it? On mine I had to fill the oil pump up with Vasoline before installing to prime it.

I figured out the oil pressure issue; I had to remove the oil pan and reinstall a bolt in one of the oil gallery passages - With the bolt in, 60psi of oil pressure! I was finally able to give the engine a thorough warm up cycle and aside from an idling issue, everything seems fine. I still have a few things left to do before I can actually drive it, and I need to have my HO injectors reman'd and swapped in, but so far, so good.

I finally got the correct jackshaft and got everything put back together. I still have an idling issue, but the car is semi-drivable. Parts still needed:

Correct 92+ axles
New wheel bearings (old ones are toast)
alignment
Still need to correct alignment on downpipe
Check/top off fluids
Send HO injectors off to be refurb'd and replace the SOHC ones that are in it now
Bolt on rear license plate
Needs shocks/struts pretty badly

The car has NO power with the SOHC injectors - I figured it wouldn't but I went ahead and used them to get the engine running so I could send the HO's off for service.

My first trip, a quick run to the lake - It feels good to have ~10 miles on the car now!

Congrats. I gotta get mine running when I get back from Tennessee.