heads or whole motor?

[Four0Sport]

I'm trying to get my 93 4.0 Sport back on the road for this winter, not so recently it suffered a loss of compression on 3 cylinders, 2 of which were catastrophically low. I was thinking the heads were cracked but found a used motor under 100K for a reasonable price. Only problem is I dont have the necessary equipment to install the motor (i.e. engine lift, knowledge, and help). I was thinking about just replacing the heads on my motor if everything 'looked' ok when i tore the top end off. My budget is restricted and dont really have enough money to pay someone to install the motor for me. Any thoughts on my dilemna? Would it be ok to just replace the heads or should i just pull the entire motor?

 

[jimbo74]

i would do the entire motor.... you can try and start with the heads, and have them checked, then hope your bottom end is ok..... or you jsut wasted $ on the heads....

 

[TennTechMan]

Before buying anything, go ahead and pull the heads off. If everything looks normal, have the heads checked for cracks. While the heads are off getting checked, you can use a feeler gage to check the piston to cylinder wall clearance. That'll let you know if your cylinders are too wore out. At this time you should also turn the motor manually to make sure everything is turning smoothly. The only thing you can't check that's compression related is a visual inspection of the rings.

If you find something more broken (meaning you do need a whole motor), you haven't wasted too much money. If it works out that you only need heads, I recommend buying from Alabama Cylinder Heads. I'm running a set of their 95 TM's.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lug/Nut]

i just ran into the same thing when i warped my head the bottom end looked fine when i pulled the heads off and it ran fine before it blew(minus the rusted radiator) but i decided to just do the whole motor while i was in that deep but for rings seals lifters and bearings it was around 800 so now im thinking about swapping it for the SOHC motor. time to look for that thread right now actually