My car has been a pain in the ass

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Kanned

Beast
...but it still gets me from point A to point B day after day @ 32mpg so I can't hate it.

Cliff notes at the bottom.

Ok, so here's the deal. I bought a 2000 civic LX sedan for 500 bucks with a blown motor and a screwed up tranny. Right after I got it, I pulled the motor and was given a quote by a renown shop around here of $700 bucks for a complete rebuild. It ends up costing me $1400 bucks and he ended up leaving a lot of the stock internals because they were "like new". I know I got fucked, but he's a friend of my father so I had to accept it and remember that I will still have a reliable car for very cheap. Ever since I have put in the motor I've had the same problems that I've been trying to solve over and over.
-Burns oil(Stinky, white smoke) No, it can't possibly be coolant.
-Lack of power/Power surges at low rpm. Idling/acceleration
-Once AC goes on, the car DIES
I'm sure they're all linked together. So last weekend I checked everything for the thousandth time. Valve adjustment, timing, compression, new plugs/oil change... All of the cylinders are @ about 70psi and it makes me cry. There is ONE thing I've found, and it's that the rear o2 sensor isn't reading anything at all. I have a simulator and will be installing it soon, but I don't see it solving everything. I will be calling the shop that did my rebuild monday morning and ream them until they agree to take a look at my car. Once they can't figure it out I'll ream some more.

Now I have a friend's recently wrecked 95 civic EX(d16z6) with approx 180k miles. The engine still runs fine and has/had no known problems. Now I just need to find out what to do.

Cliff notes
-Had stock motor rebuilt for a large amount and it now burns oil and has low compression. Convinced an internal part is causing the problems after tons of testing/checking. (00 civic LX. D16y7)
-Will call shop that did rebuild Mon, but the motor will probably come out either way, so anything is possible.
-Now own a 95 civic EX with 180k miles on it(D16z6). Motor runs perfect.
-Trying to decide what I should do, but I won't take action until I know what the shop will and won't agree to do.

What would you guys do? I could just put the EX motor in, mini me, buy a new motor, rebuild either motor again. This isn't a tech support thread, more of an advice thread(Feel free to throw in some tech if ya feel the need, though =P). I don't plan on boosting it anytime soon and let's just say my budget is around $1000 bucks. If I get money out of the shop, then that will be added. Any simple swap suggestions that will give me some more hp? I'm fairly unfamiliar with all the motors out there.
 
as for the white smoke.. thats coolant.. its a sweet smell isnt it.. and $1400 to rebuild a single cam.. you could have swapped a LS motor for about $500 less.. you got screwed on that
 
:werd:
it HAS to be coolant. Oil will not and does not, burn white. My guess is he didn't torque the head back on properly, didn't take the head off properly resulting in the head being warped, reused the old head gasket, or a combination of the above.

If I were you, i'd just swap in the d16z6 along with the tranny (the ex tranny is shorter geared but still gets you great MPG) Also, I would swap over the rear disc from the EX onto your LX and what ever nice little features you can take from the EX :D

OH BTW- You'll need a conversion harness to run the p28 in your car... I got one for sale :D :ph34r: $50 shipped to your door :)

/threadjack
 
Yeah, he quoted at 50% of the final cost that fucking dick head... I know I got ripped off.

The smoke stinks of burning oil and it is white. It is quite possibly discolored a bit at times, but I've seen it white every time I'm checking. I have not lost a single drop of coolant for the past 2000 miles, but my oil has. Let's just say it's blue smoke to avoid the hassle.

Here's another simple question... How do I know what motors will fit on the same motor mounts and/or same transmission in my car?
 
Here's another simple question... How do I know what motors will fit on the same motor mounts and/or same transmission in my car?
D series is d series. just about any honda engine will fit, just the wiring will be a problem if it's an older/newer engine that what is stock.

if it was a shop that he works at, you have to get approval for anything outside of a specific range of the quote. good luck
 
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