Recently, I was given a very clean ’87 Civic 4 door (body and interior are in pristine condition) which I was told had a blown head gasket. I thought, hey no big deal, with the gas prices going out of control, I’ll fix this thing and park my 350 S-10.
After getting the car home, I started to rethink what I had just gotten myself into. I was able to remove the head (after several hours of blood, sweat, and rage) only to find a large piece of the head had been cracked away and the head surface to warped. I did some digging and found that when the car had originally blown the head gasket, the repairs were done by some kids that didn’t know what they were doing and the old head bolts were reused and probably not torqued to the correct specs.
So here's the hundred thousand dollar question, I can get a complete D15B2, ECU, trans, axles, and basically anything else I need for next to nothing for a swap... is the swap doable (without sinking a ton of cash into it) or should I put this thing out to pasture?
After getting the car home, I started to rethink what I had just gotten myself into. I was able to remove the head (after several hours of blood, sweat, and rage) only to find a large piece of the head had been cracked away and the head surface to warped. I did some digging and found that when the car had originally blown the head gasket, the repairs were done by some kids that didn’t know what they were doing and the old head bolts were reused and probably not torqued to the correct specs.
So here's the hundred thousand dollar question, I can get a complete D15B2, ECU, trans, axles, and basically anything else I need for next to nothing for a swap... is the swap doable (without sinking a ton of cash into it) or should I put this thing out to pasture?