Rebuilding or Replacing Your Engine

Have you ever thought about rebuilding your engine? Or maybe you want to swap in a bigger or better engine from another car. This month we will discuss what to look for when starting an engine swapped whether you want to rebuild your current engine for more power or swap in another engine.

The first thing you will need to do is write down what you want from your new engine. Be realistic on this as this will choose your path to a new engine. Here are some common questions:

1. Do you want to drive this vehicle every day, only on the weekends, or just down the track?
2. What about fuel economy?
3. Do you want to have the options such as air conditioning, power steering, or high output alternators?
4. Do you need more torque for towing or moving a heavy vehicle?
5. How much horsepower do you want to make?
6. Are you going to run nitrous, a blower, or a turbocharger?

If this will be a daily driven vehicle, you will want to build an engine with good idle characteristics, good fuel economy, and not over heat in traffic. You will also want items such as power steering, air conditioning, etc. This does not mean you cannot build a monster motor, it just means you need to look at many difference options to build a great street motor. A car that will be used on a track only, can have items such as power steering and air conditioning removed to free horsepower.

So now you know what you want, but what do you need for your engine. Well here are some things to consider. If you are doing a standard engine refresh, then stock parts will work fine. Most stock parts won’t hold up to high shots of nitrous or high boost pressure from a turbo or blower. The best thing to do is upgrade your parts to handle this.

Most stock parts are built with cast parts. Cast parts are fine for stock engines, but if you are building a high performance engine, consider upgrading to forged parts. Forged parts can handle higher compression ratios, nitrous, and high boosts. You may also want to consider lightweight components to reduce engine weight and rotating mass. This will allow the engine to rev faster, but also will cost more.

The last thing you will need to look into is a quality machine shop to prepare the parts or build the engine if you don’t want to. Check for a machine shop that has done your engine type before. Some machine shops only specialize in certain engines. You don’t want to take your engine to someone who only does domestic vehicles if you have a Honda engine. Also, make sure the machine shop has torque plates. These should be used when boring and honing an engine. Ask for a tour of the machine shop. When touring the machine shop check out how organized and clean it is. Remember when assembling an engine, you want things to be clean.

Well that’s about it for this month. Next month we will talk about a new 408 stroker engine I am building for my Dodge Dakota. It should be back from the machine shop by then. As always, if you have any questions, please drop me a line.

CYA next month!
Vincent Wright
sales@kmwperformance.com
http://www.kmwperformance.com