I started swapping components between the engines and noticed that I will need to swap the main drive belt tensioner assembly.

This looks like it has 2 plastic elbows going into the lower intake manifold and water pump. Judging by the looks of it, seems these will break when doing the removal.

Any tips on replacing these elbows? How do they seal?

Also, I can't find any listing for the elbows on Napa's website. Can anyone help here?

Thanks!

Dorman 47065, any parts store should be able to order it for you. The package comes with both elbows. Clean the chunk of elbow out of the old tensioner and lower intake, then I like to buff the holes with steel wool to ensure they are clean.

To install, just lube the o-rings with a little oil or vasoline. And wiggle in place then bolt the tensioner to the head. I know it seems like they should leak...but they work.

Great - sounds easier than it looked at first to change the tensioner assembly.

I have a question about the installation of the fuel rail. I was inspecting the injectors and there seems to be a good deal of gunk and deposits built up around where the injectors seat into the intake.

Should I do anything here to prep and clean them?

Also, is there a way to make sure the injectors seat properly in the intake when installing the fuel rail?

I like to use a shop vac and pick up all the gunk possible.

To get the rings back in place, it's oil and vasoline as your friends again. Any rubber rings get lubed when I'm assembling and they need to slide into a metal passage. You may want to consider swapping the o-rings while the rail is off. Expect a couple of the wafers on the bottom of the injectors to break. Simply slide the new rings on, the wafer only helps hold the ring on the injector. It peforms no function once the injectors are in place.

Is there a specific o-ring that should be used for the injectors?

Fel Pro part number ES70599, comes with 4 rings per package. If you do top and bottom rings, you need 3 packs. They are about $3 a pack.

I pulled the oil pan and pickup off the blown motor last night. I found thin pieces of bearing in the pickup screen and on the bottom of the pan, but overall it didn't look too bad - no pieces of piston or broken rods!

I started cleaning the sludge out of the bottom of the pan and off the splash guard using brake clean. I'll probably finish up using some degreaser and hot water today. What a messy job.

Hopefully get the oil pan and water pump installed on the replacement motor tonight and complete the installation this weekend.

If anyone in the NJ area is interested in the old short block let me know...it only has 43K miles on it and would probably be a good base for a performance build.

Finished the job and fortunately the replacement engine runs great.

All things considered the job took me about 20 hours including 4 hours for cleaning and swapping components between the old and new engine. Air tools would have definitely have sped things up!

The right motor mount took a little finessing to install when putting in the new engine.

Also the reverse trans bolt was still a pain but MUCH easier with the transaxle brace out of the way!

When filling the engine with coolant, I left the heater hose disconnected to bleed the air in the system - this seemed to work well.

Thanks to BillBoost37 for all the help!

Since doing the engine swap, I have driven about 1,500 miles and all seemed well. Smooth running, lots of power, no leaks.

While driving into work this morning, the engine just died while coasting at about 40 mph. I threw it in neutral, turned the key, and it immediately started up and all seemed well.

However, over the next few miles I noticed the oil pressure getting erratic. The needle stayed in the middle while in motion, but dropped near the red at idle. Then it started getting more and more erratic followed by what seems to be a dreaded knock.

I did a quick underhood check and oil level is good and coolant level is constant.

This is exactly what happened to the original engine at 43K miles. I had just recently purchased the car and attributed this to a failed LIM gasket for the original owner that he didn't disclose.

The replacement engine that I installed had 85K miles and same issue after 1,500 miles.

Am I cursed? Is it likely that the replacement engine also had a failed LIM gasket at some point where the engine was contaminated with dex-cool and engine failure was just imminent? Is it possible that there's another connection causing these engines to spin bearings (contaminant in the fuel system, etc????)?

The only parts I swapped from the original bad engine were the supercharger and the oil pan & pickup screen (which were cleaned well).

Really frustrated as I was under the impression that the 3800 series II was a rock-solid engine.

Any thoughts on this situation?

Is it possible that an issue with the supercharger caused the 2 engines to fail? The boost gauge indicated normal pressure so this seems unlikely.

However this is the only common link between the 2 engines....unless I'm just unlucky :-(