Conventional 10w30 would give you more protection and pressure. I want to find out what the oil pressure problem is. The engine in my first cl blew up for unknown reasons.

 

oh my...thats unfortunate :[
you stated earlier that you have a j32a in your car right now. did you do the swap yourself?
I dont think that this problem is related to anything electrical, but i could be wrong. Trying to diagnose this is one hell of a goose chase. Going to pull the motor out tomorrow :[

 

NVA-AV6 (Paul) did the install. I'll ask him about the electronics.

 

Thanks! I would really appreciate that.

 

Pics didn't work for me. Sorry I'm not mechanically inclined enough to help.

 

I'm all for someone going to pick up low-mileage Japanese engines as an alternative to finding one in a junkyard over here. Engines here usually have tons of miles on them and by this point, in the case of 2G CLs and TLs, are in the hands of the third owners that just see them as cheap transportation and don't maintain them as they should. The only drawback to the Japanese engines is that even the latest J32A from 2003, with minimal driving at 5000 miles a year to get to the average 45000 mile salvage point, has been sitting on a shelf for two years, untouched. That's best case scenario. What's to say you'll get one of those instead of a 2001 model that saw 45000 miles in 3 years and has sat for 10 years on a shelf?

What does this mean for the mechanical components? Not a whole lot, given that it was stored with fluids in it and all openings were capped. But, those fluids start to congeal over time and they create sludge. This is accelerated if the previous owner of the vehicle neglected maintenance. Who's to say the previous owner cared much about maintenance towards the end of the "life" of the engine, knowing they were going to have to scrap it soon anyway? Honestly, it may effect the way I treated it.

This is all still completely fine. Just pull the valve covers and oil pan of any imported engine and look for this stuff. It will also give you a chance to look for any metal shaving bits, random nuts dropped down oil drain-back holes during any work done on the head, etc...

To everyone who's being so negative because a member on here actually might get his hands dirty...shut up. A forum dedicated to cars, especially an engine swap thread, does not need your attitude in here. If you feel that it's not cost-effective, why are you in this thread?

Matt, pull the engine if it's on your to-do list anyway. Then remove the pan to see if the pick-up in the bottom of the pan is clogged. If it is, clean it out in a parts cleaner or in a pail of Berryman Chem-Dip that you can get at Wal-Mart for under $30. It will make it look new. Below is a connecting rod from a Honda F23A1 engine with 200,000 miles on it. Anyone who has cleaned engine parts knows that stuff like that is cooked into the metal. It doesn't just come off. That rod sat partially submerged in Berryman Chem-Dip with no agitation for 6 hours and looks like that. I just wiped it off with a rag.



Update us when you know something.

 

Heres the pics rehosted on acurazine. hope they work! Didnt get any from today. Got the engine out again and the oil pan taken off. Going to disassemble the oil pump tomorrow.

Engine coming out.


Engine out.


Old motor mount. Seen better days.


JDM J32A vs USDM J32A2 cooling outlet #1


JDM J32A vs USDM J32A2 cooling outlet #2


Old vs New LUK OEM clutch.


JDM J32A block.


JDM J32A in....for a very short time.

 

JarrettLauderdale,
Thanks for chiming in! I will see how the condition of the oil pump is tomorrow. Crossing my fingers and hoping that a little cleaning with your recommended Berryman Chem-Dip will fix this !

 

that cracked coil pack u got there is not causing an troubles??

i could see a nice drive in the rain mess that up

 

Talked to Paul on the phone. JDM engines were never 6 speed engines.

You need to put USDM 6 speed timing sensors and cooling outlets on the auto engine.

He also said the priming is important because the engines been sitting a long time in japan, or in a warehouse.

Pull your sparkplugs out, you want no compression when priming. Take off the oil filter, put a pan under it and turn the motor with the starter until oil comes out at the oil filter spot. Then put on a new , filled, oil filter.

ECU/oil pickup/oil pump is not the problem. You just need to convert it to a 6 speed motor basically. (timing sensors and coolant outlets).

There should be info on this somewhere out there.

Hope this helped. You can breathe a sigh of relief now, as there's no reason to believe anything is broken.

Edit: Just reached 200 posts in this thread!! Only took 5 years lol.

 

Swapped that coil pack out for a new one before the first start up. All cylinders are firing perfectly.

 

Thanks for the valuable info! We swapped all the sensors (cam sensors and crank position) and I have pictures of the coolant lines that were swapped. So I believe we're good on that. I didn't prime the motor so when it goes back in the car it's going to be the first thing I do! I wouldn't have been able to prime it at first because the oil wasn't even moving to the filter.

 

Found the problem. There was a USDM J32A1 oil pan on the JDM engine. It was blocking the oil pick up from taking up any oil. Luckily I had my old Type-S motor and was able to swap that pan over to the JDM motor. You can see in the pictures how different the two are. (Type-S is on the left.)


I would like to warn everyone to stay away from ebay user: japaneseengineimport. After making my initial purchase they sent me a email claiming that the motor had been dropped and damaged. They offered me another engine as a replacement and after noticing how many J32As were in their inventory I didn't hesitate to accept that offer. When we removed the oil pan bolts to diagnose my oil pressure issue, the pan just fell off! Anyone who has worked with hondabond knows that this will NOT happen unless the seal has been broken by removal of the original oil pan. Putting 1 + 1 together at this point really upset me. I am quite certain that these guys just replaced the damaged oil pan from the dropped motor and made it out to be another engine. In hindsight, maybe it was a great thing that the J32A1 oil pan didn't work because I would be dealing with oil leaks and possibly spun bearings in the near future....
Aside from this setback the swap was a success and the new motor is quite an animal. I love this car all over again.

 

Have you raised this issue about the oil pan to them? If so, what was their response? A blocked pick-up can cause oil starvation and kill bearings in a hurry.

 

oh nice, glad you found the problem. You can raise a case with ebay's buyer protection and you can state your case and possibly get some money back.

 

I'd be worried about that motor now. Dropped, and a bit of oil starvation doesn't sound good to me.

Glad you got it worked out though, maybe if you try hard enough you can get another engine shipped to you without returning the one you installed. That'd be nuts.

 

glad the car is back up and running! enjoy

 

Any updates on the new engine? Still considering all of my options but a JDM swap is a possibility.