Ever Wonder How Far People Will Go To Get A Z Engine?

[Fun_in_my_z]

Yeah i know. It was pretty funny. Why did you let him do it?

[texasz]

Yeah i know. It was pretty funny. Why did you let him do it?

It's his business, not mine...I told him what I thought and left it at that.

[Fun_in_my_z]

Moneys money it all spends

[jpstahle]

Hello all!

I haven't posted here in awhile and probably won't ever again after this embarrasment!!

My take on....HOW NOT TO GET A Z ENGINE!!!!!

Well, I wasn't sure if TexasZ was going to post the incriminating evidence or not. A day or so after I got the engine, I did not see anything posted here, so I thought I was safe...not so.

The situation was obviously not the best and I had to get my car going with a minimum of expense and hassle. I was looking at a layoff again (second time in 3 years) from my job, so I decided that I would move to Austin, commute to Houston until I was cut, then find something here and go on. My wife found a job in Austin and was using the Neon to commute to work. The next week I got my pink slip and on the trip up to Austin for my weekend, the engine in the Z began knocking very badly...death rattles, so I turned it around and left it in Houston. So at that point, things were pretty bad. :sleepy:

Renting a truck ended up proving too costly and a high speed accident in that could still result in death. Granted, this was definitely not the safest method of transporting an engine, but I made some changes including tiedowns and adjusting the position of the engine before going to Houston and knew that if I wanted to make it, I would have to be ABSOLUTELY CAREFUL! In reality, if you are caught in a high speed accident on the highway in Texas, it usually involves an 18 wheeler and anything under a full size sedan and all occupants lose anyways.

I had tried to get something set up to get the engine by more conventional means, but I kept getting put off which was affecting TexasZ and my getting my car out of Houston, so the insane decision was made. haha! :dead:

Upon arrival in Houston I drove to a friend of mine's shop, we used a forklift and strap to lift the engine inside the neon and bring it out of the passenger side rear door and it took less than a minute and didn't leave a scratch on the car.

We installed the engine the next afternoon with new front seal, rear seal, a new clutch, and 2+2 flywheel and the engine runs great. I haven't had to add any oil to it (the last engine consumed as much oil as fuel...it was awful!!!) or had any trouble with the clutch slipping. It is very smooth and makes good power. I am very happy both to have survived such a stupid trip and to have a good running car again. I hope to never have to do anything like it again, but sometimes you are on your own and nobody is going to help you or do it for you, you just have to do it, and sometimes you have to do it anyway you can.

Everything worked out in the end as I needed a vehicle to start a new job this week and money is starting to get really tight, so at least in this instance it was the right choice.

Thanks to TexasZ for all your patience and selling me a good Z engine (as well as making fun of me on ClassicZcars.com!)

-Jacob