2.3 to a 2.4

[jeremytx]

Recently paid a shop to change a cracked timing housing on my wifes 1995 GA. He reused the old tensioner and it jumped six teeth on the crank sprocket leaving me with empty pockets and 16 funny looking valves. Not wanting to get burned again I happened to have an 89 quad4 086 cylinder head(I assume it is an 086) it had factory headers and I utilized the headers, downpipe, and thermostat housing from the 89 block. After a huge amount of time and effort I finished her car with wonderful power gains. VERY NOTICEABLE! I drove the car for a couple of days before I let my wife and kids loose in it. And it developed a rod bearing knock. SO MUCH FOR TRYING!
ANYWAYS~now I am looking to swap engines and being the oddball 95 vin d has gotten on my badside, I want to place a 2.4 twin cam in the car. Everything(Intake, Headers, front mount, and so forth) are going to work just fine and I am fully convinced my ecm will work for the project IF! the spark reference angle for the crankshaft position sensor is the same as a 95 2.3 block. Does anyone happen to know if the reference angles are the same for a 95 2.3 and 96up 2.4.
Here is the only thing I've learned to this point.....
"The crank sensor has moved twice in the block: first in ’89 (making the ’88 crank an oddball) and again in ’95. This means that the reference angle on the crank itself has also changed, and you’ll need to either play with engine calibrations and change the spark reference angle, or else bias your spark advance. The 2.4L crank trigger wheel, incidentally, is wider but smaller in diameter. Wide-open throttle spark advance above 4,000 rpm should be set between 22–24 degrees" ....got that while searching the web. Any further knowledge will put me beyond the laymen on this subject, and will be appreciated. Sorry about the length of the post.

[graden]

the length is fine ..the more discriptive the better .. but why mess around.. if your going to go 2.4.. just grab a 2.4 harness and ecm.. i think last time i grabed 1 from the scrap yard it cost me 2 hours in work and $20. if you grab 1 out of a 95-96 G.A it shoud just be a direct plug in.. with possibly a few discrepicys in the harness bulk head at the fire wall on the drivers side.. but the harness on the pass side to the ecm should be fine.

Off topic im willing to bet the reason you devleoped bearing knock is between you and the mec that tryed the first time, allowed anti freeze in the oil pan .. i cant begin to tell you how manny ppl i know have develiped this issue after having the heads/ head gaskets worked on.. for some reason when anti freeze mixes in the oil it becomes very acidic to the inerds of 2.3 and 2.4 engines. I have been in the same boat my self.. not 4 days after replacing my heads .. i spun a rod allowing the pistion to come higher then norm and cracking my $800 heads i just bough for the thing.. needless to say i riped that engine out so fast, and took enjoyment in watching its demise on the crusher.

when these engines run good and new.. there good little engines with decint horse power . when you start having problems ... fix cheep and sell fast.

your other option is summer project and go with a bigger engine.. 3100 ,3300 , 3400 . same thing your going to do any ways, swap engine and harness, but with this you are going to need to do a tranny swap as well as the 2.3 starter is located in a different place then 3100, 3300 and 3400. but atleast your going to get a more dependable engine in the long run and the tranny is easly removed after the engine is gone. if your interested .. hit me up with a pm and ill give yah some instruction.

[gspotGA]

did the swap work looking at doing the same swap. let me kno. thanks jason.