Fairtax4me

Make sure it's not the tensioner bearing first. Those go bad much more often than the compressor bearing.

Was supposed to be short term like 2 years ago on mine. It worked so I left it that way.

Might work if the sensor is freshly cracked. After a couple times getting moisture in it the sensor element corrodes and then there's no fix-in-a-can solution. Other option for short term is to solder a couple resistors together to get around 580k ohms. Cut the connector end off the sensor and crimp it to one end of the resistor, put an eleyet on the other end and bolt it to the block. Shrink wrap it or liquid tape it or plasti-dip it to keep it from shorting to the block or getting moisture on it.

If there was oil in the plug well you also need to replace the plug wires. Once the plug boots get oil on them they puff up and lose their anti-conductive ability, which can allow the spark energy to arc to the head rather than going across the plug gap.

Could be a leaking injector o-ring. Does the engine run rough when it smokes like that? Did you replace the PCV valve? Hoses going to the valve are clear or carbon/sludgey buildup?

Unless you're running a turbo I really wouldn't worry about the strength of the block. People build franken-motors with the 251 and 253 blocks with early 2.2 heads on them and have no problems with reliability running around 10.5-11:1 compression. This is the general build for people looking for mid range and low rpm torque. If you're looking for power at high revs, the SOHC heads arent really the way to go. No doubt there are some things that can be done to improve them, such as porting and oversized valves, but the same can be done to the DOHC heads and get better improvement still.

It's heat cracking. Mostly see it in areas with heavy sun, or on dark colored paint. It's more common on cars that have been repainted at some point, but it does occur on factory paints as well. Basically the paint is expanding and contracting at a different rate than the metal surface that its on. After a couple thousand heating and cooling cycles the paint cracks at a weak point. Only one way to fix it, sand it all off right down to the metal and repaint it.

On an old cast iron block, yeah maybe 200k is a good cutoff to say it shouldn't be rebuilt. On modern aluminum blocks you can rebuild them at 500k as long as the cylinders aren't too far out of round. De-glaze the cylinders with a stone hone, if you don't see any low spots (places the stones didn't touch) then pop some rings and bearings in it and put it back in the car.

I would check inside the connector on top of the pump assembly for any dirt or corrosion first. If that's ok I would pull the pump assembly and check the wiring to the level sensor. There could be a poor solder joint on the sensor, or a break in the wire between the sensor and the connector. Possible it could be a broken solder joint in the instrument cluster, but I would check out the connector and sensor first.

It's either a potentiometer and the center post has broken that connects the knob to the pot. Or it could be an LED rotary encoder type knob and the LED has stopped working or is very dirty. How adventuresome are you when it comes to taking things apart?

Fun video I made of it:

Guy I bought my 95 from put close to 50k on it with it making noise. In the last 10k it started popping out of 4th, so he would skip 4th until it started popping out of 5th. So he started holding the shifter forward to keep it in 5th. When it wouldn't stay in 5th or 4th anymore even when holding the shifter he started holding it in 3rd. Eventually it wouldn't even do that anymore and it wasn't workable to deliver pizzas with anymore since he needed to do 55 up and down US29 where he worked. I've got pics of that somewhere. There wasn't much of a bearing left. Basically, you've got a couple years, but if you wait that long you'll be putting a new transmission in it.

Yep, the two bearings and the input seal and you should be back in business. Gear oil will probably come out grey. Usually does. The mainshaft bearing is the common failure in those transmissions. Not terribly difficult to replace if you have a press. The front bearing doesn't really go bad, but its only like $20 last I checked so its worth it to replace while you're in there. If you're gonna do the clutch also reseal the separator plate and replace the cover o-ring inside the bellhousing. Rear main seal don't typically leak on these, but that's more of a judgement call. Many times a "leaking" rear main is actually the separator plate. And the rear main then starts leaking after it has been replaced.

You covered a few of the secondary things I would check. MAF sensor failure seems somewhat common on those. I would have checked the intake tube carefully, and all of the hoses that attach to it for cracks before replacing the MAF. There are not many vacuum hoses on that engine, so vacuum leaks are usually easy to find and fix. How old are the spark plugs? Old worn plugs could certainly cause a rough idle.

Auto/MT no difference. Around 00-01 they changed the cam from 7 notch to the 2 notch wheel. Crank went from 6 notch to 20ish small notches with a large solid section to mark TDC.

We never got a climate head like that in the US as far as I know, but we have plenty of members from NZ, hopefully they'll be able to chime in with some tips.

Need the 7 tooth pulley for the left side. Should be able to use the 2.5 plastic pulley on the right as long as it doesn't rub the rear timing cover. The other metal pulley will also work.

Not so rare. Your horse had a broken leg. Cam and crank sensors out of sync means you'll get no spark on one pair of plugs. Lack of compression is also often present with a timing issue, just have to know what to listen/feel for when it's cranking over. That knowledge only comes from experience. Now do you know what to listen for to pick out your horse from the herd?

Injectors share common power. ECU grounds the injectors separately which makes them spray. The main engine harness has three plugs on the front left side of the engine. I would check inside those first. The largest is the one with the injector grounds IIRC, and also carries the ground wires for the ECU. Corrosion there could create high resistance and cause your lack of ground, though it would more likely affect only one injector. It could also be a poor connection of the engine harness ground which is bolted to the back of the number 4 intake runner. It's down low near the junction for the fuel supply line from the fuel rail.

Hard to say for sure. There are sheilded wires in the engine harness and often the sheilding is taped over at the ends where it goes through the connector. The sheild braid is joined to a wire. The wire goes through a pin in the connector and then re-joins the sheild braid on the other side. The protective wire loom is always taped at the ends to hold it on.

In my experience aftermarket bushings don't fit correctly and are more of a pain to install. What's wrong with getting an OEM linkage assembly?

Were the old brushes worn? Did you lathe the comm?

That's fine if the engine is at operating temp. 14.0-14.5 is typical when the engine is just started because the alternator is producing more current to try to re-charge the battery. When the engine warms two things happen. One, the battery has been charging for 15-20 minutes already and the energy lost during starting has mostly been replenished, so the alternator doesn't have to charge at a high voltage. So you'll see the voltage drop from 14+ to around 13.5. Typically if you see charging voltage around 14.5 and the engine is warm, the battery is going bad and is overworking the alternator. Two, as the alternator heats up, the charging voltage lowers due to increasing resistance in the windings of the alternator.

So there is fluid around the ABS pump?

Under the manifold on the right rear side. Not sure exactly what the cable is called. Probably gonna have to find that in a junkyard or check the classifieds here.