I ordered a new LDK longblock from ZZPerformance. The LDK came on some European cars (Wikipedia LDK). It's very similar to the LNF, but has 9.3:1 compression vs 9.2 which is supposed to net me 10 more HP! MOAR POWAA!
This is the first time I've bought anything from ZZP. They called me last week to follow up and see if everything was working out ok. The guy on the phone couldn't answer my question, but it was a nice gesture to call. Shipping was pretty quick: I got the engine in a week after ordering and I live very far away from Michigan. If/when I need other performance parts for the car I'll be looking to them first.
I spent the last two weeks pulling the engine out of the car. My uncle came over on Saturday to help with the actual pull. I am very grateful for his help!!! It went very smoothly! I only broke the alternator and a teensy plastic piece that I haven't found yet.
Here's the engine in all of it's internally-leaky glory:
The Ecotec 2.0L LNF. Careful, the block casting sucks.
The dealership was, um, "kind" enough to put some fluorescent dye into the coolant for me. I guess they didn't believe me when I brought the car in and said "There's coolant IN THE OIL" but whatever. Hopefully it means that when I get around to pulling the oil pan the crack will light up like a laser tag arena when I hit it with a blacklight.
Right now my schedule is this week: pull the harness and manifolds off, remove engine, take flywheel to get resurfaced, and reassemble clutch on new engine. Getting this done by Saturday is ambitious but that's my goal. If I can do that then I could be running by Oct. 25. My original goal is to be running by Nov. 1, so I may be ahead of schedule right now. Once the car is running I'll start dissecting the old engine to hopefully clean and sell the good parts, and to properly diagnose the cause of the coolant leak. That'll be November-December.
