I elected to go with the used cats from Jeremy. Hopefully they'll be here Monday or Tuesday. It was amazing and frustrating to find that new aftermarket cats just aren't in stock anywhere. The restock date from Magnaflow keeps moving to the right. The salvage yard couldn't help me - it's a license killer to sell a used catalytic converter. Next step will be to see what (if any) error alerts come up after the cats are in. I was advised not to preemptively replace the oxygen sensors til we see how the engine is running. I've already dumped a good chunk of savings into breathing life back into my car. I'm very grateful for the help I've found here on the forum.

 

It will be worth the effort to get it going again. I saw it out back before leaving the shop and silver is a pretty color on a coupe. We ended up at the old Amphib base down at Solomons and pulled the turbo off the 354 Perkins in dad's Mainship 34. Left home at 9am, got back at 6pm. 3/4 of the time was spent sitting in the truck watching Maryland roll past. Made for a very long day.

 

My car is ready to be picked up in the morning! The catalytic converters from Jeremy did the trick and I'll be back on the road. Apart from getting good documentation for what was done and the engine sourcing, is there anything else I need to be looking out for with the new engine after this major surgery? Again, thanks to all for your help and suggestions, especially Jamie (Ranchero50) and Jeremy (jahummer).

 

Drive it gently for a couple short trips and keep a serious weather eye on it after each trip. Look and smell for leaks or other problems.

 

What he says!:-)

 

Fingers crossed for a long-term clean fix, Pete. I know the feeling when your beloved car becomes a piece of great-looking but completely dead metal, and the relief when it is revived. This was my Lazarus:

 

I recommend you run oil analysis on it within first 500 miles and then repeat it before oil change.

 

I'm rolling again... but check engine light came on about 15 miles from shop and the engine stalled at the first traffic light and the next. Apart from that, the engine seems to be running smoothly. The error codes on ECU1 are PO174 and PO171 - System too lean bank 2 and 1 respectively. It showed these as 2 current and 2 pending. No codes on ECU2. I looked at the outputs for the oxygen sensors and fuel banks. Long term fuel trim =19.5% on both banks. Short term fuel trim (B1-S2) = 1.6 to 0.8% The oxygen sensor numbers seemed to match closely at idle and with the engine revved. Fuel system banks 1 and 2 show min limit 0, max limit 32767 - fail. I'm open to suggestions.

 

I suggest Bring it Back to the guy who fixed it and have him "fix it".

 

Service manual says look for intake leaks between the MAF's and the cylinder heads. Suspecting loose couplings or something like the PCV unhooked. They did swap out the plastic hoses around the throttle body and the S type guys mentioned them in the past. Here's a pic of your old engine showing where they go below the throttle body. Probably dental mirror and good light to see what's going on though.

 

The car goes back Tuesday after work. I'll let them have the pleasure of digging around and fixing it - since I've already paid for it. The good news is the engine seems perfectly strong and smooth. Today will be cleaning and polishing time.

 

Day Two of the car back at Eurosports. They're still diagnosing the cause of the lean fuel errors and aren't really sure what the cause(s) may be. Cleaning the MAF didn't do the trick, another one is on order. They thought maybe the oxygen sensors were crapped out from coolant during the overheating incident, but now they think they're okay. The flange on the replacement cats was supposedly "out of round" and they reworked it (easier to do it right the first time...). Logic would seem to indicate that since both fuel banks are showing as lean (P0171, P0174) that the cause is common to both banks. Any helpful suggestions beyond those already shared?

 

There are two MAF's and they should be changed in pairs so they have a closer tolerance calibration. Flanges looked good in the pictures so someone dropped one? We discussed o2's earlier since they were coolant contaminated I would have went there first. Changing one MAF would require that one inputs being way off compared to the other. Not getting a real competent vibe from that shops work.

 

You don't want to do the work?

 

Roger that... I'm hoping I misunderstood or misspoke and that they are looking at both MAF's. Wouldn't they have thrown out an error code or isn't there something that could be read in the monitored info? Likewise with the oxygen sensors. Or do you just assume they're not working to par and replace them? The vibe will improve only if I don't have another bill to pay for work not done right the first time, and if the check engine light doesn't come on again for a fair period of time.

 

Can't imagine you'd get a bigger bill. Engine swaps are mildly complex and I would expect bugs but a bit surprised they didn't put 50 miles on her before handing it over.

 

I'm a long way from there but will ride down to help out if needed. I'll probably be back down there a next weekend putting dad's boat back together.

I would want a list of the relevant codes and what live data they are seeing which points towards the MAF's. Remember, something caused the original motor to die and that will be there 'out' for another bill. You mentioned before, long term fuel trends were maxed out rich if I remember so how do you reset them unless you remove the battery cables and then get relevant data unless you drive the car. At $150 per hour shop time how much troubleshooting are they going to do versus shotgunning parts at it. Also, how does the MAF replacement effect the original problems. Never had it before so it's either they buggered the install 'somewhere' or you have corrupted components on the engine that are misleading the processor into running it excessively rich over time. O2's plug into the engine harness which plugs into the chassis harness where the processor is located.

 

I'm really hoping to be rolling again by this weekend, but thanks Jamie. My BS monitor is showing codes all over the place. I'm pretty much resigned to believing that if they fix the car it will be by accident. They may or may not stick it to me with more hours, but I'm pretty sure they'll pad the parts cost just as they did for the install. The pictures above were taken during the couple of days I was able to drive her again last weekend. I miss being able to pull a carb, put in new gaskets and jets and go again. At least I can still do that on my MGB.

 

I asked...no specific codes for the MAF sensors, but they believe they were the cuprit and that replacing them has fixed the lean errors. Seems the ones that came with the new motor could have been used, but they swapped in my old ones - and didn't hold on to the ones from the new engine. Supposedly to avoid too many new things for the car to recognize. That logic doesn't quite seem to make sense because the new engine "grew up" with the installed MAF's and my old ones would be the intruders. Seems that if the MAF's that came with the replacement engine were left in place it would have avoided a leak issue. Now I'll have the pleasure of paying for the new sensors. They haven't had a chance to road test the car, but will in the morning. I told them I'd take it for the weekend and see if the codes stay clear. It would be nice to close out this saga.

 

The MAF's bolt into the fender wells behind the fog lamps. I can't imagine the salvage place would have shipped another box of parts with the engine, especially how it was sitting on the barely adequate pallet. I was wondering where the old starter was when I picked up the engine and the coil covers were missing. Seems most folks (me included) keep the piles of parts together.

Even if they can't figure it out I'd get it out of there and listen to what it tells you. Shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.