i recently purchased a 95 sunfire gt with the 2.3 in it, the motor had got water in the oil and was rusted on the cylinder walls so i oppted for a newer engine, i found a supposed good running 97 2.4, this is what i did, i took the 2.3 head dropped it on the 2.4, along with the intake and exhaust manny, with the 2.4 timing cover....start it up sounds great, next day i start it up got a miss some were, take the spark plugs out one was a little brown(all were new) the others looked good, tested the brown one it was firing figured i would check injectors, had a connection on the wrong injector... everythings good again, an hour later another miss... i check the oil holy crap butter color


my question is does the 2.3 have different places for the water and oil as the 2.4? thats all i can come up with is the head is the situation.. i need some expert help on this one... its got me pissed as ive spent the whole week pretty much getting it running

Yes, a lot of us on here including myself actually do this as a performance swap. You will need to take a 2.4 head gasket and a dremel tool and match the head to the gasket. A few small holes will need to be drilled into the head. The smaller cc 2.3 head will bump your compression ratio to 11.7-1 or so, therfore you will need to run premium gas or your engine will have spark Knock and blow up. Do a search on here for "086 swap" or "086 head" there are numerous threads(the 086 is the preferred casting number 2.3 head if you were wondering what it was). One of the threads used to have a picture showing what needed to be drilled.

so im sure i popped the gasket within an hour of running right??? thanks a ton for the info man, i thought i was about to need another engine

Thats probably what happened. Glad I could help.

well i looked at the head and i got screwed out of the 086 head i have the last castings of 456

The 456 head is supposed to be the second best casting. It has slightly smaller valves (still bigger than a 2.4) and the runners are a bit smaller in stock form. Ported and polished it flows almost as well as an 086. As far as the gasket surfaces, water, and oil passages they are the same.

good deal... guess the next thing is getting a 2.4 gasket and having fun thanks again for the info, you have been extremely helpfull

wow..these seem like questions that should have been asked before you did it lol....
1st mistake..replacing a 95 2.3 with a 2.4
2nd just throwing on a head from a differnt engine without asking what needs done to make it work..IF itll work
as soon as i read you slaped a 2.3 head on it i just scrolled down LOOKING for oil/water problem........sorry it happened man but
more needs done to make that head work...shoulda gone with the whole HO2.3 by the way, not just the head

if i had a ho2.3 i would have but my 2.3 isnt ho, i figured same engines basicly just diffrent bore... riddle me what i need to do then thats all i ask im trying to make it work and just not junk the whole project... lemme know

not just differnt bore..just by using the 2.3 head youve bumped the compression up considerably ...i doubt you could even run regular gas now without knock, youll probably have to use 93 gas...the coolant lines on the head dont match up with the block..youll need to machine the holes in the block to match the head(or gasket) and use the 2.4 gasket

thats exactly what zs z said including running premium gas...i have no problem pulling everything back out to do the machining...i just needed to know what needed to be done yeah i know im retarded now for not looking it up but thats learning the hard way...it happends to the best of us thank you for the input as well

np man....just alittle frustrating when you coulda dropped an HO2.3 in that car without even changing a wire. and it would probably have been cheaper with less work..

belive me if i had a 2.3 ho it would have been in there but hopefully next weekend it will be working the right way...and another question, i got new headbolts when i did the swap but it hasnt been ran for more than 2 hours max do i need to change them again or will they be alright to be retorqued?

never re-use head bolts...they are torque to yeild...so you need new bolts.....

yeah i figured i just thought i would double check befor i went and dropped back on...start askin befor i do somethin...