tazassape

Found a 2.4 for my son's dirt track cobalt. Before we pull the engine we pulled the head and found the circled area inside the cylinder looked like it had been sand blasted and was very rough. Pressure slipping by the rings or valves? Also the 2 inside pistons had these indentations (valve reliefs?) in the back of them but not the 2 outside pistons. This picture is not the actual picture of the piston, just for reference. Under the valve cover it looked pretty clean. No sludge or accumulation of anything. Should all 4 pistons look like the one in the picture, or just the 2 inner? What's going on with the "sand blasting"? Don't need the engine for car now. Plans are to put a 2.4 and 5 speed in it during the off season.

Kolt

that is known as "zebra stripes" in gm warranty world. they tell us its normal and no honing is
required. Im not sure why these engines do it but we see a few of them like that when doing
the piston replacement for oil consumption and they seem to do okay like that.
Im not sure what you mean by the piston indentions without a picture. factory pistons have
valve reliefs cut into the top of them for all four valves.

tazassape

Thanks. Only the 2 middle pistons had the circled (in orange) reliefs. The 2 outer didn't. We've been inside the ecotec 2.2 before but not 2.4 so we were confused when we saw that.

Slowbalt2000

iTrader: (1)

All the 2.4 ive had, had valve releifs on the pistons

tazassape

The tops of the 2 center pistons had these not the 2 outer pistons. Not familiar with the 2.4, should all 4 be the same?





On rock auto all 4 have the same part number (second pic). The 2 outer pistons may have been changed at some time but there was no indication that the motor had been opened.

Slowbalt2000

iTrader: (1)

Yes they should all be the same

tazassape

That's what I thought. I was just reading in the GM Sport Compact Performance Build Book that we have and it shows all 4 to be the same. Thanks Kolt and Slobalt2000

rntbuck

interested in your engine swap to your dirt car. I just now got finished doing the same. what are you going to do on a wiring harness and pcm? swapping and changing it all out, or going with a standalone unit?

Cobalt_noob

Heck, if he's got HPTuners there is no need to buy a standalone. The E67's are pretty capable of being modified to fit whatever your purpose, if im not mistaken. Hence they use them in V8's, 6 cylinders and 4 bangers.

tazassape

Swap got pushed back a while. We will go the stand alone way. It worked so good in my Cavalier we will stick with it. Tell me more about your swap.

rntbuck

was pretty cut and dry... pulled the 2.2 and deleted all factory wiring (except fuel pump) and fuse box etc. crammed a nice 2.4 back in, standalone wiring harness and tiny fuse box and new ecu. the ONLY thing i haven't figured out just yet is how to hot wire my power steering, right now i have none. 100 lapper saturday night, i bet ill be wore out. I'm gonna try and get that figured out if possible if the car aint tore up after this weekend.

bones70

I am in the same situation right now, i'm in Australia trying to get some company over your side to reply to a damn email seems impossible. what type of stand alone did you use and when from, if you don't mind.
my motor is a 2.4eco LE9, which from what I have read is the same as a LE5 with different injectors to be able to run ethanol fuel, I just want to motor to run,(reads scream its head off) with out all the other crap, to put into off road buggy, would love a bit more power also but limited to NA under 2.5lt, so I might look at different cams later.
Any info on these motors would be appreciated, as no one over here has played with them much as they have only just started being used for motor swaps.
Thanks Mark

exninja

iTrader: (1)

Are you looking for a "standalone" harness? Honestly I would just make your own. The ones people buy take 6 months, are expensive, and have at least one wire wrong. I'd suggest finding your own harness from your model year and same engine and just removing the wires yourself. If you've put together a sand buggy you can easily handle modifying a wire harness for way cheaper and WAY faster than one you'd buy.

bones70

Mate I would love to believe you, but I haven't got the foggiest idea where to start cutting a harness. a purchased one is looking like the only way to go for me unfortunately.

jdbaugh1

iTrader: (1)

If you know someone with access to GM tech documents they have connector pinouts that identify each wire with wire color and pin location. It might take a bit of time and research to get a grasp on it but will be good to do anyway for if you ever have issues you know where to start for troubleshooting.

rntbuck

try a company called "swap specialties" thats who i got mine from. it was all labeled, wire loomed, very easy and very nice. worked perfect, no wrong wires at all. my motor was le5, don't know anything about le9. I'm actually fixing to part mine out, race car took too many hits, frame is bent and the motor blew a hole out the front of it a couple weeks ago. fixing to cut the roof off and pull the cage, as well as the wiring harness and ecu and will probably sell it.

exninja

iTrader: (1)

Autozone.com, create an account, then go to repair help, vehicle repair guides, wiring diagrams. It's daunting at first, but if you're methodical and take your time, it's not hard at all. There are pinout diagrams for the ECM connectors. I got a sewing pin and ground off the point so that I could use that to pull the terminals out that I didn't need. I'm extremely glad I went that way. Saved so much money and my harness works!

WICobaltSS

Is it possible to check with Kolt on the wiring questions? He always seems to be a great source for diagrams and such.

bones70

Ok thanks guys ill look into a few of the ideas shared here

bones70

This bloke Andy who runs this show is an absolute ass, I purchased a wiring harness, 3 plugs wrong, didn't get an ECM with it( that is my fault I suppose, not reading the fine print), now that things are getting a little hard, absolutely will not return emails, like I was trying to buy an ECM, just flatly refuses to reply to emails now.
I hope I have sorted it out now locally, but no thanks to swap, no help at all, great customer support NOT