New owner, need engine advice

teamlosi12345 said:

Recently got a 2008 cabrio, good body with badly smoking engine 110k miles. Used car/parts dealer had engine available with 60,000 miles. Already took old engine out and have the “new” engine. What should i do before i install the new engine? New belts? Plugs? Make sure head bolts are tight? Etc? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

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Smart recommends a valve clearance check at 60,000 miles. Things might be a bit more accessible with the engine out.

~toaster

teamlosi12345 said:

Ive, got a compression tester, cant i turn the motor over with a wrench at the main pulley?

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You are not going to be able to get a good compression number by turning the engine over manually...it simply won't be fast enough.

A better method of determining engine condition is a leak-down test. Remove plugs, manually position each cylinder one-by-one to top dead center, lock the flywheel to prevent movement, pressurize the cylinder looking at rate and source of leakage.

The most common failures of these engines tends to be head gasket or burned valves.

~toaster