slaman37

First of all Hi. New on here and I have a few questions that I really haven't been able to answer from reading through old posts.



My daughter was driving my 97 Elantra GLS when she heard a "pop" so she continued to drive it to her apartment about another 10 miles. Anyway the pop ended up being the radiator split open. She said it did show hot on the gage but apparently it had been doing that before since she told me that earlier today and she just figured the gage was bad.



So anyway I need a new radiator. Probably a thermostat, and since I'm at it might as well do the timing belt and water pump.



Now, What is the likely hood she blew the head gasket or cracked the head? It has about 170K miles on it. I checked the oil and it looks good, not milky etc... What kind of compression pressure can I expect? I do have a compression gage.



My experiences really are more in small block Chevy's and older American Muscle Cars, but I'm not afraid of tearing into it. As you can see in my sig I'm converting a 70 Monte Carlo over to MPFI and over drive. Just looking for an idea of how much this is going to set me back. Or will it be better, cheaper and easier just to find a salvage yard motor and swap it in. I assume this is a "Beta 1" motor, can I put a "Beta 2" motor in and just use my original sensors and ECU? If I have to pull it I'm going to redo the tranny too. It slips and the TCC is not locking up properly when cold.



Also since this is going to be my daily driver again, what bolt on parts are available for the 4 door 97 Elantra? I've seen headers around on here and e-bay but they normally say for a 98 2.0L Elantra and 97-00 Tribune. Will these fit. Also will the Tribune CAI fit in the Elantra?



Sorry for the long first post, but thanks in advance.



Steve

Stocker

The full complement of bolt-ons are available, but not just everyone makes them. You already know "there is no replacement for displacement" and if you want this car to scoot, you may as well save up for a basic turbocharger setup. The Tiburon and Elantra on this platform are basically the same car with different skins. Most parts under the body panels are the perzact same parts, aside from a few variations.



Timing belt (and it's bearings) and water pump are a good idea if it's time for them of if you're not sure they've been done within the last 60k (belt) or 120k (pump) miles. Otherwise, they're an awful lot of work not required just because you had an overheat condition. The price depends on the parts source, but you can spend $100-200 for the belt/bearings and water pump, all put together.



If you don't have other signs of a bad head gasket and the compression is even across all cylinders, don't sweat the gasket just yet. My engine had 180PSI +5/-2 all the way across at 150k (a squirt of oil got 200+ and spec IIRC is 230). The head gasket is more messy than it is difficult, unless you have a warped mating surface. Better, cheaper, and easier, depends on you, your skill set, and your haggling/junkyard pricing ability. Gaskets start around $50, and a valve job gasket set starts around double that. Engines range from free to $500 plus shipping.



This automatic transaxle is notorious for the clutch packs failing due to the use of improper ATF and the fact that the oil runs 10-15 degrees too hot with the stock ATF cooler. That, plus the amount of power the automatic steals, are motivation enough for some of us to have done the very simple conversion to standard transmissions.

slaman37

Thanks Stocker. I'm going to try to get it back over to my house this week and do a compression check on it. I know the timing belt and water pump both have about 100K on it. So they're going to get replaced.



I figured the Tib and Elantra were the same platform and most stuff should fit. Simular to how most 1st gen Monte and 68-72 Chevelle parts interchange.



I will look around for some posts on making the swap to a manual. As it sounds like the auto is junk to begin with.



Thanks again

Stocker

In that case, if you can find a running crashed 96-2000 elantra or 97-2001 tiburon with a manual transmission you will be coming out ahead. A parts car is a huge help for the manual swap, and a runner is better than a junkyard engine, maybe, depending. Second-best will be what I found: a car with a non-running engine due to a broken timing belt. Then at least you have the transmission swap parts.

SR Tech

Comp spec is 199-213psi.



Find out if the timing belt has been done recently, as stocker said, its a lot of extra work if not needed.



I'd personally do an oil change just to be sure theres no mix, but thats just me.



Beta 2 swap will require all the beta 2 sensors/harness and ecu.



Member "Optimoprime" did a DIY write up on the swap if you were really intrested in doing it.