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Bought a new 1993 engine from the wreckers. Mine is a '95 with the thinner connecting rods. I see people on the internet making 600 whp with the earlier engines. It will be getting Cams, Valve Springs and an new torque converter. Next I'll be back on the dyno as soon as can be. The "?s" on the front of the engine are ominous... Ill do a compression check before starting work...
I decided to compression test the new engine before investing any $ into it. Cylinder 4 had 0 compression. When I bought the engine, the yard warned me it had been sitting for ~10 years and they would offer no warranty. I pulled the valve cover to see what was up, the lifter is stuck in its bore with rust. I'm trying to decide if I should call the yard and see about a return, or just fix it myself. I was going to replace the Cam anyways...
I pulled the head off to see how bad the damage is. A few light taps got the lifter un-stuck, there is some minor scoring. Overall the head looks salvageable.
I pulled the oil pan to check the bottom end. There are chunks...
The crank is rusted. Turning the engine over makes the connecting rod knock chunks of rust off.
I've never seen this before, even on crankshafts I've pulled and left on the floor for 2-3 years. Maybe this is a flood damaged car. Either way, this engine is scrap, I'll part it out to try and recover some $. It was 400$ and had 50k miles on it. I bought the engine for the thicker early connecting rods, but new rods would have only been 600$. I don't want to gamble on another used engine.
I'm debating just replacing the cams in my engine, and leaving stock valve springs and rods in, however I think this would be pushing the rods close to the limit and I'm unsure about the stock springs with the higher lift cams. Some back of the envelope math suggests the stock thin connecting rods would survive up to ~470whp. I'll have to think about this for a while.
The next project will be figuring out why the rear brakes are not working We found out at the dyno when I tried to ease the car down the ramps nose first. The front wheels locked while the rears did nothing. The car slid forwards with the ramps, landing on the floor, thankfully there was no damage
I think this is why the rear brakes weren't working too well, the spring is between the pad and rotor. Thats just amazing....
Shiny new rotors, EBC Yellow pads
Level10 Torque Converter, they said this will fix the high RPM slipping. I cant believe how fast they turned this around. I ordered it Monday night at 11pm, with the custom specs of my engine, and it showed up on Friday!
The plan is swap the torque converter this winter, and re-tune the car on oxygenated race gas to see if I can push it over 400 whp. I'll start the season like that, and buy another junkyard motor in March for a full out build.
Transmission cooler, thermostat switch and 7" 400 cfm fan. Finding a spot will be tough. I'm thinking in front of the windshield washer reservoir, hopefully with out relocating my catch can.
Im glad youre staying with the 1UZ. It's too bad more people dont stick with it and build up a parts and knowledge base. By the way, my aftermarket transmission cooler was mounted to the front of my condenser.
Depending on what your power goals are (or goals in general) for this build, I don't think it's a bad idea to build up that 1UZ. I got a 2JZ not long ago that was in terrible shape, but after a visit to the machine shop for head and block work....looks like new.
Based on the pics you posted, it's definitely not worth running for long....so it may be worth investing in a nice rebuild with some goodies...again, depending on your goals.
We found out at the dyno when I tried to ease the car down the ramps nose first. The front wheels locked while the rears did nothing. The car slid forwards with the ramps, landing on the floor, thankfully there was no damage 
