I'm swapping motors in a 1998 chevy cavalier with one from a 1999 2.2 4 cly. automatic. the parts store says the 1999 does not have an egr valve, but where it was on the 1998 there is a small square hole on the 99' but no bolt holes. I was wondering if there is suppoe to be some thing there or not ????

 

Nope. No egr after 98 on the twin cams.
Kinda nice huH. One less thing to worry about.

 

I think I might be in over my head on this one, but that's why I am here to seek some expertise on what to do, where to go next, that type of thing. Have worked in and out to get this 1998 Cavalier running by swapping transmissions, putting a timing chain on an old motor and watching it blow, to now swapping motors and that is where it starts. I got a 1999 2.2L engine for my 1998 to swap, was said to have 90,000 on the engine. I do have several questions however, after comparing my 1998 engine to the 1999 I was under the assumption that the intake and cylinder head needed to both be swapped? I say that because the 1998 is configured to have a EGR valve, the 1999 is not and the cylinder head is where the EGR is attached. was this really necessary? it looks like I could have left the cylinder head and in fact fooled the computer to think it had an egr valve and just swap my fuel injector rails? I am after some advice now on what to do next because after doing the cylinder head swap (which make have been a mistake) I get a random tap.. tap tap tap... and then tap all spread out across the top end of the engine, is it possible that the top end(cylinder head) is my root cause to why the timing chain broke twice on my last engine? Anyone have suggestions insight? been thinking the valve lash is wrong?

 

It's probably a little late for my input but I thought I could give you more advice later. I swapped a 99 into a 98 and all I did was change the intake and fuel rail assembly. Since it's for racing I just didn't hook up the EGR valve but was going to connect it for the sake of the computer and see if it made a difference. I had to make a plug for the hole in the front of the intake but that was all. I'm swapping the engine complete because I blew the head gasket from overheating twice and didn't want to do it again with the same block. I got a good 99 from the junk yard but after all the swap work, it's got a blown head gasket too. I'm picking up a replacement this week and going to try it again. I think it was a mistake for you to mess with the head but it's already done. I'll let you know how my next try works out.

 

Thats quite interesting, thanks for the reply. Good luck on your swap! Mine is already done. I just went by the book and a torque wrench to get the head right, luckily for me it was a newer head that wasn't warped so im sure that helped. Hopefully when re-doing yours you had it re-planned and checked at a machine shop? How many miles did the 99 have on it? It is definately quite a squeeze to get them little 4 cylinder engines out, but mine came out fairly easy because everything was nearly removed except the cylinder head and the block/transmission. All pulleys and such were gone from discovering the timing chain snapped again. You had any problems with yours loosing tension over time or anything?

 

Well, I finally got the swap done but had work and weather issues befor I could get back to the track. Yesterday I finally made it and the car ran great. Once it got warmed up it ran strong and smooth and didn't overheat. I've had a lot of trouble with that on both my cars so I installed a new radiator that is slightly larger than the original. Also it was only around seventy degrees out so that was a help. I started 29th. out of 44 cars and finished 8th. in a hundred lap race. I can't wait for the next one on the 25th. it's 150 laps.

Poppop