Last weekend I was still without parts, but I had borrowed a pressure washer. The above pictures are a before and after. Looks like a whole different car in there now. Alas, the bay is still white while the car has been repainted to a grey color. Oh well, I’m not going to rattle can the engine bay. Function over form for me.

Here is the original passenger side motor mount from the Omni. Along with the Neon motor mount adapter. This adapter is intended to make the 2.4 bolt into a Neon easily. Neon’s use the later model motor mounts, ‘91+. Being an ’88 Omni, I had to use an ’88 mount. See the extra nut in there? When the adapter was bolted directly to the mount, it ran into the frame long before the bolt holes in the frame could line up with the slots in the mount. Which confirmed my tape measured measurements. The bolt gave me just the right amount of spacing. The bolt that came with the mount

I re-installed the clutch from the Daytona. A POS Autostoned unit. It works, but it’d slip when the Daytona was having a powerful day. Lighter car, less power, it’ll be fine. Till I add a turbo.

Now where did I leave those bolts I needed? Here I am choosing which bolts I’ll use to put the transmission mount on.

Thanks to the goofball location of the oil filter, it’s VERY hard to get the engine into the engine bay from above. I had to just about stand the engine on the transmission to get it to fit. The tranny had to go down and below the frame so that the whole assembly could come towards the driver’s side to get enough clearance for the oil filter contraption. Don’t worry, I have pictures of the oil filter contraption’s really bad final resting place coming up. Sometimes I wonder why I didn’t just build a hybrid 2.5L 16valve motor.

Just about installed here, I think I was working on getting the transmission mount aligned here.

And it’s the picture from the top of this page again. I only have the driver’s and passenger’s mounts hooked up. I have a piece of scrap tucked between the engine and K frame to get the engine to sit at the desired angle for the time being. The front motor mount is going to be a real bear to figure out. And the bobble strut can’t go on until I

weld a tab onto the K member. Luckily I have a solid bobble strut, so the front mount isn’t as critical as it would be for an automatic.

Amazingly, the engine seems to be just about exactly where it needs to be. I may add the spacers under the passenger side mount, as it seems like it MIGHT be just that much shy of level. And the front to back is pretty close to. It seems to change depending on how much I rock the engine forward or backward. When it’s rocked to where I’d like it to be, it’s perfect. Go figure.

The oil filter mount that I mentioned. What the hell were they thinking at the factory when they designed this? Well anyways, as you can see, my tire is going to be VERY close to rubbing the oil filter when it’s finally installed. Guess I’ll make sure to always buy K&N oil filters (thick heavy gauge metal).

The shot here to the right, and another below show the exhaust manifold. I did a quick test fit to see how it was going to work. I’d have bet money that this manifold would put the exhaust right through my firewall. I figured there was no way I’d be able to use this manifold. Well I’ll be. It shocked the hell out of me when I placed it on the engine. I had to seriously shove on the exhaust system to get it out of the way, it’s perfect! heh. Cut that last little upturn off the exhaust pipe, and weld the exhaust system to the piece that the junkyard left of the stock stratus exhaust, and that’s that. Probably under $50 at a muffler shop.

Now we’re getting somewhere. Or is it, “We’re going nowhere, but making good time”? Doesn’t that intake just look awesome in that engine bay? I was really looking forward to running that intake.

Yeah, the above pictures probably need some describing. You are looking down towards the front core support. The intake is sitting where the radiator goes. In fact, it’s also using some of the space that the AC condenser would use on an air conditioned car. I was hoping it wouldn’t get into my radiator fan. I was a little too optimistic. Drat! At this point I’d rather have a caravan or PT cruiser intake stickin through my hood than this. So now I’m scouting around trying to find a ’95 Neon intake. They seem to be very small compared to this thing.

adapter was too big to fit through the hole on the ’88 mount, so I dug around in my pile of bolts (see below) till I found on just the right length and size.

12 pointed ones.. heh, ooops. And the reason I bought them in the first place.. Turns out my flywheel had been bolted on with flexplate bolts. Back before I realized there was a difference. Thanks to one of the guys in the forums posting a picture to prove the point, I now know the difference. Flexplate bolts work, but they’re shorter, so if I ever turbo this thing, they may not hold. Might as well do it right. With that said...