Look what I found in my engine

[shocker998md]

So the joys of having a project sit are showing themselves. Back story is I took this engine out of the car after I broke the timing cover by being an in patient young person. Fast forward 5 years, a house, few deployments and other things I'm finally getting to this engine. It was supposed to be a re gasket, new timing set, and new engine mounts years ago. Well being young I had hopes and dreams of building an engine and life got in the way.

So fast forward to yesterday I planned on starting to torque the bottom end, re use the old bearings, re gasket it, put a new timing set in, and re place the valve springs. With some guidance from some members on here through PM's I was starting with setting the thrust bearing. I snugged everything up, smacked the crank with a block of wood and a mallet backward and then forward and proceeded to torque the main bolts for that cap. I went to turn the engine over and got nothing. Started looking at it and I could see all the pistons but one move a bit. So I decided to pull the heads. And this is what I found.

We all know what this looks like but figured id paint the picture some







So now I've got a situation on my hands. Well this thread is going to turn into the how your not supposed to freshen up an engine. This is going to go against the grain for most here for a few reasons. 1. I don't have the money to fix it correctly. 2. I'm getting sent to another non deploying unit for 3 years so I wont have the money. 3. I need to car to be running and moving by spring when I have to move.

Here's my plan. I've got two cylinders soaking in evaporust. One had a little crusty stuff that I figured will go away with a soaking. The bad one pictured is getting soaked for a day, ill check it tonight. Then kroil it if its still stuck. I ordered a bottle brush in a 240 grit and will clean up whatever is left and re ring that cylinder. The engine had 80K on it, ran fine and I believe this will hold me over until I can build a good engine. Here's a picture of it soaking.

 

[TURBOELKY]

Ouch. That sucks bro. Time for a complete build, probably better off anyways.

 

[shocker998md]

complete build isn't in the works. I'm parts washing the heads, checking them for straightness and leaks around the valves and will replace the valve springs and seals. Hoping to get by with a re ring on the bad cylinder and get the car back together in the next month or two.

 

[SHADOWII]

First, Thank You for your service!
Wow,that's like adding insult to injury! Where are you located? Maybe some guys near you can lend a hand w/parts if available?

 

[shocker998md]

Eastern NC, New Bern to be exact. Once I get the piston free'd up ill be looking for a single set of standard rings for one piston if anyone reads this and has a set laying around.

 

[robztheman]

I understand you said the a complete rebuild is out of the question but that cylinder looks really bad. You already have the motor completely apart out of the car. is that head gasket supposed to be miss shaped on that cylinder? I've seen Motors sit for a lot longer than 5 years and have never seen one rust like that. Did the motor sit outside?

 

[FASTV6HENRY]

I know its not the best way to go but for the budget (LOW) you area talking about I would pull everything apart and buy a dingle ball hone from Summit or Jegs and run it through the cylinder with some WD40 a few times until it cleans up. Barrow a Mic so you don't over hone it. Clean everything as perfect as you can get it and put it back together until you can build something good. Just my two cents bud.

 

[shocker998md]

That's the plan henry. Ordered a hone today and I'm hoping to free it up this evening.

 

[fastblackracing]

If the bores turn out to bad you could go oversize on just one or two holes for now. hopefully it will clean up enough to run.....I understand your situation and sometimes you just gotta make do........ I may have some left over factory turbo pistons in standard and .030 over if you need one or two. drop me a pm if your in need after you clean it up and I will try to help you out. Good luck and thank you for your service.

 

[Powertechn2]

Don't get too crazy with the hone and you should be ok to at least make it run. It is not too easy to get crazy with a ball hone, the 3 stone hones things can go bad quickly.

 

[regan j]

I would try the dingleberry hone before the 3 blade hone. Plenty of lube and move it up and down as quickly as you can.

 

[shocker998md]

I have ordered the 240 grit dingle berry, ball hone. I don't own a stone hone so things shouldn't get too messy.

Does anyone have leads on where to get one piston ring kit from? So far I've only found them on rock auto, I tried copying the part number over to summit and they show that there discontinued.

 

[Powertechn2]

Rockauto tends to have deals on old stock. Normally they are cheaper than anyone. I have had parts come in boxes from what looks like the 90's with marked down prices on the box. Hell, I have even had a radiator and condenser come from 12 miles away and I knew damn well that they don't have a warehouse there. Never had an issue with rock.

Autoplicity has them, but $10 or so more.

Here is a 5% off discount code at rock

3284668230014646

 

[shocker998md]

So I drained the evaporust out last night and now have it soaking in kroil. There's some build up but all the flash rust went away. I'm hoping it will hone out and Ill get away slapping a set of standard rings in.

I parts washed the heads all day yesterday. Took them apart, cleaned all the valves, removed the valve seals and did a quick clean up with a scratch pad and got them back in the parts washer. Pics will follow tonight.

 

[robztheman]

I really hope it cleans up nice for you. It really sucks to be in that situation I think we've all been there.

 

[turbodave23101]

I have many stock pistons. I'll send them free if you need one or more. Sorry no rings.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[shocker998md]

So I got the engine free'd up and the piston removed. Here's the bad cylinder.




The piston before cleaning



After cleaning. Hit it lightly with a brass brush on a drill at low speed. Then ultra sonic cleaned it with white vinegar, soap, and water and then blew it out with air and hit it in the parts washer.




Now my one question for today. Someone please tell me that dot in the piston is the forward arrow. All the pistons have them in the same spot. Today UPS should be dropping off the hone so I will clean up the cylinder tonight and I'm trying to locate a bore micrometer locally. I've got a little bit more cleaning on my heads and then I can start lapping the valves, install the comp 980 springs and measure the installed height and see if I need to shim them. If I remember correctly I'm looking for an installed height of 1.70 right?

 

[SHADOWII]

Affirmative on the 1.70"

 

[standupjskiguy]

Thank you very much for your service.
my 2 cents:
The fuzzy pics make it hard to see how deep the rust is.
I would not bother with new rings since at some point you may want to bore it out
and that would mean new piston and rings at that time so new stock rings is a waste on money.
Just to get it running, I'd clean it up the best you can and put it back together.
Unless the rings have huge deep pits, I'd use them, Honing and leaving a decent cross hatch pattern will
file the rings to the bore. These days, engine bores don't wear that much. Look at your ridge on top.
It'll probably be only a couple thousandths. Old engines developed ridges up near .015.
So a good honing moving the hone up and down fast will leave a good pattern.
You may have lower compression and use a little oil in that cylinder but it'll run okay.
As a teen, I once rebuilt my 327 and just honed it and put in new rings.
Cylinders back then wore more than today. It ran but used oil. It did not smoke a heck of a lot but it smoked a little.
But it ran ok and it didn't oil foul the plugs.

 

[shocker998md]

I impulse bought a set of rings off rock auto. they were 17 bucks to the house, I have a ring filer and I just borrowed a bore guage from a buddy. Hopefully tonight the brown truck will drop the hone off and ill get to see whats under the build up and what the cylinders measure out top and bottom.