Back To Basics: Budget Rebuild

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

You only need the calipers and rotors for the 2g brakes

[sergechronos]

Correct, but his hubs were new, plus all those extra parts means I can sell my 1g calipers as a complete set up to some NA guy.

Anyhow, got the old oil pan off today, started stripping stuff to do the return lines and the oil pan..Found evidence of water in the oil (couple milky white deposits on the top/backside of the pickup.) It sat for 3 weeks without plugs in the front holes, and there is rust on the water pump pulley (literally 5 minutes of run time on this), so I'm worried that moisture of some sorts got inside the front spark plug holes and I have rust inside the block. Thinking best move is to take the heads off and inspect the heads, valves and the shortblock for signs of rust, or a blown head gasket.

[sergechronos]

Due to signs of water in the oil, I have put the block back on the engine stand and will be taking the heads off to inspect for signs of damage to the heads and the cylinder walls. Want to figure out where the water came from, I imagine it was probably the head gasket, but never know till you open it up. Since I've got the time, I'm going to be fixing up some other stuff that I didn't do the first time around due to trying to meet a time line.

[green-lantern]

Wait, when you drained the oil was it milky?

[sergechronos]

Not really. Couple milky spots on the top side of the oil pick up though, a few areas of rust on parts in the bottom end. Probably hard to make out in these pictures since they were taken with my iPod, but rust on the side of a crank weight and a polished spot on a bearing.




Probably not worth being concerned about, but I'd rather double check and be safe.

[green-lantern]

I think you might be a bit paranoid. I would have changed oil an ran it some more.

[sergechronos]

I am VERY paranoid about this. I did save the oil, going to check it again Wednesday after it's sat for a few days. The milkshake should rise to the surface if there is any. However, finding rust on the crank weight has me vaguely concerned, as does the polished spot on the rod bearing. Spending 100 bucks on a new set of OEM MLS head gaskets to make sure that it's all sealed up properly is a small price to pay for the peace of mind IMO. If everything else ws ready to go and put it on the road, I probably would've just done changed the oil and given it some time to see what happens. But since I already had basically everything else off of it doing the lower intake manifold and having to replace all those gaskets for the waterneck, plus fix a leak around the oil pump and do the oil pan and return lines..Basically have everything else off that I would've had to take off to check the bearings and such anyway, so why not be sure that it's resolved and ready to go? Would suck to put it all back together and in there and find that the head gaskets were in fact blown, or that there was rust on the cylinder walls since I'd then have to pull it all back out again.

[green-lantern]

Didn't you leave something off that would let moisture in? Seems like you told me spark plugs, valve cover or something. Anyway the engine is out so might as well check it out.

[sergechronos]

The front plugs while I was in NY. And I imagine that's where it came from. But, only way to check the cylinder walls is to pull the heads unless I could find some place to rent/use a fiber optic camera with a light to scope the walls without pulling the heads apart. Course, that'd probably cost me more than just doing new OEM MLS headgaskets.

[sergechronos]

Snagged a handful of parts from a local junkyard that I'll be selling, but also snagged a spark plug cover , new hatch to hopefully stop the leaking I'm dealing with, and a Montero 482 MAF. Going to go back Friday, there were a few more parts I wanted to snag but ran out of time. Hopefully these AN converted fuel hats sell to bring in some cash to help this build along. Should be fairly free this weekend though to work on the car, so remains to be seen how it all shakes out. Got my fingers crossed that I don't find anything bad upon pulling the front head. Still need to send my 880s to AEM to get latency values for them so I know what to plug into Chrome.