tearing apart engine.

[shmoo]

^^^maugh, helpful post.

[futurevr4man]

Isiah, don't worry about upgrading the heads. I would clean them if I were you, and put in new valve stem seals (VSS), but upgrading the heads is expensive and it is money better spent elsewhere (I am assuming your goals are fairly conservative).

Bryan is right about the stock rods and pistons (although the numbers aren't set in stone by any means). If your goal is 500 ponies or less, then dont worry about anything except the crank. The 2 bolt crank is pretty weak, so getting a 4 bolt (forged) crank is a good place to start.

I cant think of anything you can take off from the bottom end that you "shouldn't". I assume you are doing bearings and that's the whole point of this? Here is a small list of some of the essentials that you should replace if you are trying to refresh the engine. I am sure there are more than what I will list:

- valve stem seals
- new piston rings
- main and rod bearings
- head gaskets (MLS only)
- plenum gaskets (upper and lower)\
- oil and water gaskets
- oil pump
- water pump
- oil pickup tube (OEM ONLY)

I am sure you are capable of doing everything. Piston rings and the bearings will be the two hardest parts. Download the manual from 3sx's website and use it as the holy bible. Look for answers there, then search the forums, and if you still can't figure it out, ask questions. If you do things in that order, people are much more apt to help you! Good luck buddy.

[sergechronos]

To add to the list of parts Nathan has suggested, for a stockish rebuild, have the valve guides checked and replaced if worn. Lot of heads don't have that done and are worn and loose. Amongst a variety of other issues it can wear valve stems quicker.

I've been through 3 sets of heads, and all 3 were worn pretty bad. If you go that route, expect about 5-10 per valve for the machine work plus cost of guides. I had my heads cleaned, checked, guides replaced and vss replaced, valves checked and a valve job done for about 600 locally.

Beyond that, I'd recommend OEM head bolts (he didn't list that) and go OEM on the head gasket as well and oil and water pumps. Getting your tb rebuilt if you haven't already is a good thing to budget for as well.

A stock rebuild with a forged crank and decent tune can handle most bolt on turbos.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[futurevr4man]

just go OEM on everything. Go through Cherry Hill and you won't break the bank.

[Jimvr4]

just go OEM on everything. Go through Cherry Hill and you won't break the bank.

^^This and use the 3SGTO code to get additional discount

[shmoo]

^^thank you thank you!

unfortunately, i'm having to put this tear down on pause until i find a new place to tear this motor apart.

_isiah

[shmoo]

back on the horse, or maybe it's off of the horse.

got back to tearing down this engine yesterday, and this is where i ended up today.

so, yesterday:


got the oil pan off:


then got the oil pick up off, along with the cradle. when my first lesson occurred.


i thought this little sliver was a broken piece.

but, after taking the crank out, i found another one, and then got to looking and found two more.
are these just placed on the sides of the cradle? on the inboard braces where it attaches to the block?

then, kept a ripping and found this:

went back and looked at the cradle to find that the other rainbows (on the cradle) actually had this piece, so i guess this one just didn't feel like coming out with the cradle.


_isiah

[shmoo]

when i found a couple more slivers and decided that they weren't broken pieces, but just strange pieces. again, do these just get set on the cradle, or crank on the inboard aparati?


then, i kept a romping to find this:

i think i'll start eating pizza and drinking coke while working on my engine and watching trains go by..

then, i started pushing pistons out.


then crank out, and that's pretty much when i just bull shat for the rest of the night.


and i ended up finding more soda, possibly beer can remnants on another rod or two. i guess they just didn't feel right about the clearance?.. or is this standard procedure?

**and, i know i'll either be buying another crank, or getting this one loved on. i can feel scores in many of the (journals?)

and, where does this little half a pie piece go?

i found it upon removing the oil pump housing, or whatever that thing at the crank pulley end of the block is.

rog, let me know what you think, and what's my next step? i'm thinking take the block, crank, pistons, and likely heads to a machine shop to hear their opinion. or maybe i'll just buy a running engine. what do you think my cost will be to get this thing back together correctly (to stock spec most likely, unless i have a couple bad pistons at which point, i may upgrade something.) and i'll also do a fresh 120k

thanks for reading, opinions, and help in texas are very welcome.

_isiah

[sergechronos]

Adding strips of coke cans isn't a standard procedure to fix clearances I'm afraid. Those half moon things that you pulled out that you don't recognize are thrust washers, they are set against the crank around the middle of the block but can't recall off hand. You'll see them in the factory service manual when you look at it.

Your crank looks pretty well fragged and will likely need replacing. You may be able to have it turned at the machine shop, but I don't really trust turned cranks for anything other than stock power levels.

The little half pie piece in your last post looks like the woodruff key that goes into the crank shaft snout where the crank cog rests, there's a little indentation there for it.


If you're serious about rebuilding this, take the block, rods and pistons to the machine shop as well as the heads.

Take block, rods, pistons, (new) crank and heads to the machine shop. Minimum is get the block honed and get all the parts hot tanked/cleaned. If you decide to go forged internals, you will likely need more machine work than that. Get the VSS replaced in the heads at a minimum, you may want a valve job as well pending mileage and perhaps even the valve guides. If you have the time, get the casting marks removed from the heads before hand as it's basically free hp you'll pick up and can be done with a dremel and cartridge rolls. For just hot tanking and honing, it'll likely be around $100-150. For VSS, valve job and/or valve guides, you're looking at anywhere from $200-500 depending how much you get done. If you have them actually assemble the short block, your costs will be higher but I can't say for sure how much higher.

Cost of a new forged crank is going to be at least $300, your machine shop costs will likely be between $300-600, new bearings are $100, 120k is somewhere around 600-650 as I recall. You'll also need new OEM engine gasket kit which is 420, plus new cam cap gaskets ($45) and new OEM head bolts ($100).

On top of those, you will likely want to replace your oil cooler and at least get your turbos rebuilt (or upgraded) as it looks like those journals are pretty shot and you may have had some debris bouncing around. You're pretty much looking at about $2000ish to rebuild the actual engine if only your crank is damaged. You can get a running engine for that, but factor in what it's going to cost to do a 120k on that as well when you're comparing prices unless they can prove that maintenance was recently done. By the time you've rebuild the engine and replaced the oil cooler and turbos, you're probably looking at close to 3k but you'd know you have an engine and stuff that's essentially brand new.

If you end up wanting to forge the internals, seriously just do it all in one shot IMO. If you're not in a rush, you can do all this pretty economically though if you snag deals.

[anyonebutme]

Isiah, download the factory manual off 3SX's website. You WILL need it.