So a couple more projects have arrived - this one is another 998 Automatic destined to be installed in a Mini Pickup. This one will also get a full overhaul, and may also get an EFI system if I can get it all to fit and work with the automatic. This motor is all dusty and crusty, it's been sitting for over 10 years in a barn on a dirt floor...... This is mostly a placeholder thread as I won't start on this one till the spring after my knee gets replaced.
Actually looks pretty decent as I’ve seen things not fare as well in a shorter time in barns on dirt floors.
Musta been a fairly dry barn, huh? The owner and I talked today and he wants to go whole hog on this one, make as much HP as it will and still be reliable, so that's what we'll do!
I'm sure that little A Series lump can make reliable power. What I wonder about is that automatic transmission sitting under it.
As I recall the early automatic transmissions for the A series engines were problematic, but there were rebuild kits that fixed many of the faults. It has been many years since I worked on A series engines, but I seem to remember that if the auto transmission was painted the engine color it wasn't updated and if it was aluminum color it was.
I know a guy in California who rebuilds these automagics using the latest and greatest upgraded parts, I'll ship it off to him and let him have at it. While I'm completely capable of doing the work, it requires some special tools that I do not have and he does.....sometimes it's easier to just let "the guy" do it, just like they let me build their motors and manual transmichigans.
I'm going to go ahead and pull the transmission off this engine next week and get it crated up and shipped out to California to be rebuilt. He won't be able to work on it till January, but he can go ahead and get parts ordered from England - hopefully before the end of the year as Brexit kicks in then and I have no idea what's going to happen to shipments after that date. Already some small suppliers have said they won't be shipping anything overseas after the first of the year due to the uncertain rules and additional paperwork required. No idea what's going to happen, but it could make a huge difference on my parts suppliers..... I'll be using the Fastenal shipping to get it there as they are by far the cheapest way to ship a pallet across country. The engine work will have to wait till after my knee gets replaced, probably late Feb or early March before I'll be back into the shop - I'm hoping to get the white Japanese Spec car done before then, but I'm down to about 3 weeks left now.
I started to strip this engine down today - it has presented some real challenges....I literally had to beat the distributor out of the block - I've never had to do that before! Fortunately I have a whole new dizzy coming for it anyway as this one was already knackered. Ports are pretty rusty crusty! I only removed things like the distributor, starter, radiator and so on, tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 50's so I want to get it out on the driveway and get the pressure washer on it. then I'll pop the transmission off and build a crate for it to ship it off to California to be rebuilt while I'm getting my knee replaced. It should be back about the time I'm ready to start working in the shop again. Luckily the guy from YRC had an extra pallet just the right size to ship the transmission on that he gave me. I'm really liking my adjustable hydraulic table, the more I use it the better I like it... I usually try and start an engine before I tear it down so I can see if it has issues, but this was was just too crusted up - it's been sitting on the dirt floor of a barn for 10 years or more. Best thing to do is just go thru it top to bottom and make it like new again.
The engine looked pretty good for sitting on a dirt floor for ten years but now that you are taking apart it’s starting to show some moisture related ugliness.
I need to put a wrench on it and see if it moves, I'll do that tomorrow. Edit: Engine turns over freely. Oil was really nasty tho!
A pleasant surprise Mickey & friends didn't build a mouse condo in there. Had a friend that had that happen to his tractor engine. What a bunch of damage their pee did to the cylinders they got into.
So, I hung the engine off the engine hoist and got the pressure washer out and gave it a good blast. Then I loaded onto my hydraulic table and today I started removing the transmission from the engine. When I removed a small cover for the low pressure valve under the torque converter housing I got a surprise...the end of the input shaft was broken off, and fell out when I took the cover off! The good news is that the guy who will be rebuilding the engine has a used one, so we're good to go. Once I got the transmission split off the engine, I hung it off the engine hoist so I could drain out the last remaining oil before I crate it up to ship it out. More as it happens!
I had a buttload of parts come in for this build, and I finally found some pistons, so I can go ahead and strip it down and get the parts sent off to the machine shop once the pistons come in. The second buttload with the pistons will be here in about 10 days, in that bunch will be a new set of tires and wheels for the car this is going in. Tomorrow I'll build a crate for it so I can send the transmichigan off to sunny California. The owner already sent a check for the trans rebuild to the guy, so he's going to order parts for it tomorrow too. It won't help tho, when he's done with it I'll still be recuperating from my knee surgery on the 19th Although it turned out to be a good thing that my surgery got moved back 2 weeks, so I can get some of these things finished up or at least in process. I also need to fix the washing machine that's leaking, fix a noisy refrigerator fan and do a thorough clean of my bathroom (the bride won't touch it ) while I can still kneel...... after the surgery I won't be able to anymore.
Good luck on the surgery. I had a friend that had it done. He was very happy. Before he got it done he could no longer kick over his old Indian. After the surgery he was good as new.
OK, so back on topic.... The White car is done and ready to go home so I started in on the 998 engine again. When we left off I had just stripped the transmichigan off the engine, that went pretty well....I'm really happy with this lift table....it gets the engine up to a good height for my back. I use the engine hoist to move it around, turn it over and so forth. Over all this engine clearly hasn't run for a very long time - it's rusty inside especially in the water jacket and head. It has dished low compression pistons that I'll be swapping for 40 over flat tops so it will up the compression a bit. After finding the star drive situation, we discussed various ways to fix this......the problem is we want to get a better camshaft for it, and all Spares makes are slot drive cams. I had already bought an Evo1 cam for it when I found the pump problem, but no worries I'll use it on a subsequent build. Somerford offer a Kent cam kit in star drive but it's really spendy - but I think we're going to have to go that way. The other choice was just to reuse the original cam as it's in surprisingly good shape but he's looking to up the power, so in for a penny....... I'm going to do a little port work too, to try and get it to breathe better with the new cam. My friend WillieB made me a tool to remove the cam bearings - I had two press tools for the two smaller cam bearings but needed one for the large one on the chain end. It came in the mail the other day and today I pressed it into service and it worked perfectly to remove the bearing shells. it will make putting them back in not only easier, but more accurate too as you have to line up the oil pressure holes between the shell and the block. Big props to WillieB for making this tool - it was perfect. Next up, send the trasnmission off to California, and the block and crank to be bored.....and then once I'm done with it the head will go down to have hardened seats and guides installed, then a good three angle valve job and a light skim to give a good gasket surface. I also need to get a bunch of parts off to the powder coaters, including having the header ceramic coated. Once that's all done I'll be out of the shop for a month or so while my knee heals.