Most liked posts in thread: 998 Motor and Auto Trans for Pup

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.

 

Yesterday I drove out to the machine shop and had them load the block, crank and pistons into the blue Mini and brought them home.

Today I re-arranged the shop enough that I could roll my hydraulic table over to the door, lined it up with the load floor on the Mini and slid the block right out onto the table - easy peasy!

I decided that even tho the block was really clean (see pics)





the water jacket was still fairly coated with rust, so I divined a way to put Evaporust into just the water jacket. I had all the freeze plugs in, and found the plug for the block drain, then I put an old water pump on and covered the hose end, then put a short piece of tubing on the bypass so I could use a funnel to pour the Evaporust into the block. It worked a treat.....I'll leave it for at least a few days while it's somewhat warmish and just let it work, then I can remove the block drain plug and let it out....flushing will be interesting, but If I can get some help to carry it out to the driveway I can just use the hose and rinse it out.




Crank and rods checked out perfectly, so I have std mains and rod bearings on the way, they micro polished the crank and it looks fantastic.



Then it should be ready to build.

First, a good coat of etch prime, then paint. He wants this one the same color as the last one - Resida green..... and he wants me to paint everything, transmission, torque converter housing, drop gear housing etc. so I'll run out to the paint store and see if I can score another batch.

In the meantime I'm going to do a little port work on the head.....

 

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!

 

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.

 

Transmission left yesterday evening for California. It was scheduled to ship Tues morning but he showed up just as I got home from the doctor's at 5 pm so I shuffled cars around and he loaded her up.



I'm waiting for the new pistons to come in so I can send the block, crank and head off to be machined. I'm not sure they'll get here before I go in for surgery in a week. They still haven't shipped yet....

After next Tuesday, everything goes on pause for a while.....

 

Spent today sorting thru the parts I have on hand for this engine build and seeing what I still need to order. Have to wait for the crank shop to let me know if they had to turn the crank and how far.....spares is out of standard bearings so I kinda hope it had to go 10 under - they have those in stock! If it was ok to just polish out then I'll have to find another supplier.....I sure miss Victoria British!

 

Drove 30 miles yesterday to pick up a bunch of parts at the powdercoaters, then got the head out of the Evaporust bath and cleaned it all up, ready to take to the cyl head shop for hardened seats, new guides and a good 3 angle valve job, but first I'm going to do just a bit of port work......

 

Depends on the paint, spraying is clearly easier and faster, dries quicker.

The POR I did on a block came out terrific, looked almost like porcelain and felt as hard too, but it was prone to run if I wasn't careful with it. However, the POR has also held up really well, I built that engine 4 years ago and it still looks super shiny.

This is supposed to be high gloss paint but I was disappointed with the shine so I clear coated over it - now it looks like I wanted it to.....of course, that was just the first coat in that pic.

 

I spent today getting the block ready to put together - cleaning everything thoroughly, running a tap into every threaded hole and cleaning them out, installing the oil gallery plugs, cleaning the bores, scotchbrite the cam bores and bearing bores to make sure there was no debris or scum on them.

Next up - install the cam bearings......oops, seems I forgot to order cam bearings. Damn, how did I miss those?

Ok, well - still a lot to do. Install the pistons on the rods, clean the big end bores with scotchbrite pads and install the rod bearings - yes I have those! Then it was time to check the ring gaps before installing the rings on the pistons - hmmm, they're supposed to be 7-12 thou and I'm getting some in the 4, 5 and 6 range. Guess I'll have to give them a little filing adjustment. Once done they can go on the pistons.

I suppose I could go ahead and put the crank and pistons in, but it's a little easier to see the holes that have to line up between the cam bearing and the block with everything out of the way. Parts are on order from Moss, should be here by Wed I guess. Plenty more parts to clean up yet.....

 

A little more progress......

 

Yep. Front end is all done, letting some paint dry on a bracket I missed before so I can install the radiator. Then it's pretty much ready to go into the engine stand and start it up. I think I'm going to see about installing the shifter cable and shifter so I can see if it drives.

One more tiny success story....it' hasn't leaked a drop of oil yet! When you empty one of these out completely like this it take 8 quarts of oil to fill it up again, once you've recharged the torque converter and oil filter cannister.

 

It was so cool out today that the engine was dead cold this afternoon, so I checked the head torque again (it didn't pull down any further) and rechecked the valves, and found a couple of loose ones.

So I fired it up again and let it warm up - put oil in the top of the carb that I had forgotten to do, then once it was fully warmed up I set the mixture a little better and it runs and idles sweetly now.

Done and done.

All that's left is to drain the water out.....I may let him add coolant later as I have a feeling this one might sit for a while before it's run again. Or I might go ahead and charge it with coolant......we'll see.

I do need to get yet some more oil for it - there's 8 quarts in it now and I think it needs another 1 1/2!

 

And.......she's done! Just waiting to get picked up sometime next week to go to her new home.

 

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.

 

Thanks for all the good wishes, I know I'm in for a couple of weeks of "healing pain" as they jokingly called it, but the results should be worth it to end ten years of unrelenting pain.....assuming I survive the operation!

 

I have today and tomorrow to get everything ready to go to the machine shop, so I did a few more jobs today. I took the pistons off the rods - there are held on with circlips instead of having the pins pressed into the pistons.

I got them all marked up so the end caps won't get mixed up too.

 

Next up I had to do some work on the cylinder head - I have never seen one as rusted and crusted up as bad as this one is. the water jackets are completely blocked with rust and scale - I had to dig them all out with a small screwdriver, then I'll soak it in some rust getter outer and see how it turns out.





Before I could do that I also needed to remove two studs that simply would NOT come out using any of the usual methods - double nuts, vice grips etc. So I got out the acetylene torch and got them cherry red then took the vice grips to them again - it still took some persuasion, working the stud back and forth then out a little, then back and forth again till it finally wound out.



I'll run a tap in every threaded hole before I put it back together again. I also run a drill bit and a wire brush down thru the stud holes, the last thing you want is some grit coming out as you're putting the head on and getting between the head and the gasket.

 

Today I did a little port work, to match the ports to the intake and exhaust manifolds for a little better flow. I'll also unshroud the valves a bit but I'm not going to get crazy with it.

 

Didn't want people to think I was ignoring this build, I should get the block put together this weekend.....