did a bit more work yesterday. i stripped down the new motor, pulling off the intake & plumbing, secondary air stuff, & other ancilliary equipment.
following this, i did some general inspections of the motor. this particular engine has been on a shelf for EIGHT years, follwing extraction from what was purported to be a front-end wreck at 40k miles. it looks like they sprayed it down to degrease it, but never rinsed the caustic agent. the result is some pitting & corrosion of the aluminum, visible in some of the photos below.
the intake valves look brand new; no visible deposits of any kind. i pulled the plugs & examined the piston tops (as much as was possible). everything looks really good. i drained the oil, as well. smells nice, looks to be in very good condition, and, most importantly, contained no metallic sediment. i saved the oil & will send a sample to blackstone for analysis as soon as my kit arrives.
i also did a 'ghetto' cylinder pressure test. a proper cylinder pressure test is conducted when the engine is warm. the starter is used to turn the motor. this engine is cold, all the oil has long since drained from the head & from the lifters. additionally, i had to spin it by hand (after spraying some lubricant into the cylinders). most cylinders, i could get 60psi. there were two where i got only around 30psi. i could hear the hiss of air slipping past the intake valves. under normal testing conditions, this would really concern me. given a cold motor that has been sitting for 8yrs, i am not as concerned. very likely, this issue will go away after the first time the motor warms up.
i placed my initial order from Sunset Imports for seals, gaskets, o-rings, bolts, & additional bits i'll be replacing. hopefully, that will be here by next weekend.
this weekend, i will drop the motor & tranny. i will be pulling out all of the old heat shield & insulation from the engine bay & generally cleaning things up.
Time: 1hr 15min (strip motor)
Time: 1hr 35min (inspect & test)
fellow board member Byron in Atlanta dropped by for a bit; he recently blew his motor at road atlanta & wanted to check out the progress. he found a rod cap sitting on his case.......not good.
check out the corrosion here:
and more corrosion here:
variocam actuator wires torn:
suspicious bend in exhaust manifold. maybe during the accident?
