Clicky thumbnails to photobucket for larger pictures.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Photo Post
Here are the pictures of the damage from the engine work I've done.
Clicky thumbnails to photobucket for larger pictures.
Clicky thumbnails to photobucket for larger pictures.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Bad News
Well after enlisting the help of my father last night we decided that the best course of action was to pull the oil pan off and take a look into the lower end of the engine. After draining what oil was in the engine and fiddling with the oil pan bolts for 45 minutes (alot of them are in tight spots) we were able to get the pan down and take a look inside.
Remember when I was talking about the bits of metal in the bottom of the pan....well I found out what they were....and there were alot of them. They were piston parts....never a good sign in the bottom of an oil pan in a broken engine. Looking into the bottom of the engine, most of the cylinders looked like they were in good shape....all except one. The one that had the crooked piston...there was quite a bit of rust runs down the side and into the crankcase!
My dad and I decided that we should remove the piston and see if the cylinder was damaged. We took the cap bolts off the I popped the piston out (which I thought was WAY too easy), and as soon as I climbed out from underneath and got to the offening cylinder I knew I was done for....the piston had nothing left except for the head and connecting pin...the sides/skirt was ALL gone. And I found where the coolant came into the engine....when the piston had broke (or if it was previously broken it had been rubbing), it wore two giant cracks into the sides of the cylinders...guess the water pressure was finally enough to do it in when I was climbing that hill back in October!
So here it stands....the old engine is pretty much trash for now (well, at least the block)and unless I can find some way to have it fixed (maybe a new bore and a sleeve)it will never power another vehicle....it'll probably become a coffee table in my house someday :).
So now I'm gonna take the rest of the engine apart down to the block alone, and take the thing out. Gotta grab a bunch of parts for the spare engine off the old one, and hopefully slap it right in...we'll see how that goes and when I can get it done.
Take care!
Josh
70-C1
Remember when I was talking about the bits of metal in the bottom of the pan....well I found out what they were....and there were alot of them. They were piston parts....never a good sign in the bottom of an oil pan in a broken engine. Looking into the bottom of the engine, most of the cylinders looked like they were in good shape....all except one. The one that had the crooked piston...there was quite a bit of rust runs down the side and into the crankcase!
My dad and I decided that we should remove the piston and see if the cylinder was damaged. We took the cap bolts off the I popped the piston out (which I thought was WAY too easy), and as soon as I climbed out from underneath and got to the offening cylinder I knew I was done for....the piston had nothing left except for the head and connecting pin...the sides/skirt was ALL gone. And I found where the coolant came into the engine....when the piston had broke (or if it was previously broken it had been rubbing), it wore two giant cracks into the sides of the cylinders...guess the water pressure was finally enough to do it in when I was climbing that hill back in October!
So here it stands....the old engine is pretty much trash for now (well, at least the block)and unless I can find some way to have it fixed (maybe a new bore and a sleeve)it will never power another vehicle....it'll probably become a coffee table in my house someday :).
So now I'm gonna take the rest of the engine apart down to the block alone, and take the thing out. Gotta grab a bunch of parts for the spare engine off the old one, and hopefully slap it right in...we'll see how that goes and when I can get it done.
Take care!
Josh
70-C1
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wow been quite a while!
Well it's been a while since I've been here....life has been way too busy to do much of anything other than work! I've been trying to make some extra money to pay for college (I'm off to nursing school this fall!) so I've been spending the majority of my time at work, and the truck has fallen out of the picture for the most part. I've still got that spare engine, and as of last week the only thing that's changed since it broke was that I took the majority of the front end apart. I've got the hood, grille, and radiator off, and they've been sitting there for the last month with nothing done.
Soooooooo....yesterday my partner at work somehow motivated me to do some work on the truck that evening. I don't know how she did, but she did and I went right home, grabbed the tools, and started getting greasy. I figured last night I'd would try and get the driver's side cylinder head off and check the gasket....I figured that was more than likely the location of the problem I had because I had alot of coolant in those cylinders. I got the carb off, took off the intake manifold, and the exhaust manifold without a problem.....thank god for the Manchester Fire Department as every bolt on that engine was slopping wet with anti-sieze....I didn't even snap an exhaust bolt which I was afraid of doing! Got all that cleared out, and took off the tappet cover to see if there may have been an issue in there.....and of course there wasn't...it was clean. Got the valve train off and pulled the lifter rods (set aside in a box in order and labeled, of course) without a problem. Then the head.....got all 10 bolts off no problem, and broke the seal on the head.....I pulled the head off and carried over to the tarp to do a quick inspection. I peeled the old gasket off and looked at it....and found nothing wrong with it. So I ruled out that problem...I still have to pull the passenger side, which is this evening's project, so maybe that one is blown..we'll see.
But then while I was looking at the head I noticed the second cylinder in from the front......the head was different right there...it was black, oily, and the exhaust valve was black unlike the rest which were red and clean. "Huh" I said to myself. Looking at the piston in that cylinder, I noticed there was a clean spot on the very top....something that shouldn't be there in a cylinder like that. I grabbed my breaker bar and large socket and put it onto the crank....and turned....and when that piston was comming up it went off kilter and jammed...I swore up and down so much my mom would have beat my A$$ and washed my mouth with soap and pepper!!
I guess that explains alot though....the truck always smoked, and it always had a tap at idle. I thought it was just a valve issue, or that the cams were going...but I guess not....I was a piston! And all that crap in the bottom of the pan....I'm guessing that's parts of the piston...not parts of the cams like I first thought.
Tonight will be the determining factor in where things go from here....I'm gonna pull that other head and see what those cylinders look like....we'll see what I find. I'm hoping that once I get the other head off and I pull the oil pan I'll figure out what that stuff in the bottom is, and shine and light up into the engine with the bad piston and see what the damage is....hopefully the rod didn't go through the block and it really is just a bad head gasket on the passenger's side! I don't think the rod would have gone through because the piston still goes through it's full travel with no problem except that sometimes it goes crooked....and when the engine was turned over during the winter a few times I didn't hear any funky noises.....I guess only taking it apart will tell!!
Somehow all that coolant got into the engine......and I need to find out why!
(I'll try and put some pictures up tonight!)
Josh
70-C1
Soooooooo....yesterday my partner at work somehow motivated me to do some work on the truck that evening. I don't know how she did, but she did and I went right home, grabbed the tools, and started getting greasy. I figured last night I'd would try and get the driver's side cylinder head off and check the gasket....I figured that was more than likely the location of the problem I had because I had alot of coolant in those cylinders. I got the carb off, took off the intake manifold, and the exhaust manifold without a problem.....thank god for the Manchester Fire Department as every bolt on that engine was slopping wet with anti-sieze....I didn't even snap an exhaust bolt which I was afraid of doing! Got all that cleared out, and took off the tappet cover to see if there may have been an issue in there.....and of course there wasn't...it was clean. Got the valve train off and pulled the lifter rods (set aside in a box in order and labeled, of course) without a problem. Then the head.....got all 10 bolts off no problem, and broke the seal on the head.....I pulled the head off and carried over to the tarp to do a quick inspection. I peeled the old gasket off and looked at it....and found nothing wrong with it. So I ruled out that problem...I still have to pull the passenger side, which is this evening's project, so maybe that one is blown..we'll see.
But then while I was looking at the head I noticed the second cylinder in from the front......the head was different right there...it was black, oily, and the exhaust valve was black unlike the rest which were red and clean. "Huh" I said to myself. Looking at the piston in that cylinder, I noticed there was a clean spot on the very top....something that shouldn't be there in a cylinder like that. I grabbed my breaker bar and large socket and put it onto the crank....and turned....and when that piston was comming up it went off kilter and jammed...I swore up and down so much my mom would have beat my A$$ and washed my mouth with soap and pepper!!
I guess that explains alot though....the truck always smoked, and it always had a tap at idle. I thought it was just a valve issue, or that the cams were going...but I guess not....I was a piston! And all that crap in the bottom of the pan....I'm guessing that's parts of the piston...not parts of the cams like I first thought.
Tonight will be the determining factor in where things go from here....I'm gonna pull that other head and see what those cylinders look like....we'll see what I find. I'm hoping that once I get the other head off and I pull the oil pan I'll figure out what that stuff in the bottom is, and shine and light up into the engine with the bad piston and see what the damage is....hopefully the rod didn't go through the block and it really is just a bad head gasket on the passenger's side! I don't think the rod would have gone through because the piston still goes through it's full travel with no problem except that sometimes it goes crooked....and when the engine was turned over during the winter a few times I didn't hear any funky noises.....I guess only taking it apart will tell!!
Somehow all that coolant got into the engine......and I need to find out why!
(I'll try and put some pictures up tonight!)
Josh
70-C1
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