engine re-building tips please

**roadsailing** · 28-12-2006, 06:44 PM

Hi all, i'm rebuilding an engine, but don't know naything about it, apart from diesel and spray can rebuilds aren't very good.

I just pulled the head off my smallport 4AGE victim today, all the combustion chambers and piston tops have loads of hard carbon on them, from memory this isnt much of a problem.

I noticed that the hone marks are still quite visible in the cylinder bores (except for some scuffing where the piston skirts have touched due to normal piston rock) unfortuinately i didnt do a compression or leakdown test before i pulled it down.

The tightass in me is thinking of just pulling everything apart, giving it all a good clean and putting it back together as is, but maybeye i;d be better off doing it once and right.

what would the go normally be with an engine like this?

i'm off to read bill's engine building page again.

**hosking1991** · 28-12-2006, 07:02 PM

jus put degreaser on the top of the pistons and sand it and clean it off with a rag. replace all gaskets make sure theres no corosion (eg around waterpump) and if u wanna jus replace piston rings and bearings wen i was buildin an engine i took the head off striped everythinng out of it and got a plastic container about 1 meter long and filled it up with water an hydrocloric acid it came up clean as

**roadsailing** · 28-12-2006, 07:30 PM

dunno acout HCl, kerosine and hot soapy water are about as severe as i would want to go.

**nb86** · 28-12-2006, 08:37 PM

If you arent on any time constraint I would go the whole hog. You may as well seeing the engine is already half - disassembled.
Engine kits are relatively cheap for 4age's. Strip the motor completely and send the block away to get acid cleaned. Clean all the other parts and get the bore/journals checked for tolerance. If everything is OK then hone it and reassemblr with the new engine kit, checking tolerances etc. along the way. It'll be a great learning experience for you and you'll have a nice fresh motor at the end. It should cost less than $800 bucks all up (unless there is major head or tolerance issues).

**hosking1991** · 28-12-2006, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by shinybluesteel

dunno acout HCl, kerosine and hot soapy water are about as severe as i would want to go.

or get a cpuple of cans of degreaser and spray it down and jus hose it
degreser is like 3$ a can cheap and easy
and good luck with the rebuild im rebuildin an 18r at the moment

**scorpion2096** · 28-12-2006, 08:51 PM

I would take the oppurtunity to pull some more power out of it. You've got the engine out, why not look after it now and save yourself having to do it in the future?

At the moment i'm rebuilding another engine for my scorpion and i think the cost is completely worth it.

For a complete rebuild i was quoted $900 and thats not a bad exchange for a nice, (somewhat) fast car!