Engine, deja vu all over again.

The story, in order:
1. "Taking the car up to BC." to confirm the diagnosis (wrist pin on #5 cylinder) Which involved renting a trailer. Late May 2005

2. "Opening up the engine." Wrist pin diagnosis was confirmed. Except it was all six wrist pins (#5 was just the loudest.) The beginnings of the head disaster unfolding. Early June 2005

3. "Uh, my aching head! Where the head was found to be under-spec just about everywhere. Mid June 2005

4. "Finished!" All buttoned up. Driving home. Late June 2005

5. Some follow-up photos of the bodged head bits. Close ups of butchery and craptastic workmanship. July 2005

6. This page. Early August 2005


I drove the car about 150 miles, but was noticing some odd issues with oil pressure. Was about to bring it back to Geoff when all hell broke loose. Or at least the main bearings, as you shall soon see. We never looked at the mains when the engine was 'half apart' last time, especially since the rod bearings looked basically brand new. Both Geoff and I are regretting that now, as they obviously were not replaced 10k miles ago. As they expired they took the crankshaft, and some of the rod bearings with them.

We just bit the bullet and decided to yank the engine and tranny out of the car and do the engine right, and attend to all those little issues I had put aside to fix 'one of these days' (like heli-coiling that clutch slave cylinder bolt I "fixed" with a temporary fix last summer. The block came out, and spent a holiday weekend (BC Day, eh) in a hot tank dip to clean out all that crud in the water jacket. Geoff was eager to reassemble, but I had him wait a bit so I could come up and have a look. I missed my train to work on Monday, so I just U-turned and went up to Chilliwack to see him, and my car. I picked up my headers, which look *awful* and brought them home with me to polish up. A small part, but nice to do something. Geoff says he'll start reassembly right away and I should have it back soon. Stay tuned.

Once it is back together I'll summarize with the complete list of what was found wrong. Should be entertaining. I may also include some "backstory" for the terminally curious. On to the photos...


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The block, fresh from the hot tank. Looking way less grotty than before.
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I am visially attracted to...
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...concentric circles. Deal with it.
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The block, freshly dipped and painted.
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Looks so nice. No more rust and stains!
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OK, I'm obsessive.
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Looks so clean.
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Cranshaft gore.
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More crankshaft gore. The only rod end that was scored, probably when it sucked in metal from the mains which were almost gone. sigh.
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Hard to see, but when you drag a fingernail over this one it is like a saw blade.
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Bottom: My original borked crank. Top: My replacement. Bottom left: Geoff's left foot.
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The horror!
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"oh the humanity!"
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Freeze plug, and the one it replaced. The ones in there before were the wrong size...
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both in diameter and depth.
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Look at those clean water passages now!
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Much better.
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Engine goes in there.
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Bug in the teeth. We'll clean those out.
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