(Originally mistakenly posted in Engine Swap forum)

Hi All -

This may be a stupid question, as I'm new to car maintenance in general.

I'm in the middle of changing my head gaskets, and the deeper I go into the engine ( I just took off the intake manifold) the more grimey it is. I don't mean greasy--I mean gimey--a thick gritty, oily soot is covering a lot of parts in there. (Top of Heads, Rocker covers, intake manifold, etc). And by thick, I mean THICK--You could scoop it up with a spoon. Some of it looks like it could have onece been plant matter or road salt ( the previous owner had removed the MAF and so the air to the engine wasn't passing through the air filter. I'm not sure how long he was running it.

Is the grit harmless,so I shouln't worry about it? Is it stealing some power or could it cause other enigne problems? ( I doubt the former, but I'm wondering if this foreign matter was the cause of my blown gasket in the first place.)

It's not often tht you open the top of your engine, so I thought if I was going to clean these components, now is the time to do it.

What is the best liquid to use to help evacuate the dirt on these parts? Soap and water? Some ammonia based product? Oil? Gasoline? Is there a special cleaner?

Thanks in advance for your help,

-M

 

if you are going to put the motor together after the head gasket I would clean the pushrods out by soaking them in gas and blowing them out

take the lifters out too and clean them with some brake clean

as far as the block I would buy a bunch of rags and wipe as much of the grime out as I could

in all reality you might want to start thinking about a rebuild at this point

nothing is gonna get it all as clean as a hot tank

post some pics as you go

 

That gunk is perfectly normal. Its part of having a 20+ year old car. You can let it go as long as you don't get any inside the engine while your working. It won't hurt anything and definitely did not cause your head gasket problems. If you want to remove it, your best bet would be to stuff some clean rags or shop towels into every hole in the top of the engine so you don't risk getting any of that gunk inside the engine, then scrape it off with a putty knife or the aforementioned spoon. There are cleaning products out there, but I don't recommend using them with the engine all opened up like you have it. You'll either end up getting gunk in the engine or getting some of the cleaner in the engine which will break down your oil leading to engine failure. Once you have the engine closed back up and put back together, pull the car into the driveway and remove the battery and close up the air inlet. Take your degreaser stuff and soak the engine, try to avoid the belt(s) in the front and the alternator and other accessories. Give it some time to work and hose it off. Follow the instructions on the container and you should be ok. There are a ton of products you can use, some in a spray can, some you have to dilute with water. Popular ones out there that I have used are Engine Brite's Engine Degreaser, it comes in a spray can with an orange lid, and Simple Green which you'll need to mix with water to dilute it a bit. Use the hottest water you can with the Simple Green, but not boiling water. A small plastic or brass bristle scrub brush wouldn't hurt either.

 

Yeah depending on how much antifreeze got into the oil I would at least drain the oil out. The antifreeze can eat up your engines bearings. If it has the slug you are talking about you may want to think about a rebuild. With the engine half way apart as you have it. Why go back in twice? It may be fine just with a cleanup and being put back together. Just not enough info to know.

Was it running fine before you took it apart? How many miles are on it? Have you done a compression/leak down check on all 8 cylinders?

 

The car has 175k on it. It was running well, and would take me anywhere I wanted to go as long as I didn't mind stopping every 20 miles or so to put more antifreeze in...

I didn't have the block pressure tested; I'm going to take the heads to a machine shop and have them pressure tested/levelled off.

When I bought the car, I knew it ahad a lot of problems, but most of these are minor. This is the biggest hurdle I have right now.

Can someone please define "rebuild"? I hear the term thrown around a lot, but I'm not sure what it means. Completely replacing every component? Replacing every gasket? What are we talking about here?

BTW, the engine is completely dry right now. Like I said, I've removed the intake manifold and all that's left is to remove the heads. (I ran out of daylight yesterday...)

 

Sorry, I was under impression that you were looking to clean the outside of the engine/engine bay. If you have that much gunk in the engine itself, then yeah, the best way to clean that is to have it hot-tanked as was mentioned. That would require a full rebuild of the engine.

In a nutshell, a rebuild means you take the engine completely apart, get it cleaned(hot-tanked), then replace all the worn components such as bearings, seals, piston rings, gaskets, pistons if needed, etc. The cylinders would also need honed if not bored to restore their shape and the sealing ability of the piston rings. Also generally entails having the heads rebuilt which usually involves having them hot-tanked as well and having new valves, springs, retainers, and locks installed. Possibly having the heads milled and new valve guides installed as well. If your engine's got 175K on it, it could probably use a full rebuild anyhow.

 

If you are going to take the heads in to have resurfaced and checked out go head and get them to give you a price on doing the engine block as well and get it all done at once. Tell the shop that you want to do a complete overhaul of the engine. Then get the prices and put them on paper so they won't jack you around. Also check at least three shops and ask a lot of questions.

Like how much to turn/polish and balance the crank.
Hone/bore and deck the block.
Hot tank all parts magnaflux block and heads.
Fit the rods and install pistons on the rods.
How much to do a complete head job, like new valves seals and springs and cut new valve seats.

You can also check on getting a remanufactured engine. They cost from around $900 to well over $10,000 depending on the size and HP you want.

 

if you intend to put it back together without a rebuild

get some cheap walmart oil and some good oil and a can of seafoam

you could use tranny fluid instead

put the walmart oil in with the seafoam and let it get nice and hot 200-210 for about 15 min and drain right away.

then put your good oil in

 

Since you've got the heads off, scrape out as much of that stuff as you can. Put rags over the drainback holes to keep it from going into the oil pan.

Ditto the intake manifold. Removing that sheet metal heat shield is about the only way to get the stuff out of there. Taking it to a machine shop to have them tank it is a good idea. Same for the heads, although that does require disassembly and reassembly (not a bad idea to get the valve stems seals replaced while you're at it).