Engine Rebuild Time, Suggestions.

[lndshark]

Hi all. Long story short, bought a 98, as#$$le I bought it from never, and i mean never, changed the oil, maybe once in 75K. I have pictures. Got my cams welded like every good boy should, some gunk got knocked loose, stuck a valve. having a guy pull the heads, rebuild both. I also want to have him pull the oil pan, and clean all the crap out down there. Is there anything else I should have him do replace in the process.

I know the gen 1 and 2s have some rod bearing problems. Is this an issue with the gen 3. Is it worth while to have them changed. Sho I replace the oil pump, etc.

I would appreciate any suggestions about this, as go time approaches. Im going to be borrowing money to do this, geeze, first time ive had a car payment in six years. I want to do do it right. Any performance modifications I should consider while my engine is in this state of disassemble?

Thanks all.

 

[ArkanSHO]

If you are having both heads pulled and dropping the oil pan you may as well find a way to de-sludge the entire bottom end. To the best of my knowledge only a handfull of V-8's have suffered a bearing problem and almost all of them have been attributed to oil issues. Paul Nimz is the only one that stands out because he obviously changes his oil regularly but I believe he attributed his bearing failure to using something higher then the 5w oil recomended. In any case, pulling the rod caps requires replacing all the rod boltsaccording to FOMOCO. It might be worth it o pop them off just to check the wear. Mine at 95,000 on dino oil for half of its life had 4 or 5 layers worn through but no copper showing. Not positive since I have not seen one worn that far but I would guess the bearings on these a 10 layers.
If you truly think that the oil had not been changed for that long it really should be thoroughly cleaned after disassembly. A chunk of coaked up oil or solid sludge plugging one of the oil passages at even 3000 RPM can ruin your day when an extra 4 or 5 hours of labor to remove it in the first place would have been much less expensive in the long run. Remember these engines can go quite a long time if taken care of (at least one on the V8 list is over 200k now).

 

[lndshark]

Thanks Carter, thats kind of what I was thinking. I will post pictures of the inside of the engine later today. the guy who did the cam weld said he hadent seen an engine like that in anything, except maybe a car from the 60s.

Is there a safe way to remove the gunk on the bottom end. I heard something about engine flush but wanted to hold off until i was sure that it wouldnt damage any seals or the like.

Would it be possible to power was the bottom when the pan was off, and not screw anything up?

I dont, know, i just want to make sure I do it right. I want the car fro the next ten years. Drives my fiancee nute, but i cant see my self driving any car in the forseeable future except an SHO.

 

[Mr Anonymous]

Find another motor.

A motor which has a history of neglected maintenance is usually not a good candidate for rebuilding. I'd wager that your failure was probably due to oil starvation. You could be several hundred into labor before finding that the cam and/or crank journals are fubared.

If you decide to still go ahead with rebuilding, you will want to have the block and heads at least tanked, or preferably thermal jet washed. Chances are your oil passages are pretty full of crud.

 

[luigisho]

If it's really that filthy, as cheap as I am, I'm still inclined to agree with Chris. I'd get a good look at the wear parts like crank and cams and the associated bearings/journals and try to make sure the oil passages are clean. If it's as bad as you say, I'd like to see a pic of the oil pump screen.

 

[ArkanSHO]

Is there a safe way to remove the gunk on the bottom end. I heard something about engine flush but wanted to hold off until i was sure that it wouldnt damage any seals or the like.
Would it be possible to power was the bottom when the pan was off, and not screw anything up?

If you plan on driving it for a while tank the motor. Yes, it is a pain to disassemble it but in the long run you will feel better not wondering if the other shoe is going to drop and have a chunk of sludge plug a oiling port. Then you will be real ****** you didn't spend the extra time taking it all the way down.
I'll be honest I have never heard of anybody sucsessfully pulling the pan and power washing it. I would think that not being able to get the oil passeges to the journals would be the main reason. Forcing high pressure from the pump down the pump side would just knock all the caked on crap to the end of the port where it would cause the most damage. Do yourself a favor and tear it all the way down.

 

[lndshark]

Yeah, Im looking for a new motor. I though it would be stupid to spend bookoo bucks on this one and still always wonder when the other shoe is going to drop.

I have a line on a few motors now. just got a bank loan, so were getting ready to go.

One questions Carter, I know youve had the engine out a time or two. Is an engine swap something that a ford shop should do only? I mean is this somethng your average everday mechanic can do?

Thanks

brian

 

[multishowner]

I agree on the tank of the engine. I would pull the motor, tear it down to it's smallest pieces, have it chemically cleaned, have everything checked, and all the gaskets replaced. I thought I had cam failure #394 ( http://www.v8sho.com/SHO/Less recent Changes 6.htm ), but it turned out to be carbon on the intake valves. The owner didn't do anything except turn up the radio when the piston started to hit the valve. Eventually it caused the entire piston to break to small pieces... One of those pieces was big enough to cut the sister connecting rod in two... I have pics posted on the above site. WELL, the replacement block was full of this sludge... I pulled the original engine, tore it down, and scrapped the rear head and block... saved the cams and the front head. tore down the good heads from both motors, and chemically cleaned everthing for days, with my wife's help! The forged crank from the original motor was better off than the sludged motor, so check that out with a fine tooth comb!! I cleaned that up and replaced all the bearings. The motor coming out the top is a tight fit, which is to say, I wouldn't want to do it again, but very possible... I don't have a lift in my garage, so dropping it out the bottom would have been a little more difficult, although others would disagree. The hardest part was getting it back in... There are hydraulic timing chain tensioners in these babies and if you have one of those loose oil pressure, it could get that chain slapping around under that cover... That is what originally took out the replacement motor, that is purring in my car now... It broke the chain... The chain took out the front head and the oil pump... The block didn't have a scratch on it...

Bottom line, do what you can feel comfortable with.... My engine is a frankenstein of two motors, but I spent far more hours on it then most would even consider. Get a new motor if time isn't on your side.... Good luck!!

Bill

 

[ArkanSHO]

One questions Carter, I know youve had the engine out a time or two. Is an engine swap something that a ford shop should do only? I mean is this somethng your average everday mechanic can do?
Thanks
brian

First I don't consider myself a mechanic in the even the remotest fashion. I took some autoshop in highschool back in the early 70's but just feel this stuff come naturally. I actually make television commercials for a living. That being said I have pulled my motor several times for various reasons and do not find it difficult although it is time consuming if like me you do it outside in your driveway with hand tools (no pneumatics) and a floor jack though a good engine hoist certainly helps for dropping it out the bottom. Larry's car was the first one I saw dropped out the bottom using an engine hoist to lift the body, which would have been infinetly easier then the way I did it with a floor jack and lots of concrete blocks. My method put the engine on the ground in front of the car in 4 hours by the second time (first time was 5 hours). Hardast part in my opinion was trying to unplug the O2 sensors the first time as I removed the Y-pipe before pulling the motor. The second time I left the Y-pipe atached and pulled the O2 sensors plugs after it was on the ground. Much easier.