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Minus the leaves of course

 

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This is from a EA82

Head gasket?

 

Worth replacing the gasket?

 

And this is the car:headbang:

 

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172xxx on the odometer for $500.

Edited January 27, 201313 yr by Dinky26

Give it a go. You could possibly have lower end failure since coolant is corrosive to the bearings. I have done HG's on ea82's with milkshake and they were ok.

In the photograph your car looks to be in excellent condition. It's the same age as mine. I bought mine two years ago and have just got around to doing the rust - very extensive - so see one in such fine fettle is great (though mine looked good from the outside too!).

Give it a go. You could possibly have lower end failure since coolant is corrosive to the bearings. I have done HG's on ea82's with milkshake and they were ok.

 

On that note, in your opinion with car having set for 2 + years in said state do you think it would be worth the effort of replacing the head gasket? (I know depends on how long it was driven that way too, I'm guessing not terribly long, luckily the coil gave way and leaked most of the oil out, she sure smoked like a bear cat when we got her started. It was probably about a gallon low of coolant in cooling system:eek: any input here would be good)

 

If you (or anybody else) do think it would be worth it. How long did it take you the first time you did a head gasket?

 

Is there a huge benefit to cherry picking the engine out? Versus leaving it in the car?

pulling the engine only takes an hour, and you will be removing everything anyway. The only thing extra to have to take off to remove the engine vs just doing theheads is 4 bellhousing bolts and 2 motor mount nuts.

 

Once you get to assembling the cam towers, you are going to wish you had the engine out.

 

2 men can lift the engine out if you don't have a crane. I have used a comealong on a roof rafter to pull engines.

Do you think the lower bearings are still viable after sitting for two years in the water??

the good part of this is that the bearings didn't technically sit in the coolant mix, unless the engine was grossly over full.

the good part of this is that the bearings didn't technically sit in the coolant mix, unless the engine was grossly over full.

 

The first time I looked at the car I pulled the dipstick and there was the milkshake consistency on the back side of the dipstick (I think, regardless one side).

 

Jumped it to turn it over a few times. Then it was not visible on the dipstick, even when I got there to pick her up.

 

But oil level was high when I picked her up. But not when I first looked at her.

The bearings will not be affected too much by the water but the crank journals might be. It makes sense to have the crank ground and fit new bearings all round. The little end piston pins (wrist pins in USA?) and rods can also suffer from water damage but dealing with them is more problematic; either you can ream the pistons and con-rods and fit over-size pins (if you can get them) or fit new pistons, pins and rods - if you can get them. But if the little ends are good then its worth having the crank ground: you can get bearings in 0.25mm or 0.5mm under-sized - a good machine shop will also match the centre thrust surfaces too.

 

 

Very satisfying when it all goes back together smoothly!

The bearings will not be affected too much by the water but the crank journals might be. It makes sense to have the crank ground and fit new bearings all round. The little end piston pins (wrist pins in USA?) and rods can also suffer from water damage but dealing with them is more problematic; either you can ream the pistons and con-rods and fit over-size pins (if you can get them) or fit new pistons, pins and rods - if you can get them. But if the little ends are good then its worth having the crank ground: you can get bearings in 0.25mm or 0.5mm under-sized - a good machine shop will also match the centre thrust surfaces too.

 

 

Very satisfying when it all goes back together smoothly!

 

Not sure I'm up to digging this deep into the engine, replacing gaskets not a huge deal.. MIND YOU THIS WILL BE MY FIRST HG REPLACE.

I would go for doing the HG"s only. Then if the motor holds up, go in and do everything else. The chances are the engien is 80% good based on my experiences, ias i have done HG's on soobs with milkshakey enginese, a lot of ea82t's.

 

If you thought you had to split the case and do bearings, you would be better off finding a good lump to use instead of doing all that work, as a non-compromised block will see over 300,000 miles by itself.

Thanks Miles, it probably needs a new clutch as well.

 

Are those hard to do?

NEVER done one of those either, had a couple done you know for $800 or so.

 

 

I'm guessing pretty easy once I have the engine pulled.

If you remove the engine to do the HGs, the clutch is pretty easy (and would be another plus to removing the engine to do the HGs).

 

The issue with the bearings is damage to the bearing-material from the coolant, which chemically attacks the metals. I have had a couple engines where things went fine, and one engine that started getting rod-bearing failure 10-20k miles later. Took 6 months to fail from first audible symptoms.