I just today pulled the motor off of the 78. Needed to do it to get the heads off so I can take them to a machine shop to get the stupid broken bolts removed.

 

Anyway, took some pics, lots of crud everywhere... How bad would you guys say it is?

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/166896604/171703146PyfTiT

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/166896604/171703775NeuAfc

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/166896604/171703684heMuUr

How thick is it?? I had some pretty thick carbon buildup on the tops of the pistons of one of my 88's. Some chemicals and a putty knife made quick work of them though.

 

So... if the car has been run on crappy gas for a long time... seems pretty typical to me as most of the engines ive yanked apart have had over 200K

 

My 87 engine was nice and clean inside cause it only has 35K in Japan + 80K here in the US

Don't look all that bad at all. Clean it up should be just fine. Get some Castrol Super Clean, stuff is awsome.

One a side note, what engine is that? I haven't run into one that has the water crossover like that before.

its a bit dificult to see the cyl. walls. hows the wear look?

 

just because its dirty does not mean its shot. give it a good reseal if all looks well.

Did you happen to do a compression test before tear down?

EA71, MY78 4WD 4-speed

 

Wear doesnt look bad, and the buildup seems quite cleanable. I was just wondering if it was indicative of any sort of possible issue with the motor, but then again I guess these pushrod motors do run a bit crummy

71?!! Hmm, all of mine have water crossovers like an 81, might be that all mine are 80 and newer.

 

Ya, just check the cylinder walls to see if there is crosshatch in there, if it's very dominate then I'd call it good, clean it up and slap (metaphorically speaking) back together and call it good.

Adam - there was change in the crankcase design in the 1980 model year to make the water cross-over internal. Older ones had the exteral cross-over like in those pics. This change also brought about the new style water pump that's fully integrated to the block.

 

GD

Only issue there is old age Thats a clean looking block and heads. I recommend Mother's Machine shop on Fair Oak's, down by Sunrise. They did a great job on my EA81 heads. WHerever you take them, it would help if you had the valves worked on and heads cleaned up.

 

Did you end up with a complete engine gasket kit for the engine? And how did that carb turn out?

 

Looks like your making pretty good progress.

 

-Brian

That looks salvagable from the pics I saw. Nothing a few hundred bucks at a machine shop cant fix right up

That looks salvagable from the pics I saw. Nothing a few hundred bucks at a machine shop cant fix right up

Few hundred bucks?! The only thing im having worked on is getting the bolts out of the heads... everything else im doing myself! (cause I cant afford to get it done professionally anyway)

 

brian: No, just getting the headgaskets, I already have every other gasket thats the only thing thats still coming (ordered them yesterday). The carb turned out good actually, its all nice and clean now, and seems to be actually working better (the choke, throttle, etc. seem to be working better now, im sure it will run nice once it is on the car!)

I dremel and a soft wire brush head will get that crap off your heads. You might also wanna clean up the surface's of the valves, where they seat with the head.

 

Those pix are lookin good, the car will be nice when your finished

 

 

-Brian

Ya, it should be nice. Ive painted a few engine bay parts that were looking bad, and have a few more that i'm going to paint now. I'm thinking yellow for the valve covers, but I havent decided what to paint the intake yet... Blue, black or yellow?

I would say yellow valve covers, blue intake, and heads, aluminum block.

 

Those plug wires you picked up?? Were they Yellow or blue?

 

-Brian

The plug wires are blue like the distributor cap.

Not to bad. That should be easy to clean up. Heres what I had to start with on my EA82T.

EA82T dirty

EA82T clean

I have some pics of a EA81T that was in real bad shape, but it cleaned up and ran good (before I blew a hose then HG).

yeah that is a First gen EA-71 and looks perty clean to me for internals compared to what I have seen with mikes endevors and when I saw a pic of the engine compartment I was thinking WOW what a clean engine bay! so things should be alright after you get the heads back

There WAS a nice layer of dirt across the entire engine bay, about like whats on the crossmember in that pic... Its all clean though as you can see, but I still need to fix/patch up those rusty spots!!!

ok I got some clarification on the EA71 differences. '77-'78 model years had the external crossover pipe. I *had* one in my '78 Brat. Now in '79-'81 they had the internal water passages with an 1800 waterpump. I believe after that they went to the fat case EA71. I could get pics of all of them if people are interested:D

ahhheemmm before 77 russ cause I have info for my 76 that the 2wd's came with the 71

The manual I have says the 1980 model year was when the water passage switched. This coincides with the introduction of the EA81 (which has always had the water passage in the block) so it makes sense from that perspective. Addmitedly, this manual is a Clymer, so it could be wrong. But it would be tough to prove one way or the other as many cars have had their engines replaced with ones from other cars, etc. It's a crap shoot as to what you will find under any given hood anway.

 

GD

Oooh, clean pushrods! I want to clean my valves now in this chem dip... but that means disasembling the heads