Help please...EJ22 motor restoration.

[Subaru_for_LIfe]

Hi all, I have a regular EJ22 motor which I've pulled out of a '94 Legacy in 2001. The same year, I pulled the motor apart and completely rebuilt it using new piston rings, bearings, seals and custom ported the heads. But then due to economic hardship stemming from 9/11, I was forced to abandon my hobbies and put the rebuilt motor in a storage place on a stand.

 

It was wrapped in plastic sheets but I did not have time to put the intake manifold on it. Five years later, Hurricane Wilma hit our beautiful South Florida and the storage I was renting almost got leveled by the hurricane and sustained a lot of water damage.

 

Last week I took the plastic sheets off of the motor with the intention of swapping the motor out of my trusty '93 Legacy with over 210k miles and behold, water somehow got inside the plastic, poured through the left intake on the head and settled inside cylinder #2 and #4.

 

I took the heads off and took it to the shop and should be no problem. But my concern is the cylinder walls inside #2 and #4. One third of the cylinder wall where the water settled for months has rust spots and hardened crud from oil and grease in it and a bit rough when I ran my fingers over it. The right hand side block is pristine however and was untouched.

 

Now the questions I have are:

 

- Is my block ruined?

 

- If I hone the left block, do I have to hone the right side block too?

 

- When I take the pistons #2 and #4 out of the block, the piston rings would have to run through the rough spots on the cylinder walls and does it ruin the rings, do I have to get new rings?

 

Sorry about the long post, but I thought the history of the motor would help.

 

Thanks in advance .

[Setright]

I would say pull the pistons, fit new rings, and only hone the bad cylinders. The rust shouldn't be very deep.

[1 Lucky Texan]

^^^^^^^ +1

 

 

 

 

Carl

[cookie]

And expect a bit of piston slap.

[Subaru_for_LIfe]

Thank you folks for your input so far. Now is it worth it to rebore to next larger size, get new oversize pistons and rings? Does the piston slap ruin the motor in long run? If not I'd rather live with the piston slap.

 

Thanks in advance folks.

[1 Lucky Texan]

Well, without being able to closely examine the problem, we're all just guessing. But I'd be surprised if just the briefest touch of a hone didn't solve the issue. I once had to repair a Honda that sucked a valve into cyl.#2 and I just honed that one cyl. and put in a new piston (because the old one was destryoed by valve chunks) with new rings of course. I only had slightly higer oil consumption. When the walss of the cyl were impacted, there is no real loss of material. It forms 'craters' with rasied edges. The hone removes the raised areas but obviously cannot 'fill' the pits - so a little oil stays in there and gets burned. Your issue is a little different with oxide xtals 'growing' from the cyl wall. I still expect though that any pits left will be miniscule after the briefest 'touch-up. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you used a scotch brite pad and just reached in there and 'wiped' away the rust. And of course , use of ANY abrasive will require meticulous flushing to prevent contamination of the oil,etc. Again, we're not there. It also depends on your expectations. I'd think the concern with having it bored over would be balance issues but ????

 

Just try the minimal amount of abrasion first and examine the results, you can get more agressive later if required.

 

I dunno

[cookie]

Most 2.5s and many new cars have cold piston slap anyway. I would see how much you have to hone it before it cleans up. If I had to go too far I'd talk to a good machineist. The finish on the bore is critical to being happy with an engine when you finish.

I've rebuilt a number of engines and the ones I was happiest with were ones where a good machineist (not me) did the bore work. When I was a kid I had to hone and knurl pistons myself as I did not have the bucks to do it the way I wanted. You can get by with a lot by toleraqting slap and oil burning, but some good advice from a machineist who is the with mikes could make you much happier later.

[OB99W]

[...]In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you used a scotch brite pad and just reached in there and 'wiped' away the rust.[...]

 

Just try the minimal amount of abrasion first and examine the results, you can get more agressive later if required.

I agree that it wouldn't hurt to try the minimalist approach at first. However, keep in mind that while slight scratches in the cylinder wall that are concentric with the rings or at a small angle to them (such as what a hone produces) shouldn't be a problem, any sufficiently long/deep ones going in the direction of piston travel can be problematical. If you use a hand-held pad-type abrasive or something similar, be sure to go "around" the cylinder wall as evenly and lightly as possible, not "top-to-bottom" or vice versa.

 

Since water was in cylinders #2 and #4, there's a fair chance that the rings are already corroded. Passing them through the rusty area of the cylinders when removing the pistons likely won't make a difference, as they'd probably need replacement anyway. Of course, it might not be a bad idea to lubricate the cylinders before pulling the pistons.