Opened engine to find my worst nightmare... advice needed.

[beefaroni]

I have never heard of a head gasket blowing out like this. As if my auto-chondria wasnt already bad enough

[Arith2]

I do not recommend doing this at all. Venting refrigerant to the atmosphere is incredibly harmful. R134a has a global warming potential of 1430, meaning that releasing one gram of R134a would have the same global warming effect as releasing 1,430 grams of carbon dioxide (wikipedia).

Also, he'll need to refill his AC system anyway, so why not get the correct tools and drain the system correctly instead of dumping everything into the atmosphere?

Global Warming....

[SteelGreyM]

Just buy one piston and rings. Get the block decked. Light hone of the bore, skim the head and chuck it back together. That will get it going again. Then start saving for a replacement!

Lol i was kinda thinking the same. Might just be the best choice to bite the bullet and get a new block and pistons. I like to do things properly and id be kidding myself if I said thats proper.

Screw all this. Im gonna buy a new block. If you know anyone selling one.. send them my way

[andrebxp]

Looks identical to my S54 when I blew the gasket between 5 + 6.

I ended up buying a blown motor and using the head, block, and pistons off that blown one since it spun a bearing.

[ClevoCapri]

Just buy one piston and rings. Get the block decked. Light hone of the bore, skim the head and chuck it back together. That will get it going again. Then start saving for a replacement!

[SteelGreyM]

Luckily, draining and refilling the AC system is no big deal.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...rvice-charging

Fantastic!

I guess the last question is should I go up to a .7mm head gasket if im removing .3mm - .4mm of surface? I think that will restore factory specs.

[heinzboehmer]

So it seems that AC will need to be drained no mater the option of removal I choose. Thats too bad I was really hoping I could get away without doing that because I have never done it before nor do I know much about it all. Im sure something exists online about it.

Luckily, draining and refilling the AC system is no big deal.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...rvice-charging

[SteelGreyM]

I do not recommend doing this at all. Venting refrigerant to the atmosphere is incredibly harmful. R134a has a global warming potential of 1430, meaning that releasing one gram of R134a would have the same global warming effect as releasing 1,430 grams of carbon dioxide (wikipedia).

Also, he'll need to refill his AC system anyway, so why not get the correct tools and drain the system correctly instead of dumping everything into the atmosphere?

So it seems that AC will need to be drained no mater the option of removal I choose. Thats too bad I was really hoping I could get away without doing that because I have never done it before nor do I know much about it all. Im sure something exists online about it.


I just got back from the machine shop with my head. They didn't do any work yet but I just had them inspect it and all that. He took a look at the damage between the cylinders and said that he cant really tell if it will come out with .3mm. But he says there is a good chance it will. We did a ghetto on the spot "pressure test" on the valves and cyl 1 was leaking. Those valve seats will need to be re finished and if they are still not sealing properly I most likely have some sort of bent valve - but he doubts it.

I showed him photos of the block and that nick in the wall. It *may* be able to be honed out. If not I will need to hope that my piston rings don't go up that high. I remember someone here said only the bottom ring needs to be underneath it -which it is - but he said if you want it done right you really want all rings to not hit that area.

unfortunately, since budget is somewhat of an issue with this (college kid problems) I won't be honing out all cylinders because that would require new rings all around. He recommended that I buy a full set of new pistons but if I want I can get away with just 1 + 6 pistons. we can put them all on the scale and even them up as nicely as possible. Plus we can coat the piston walls with a moly like substance that will not only help lower friction but also help fill clearances.

Only good news I got today is that theres a very good chance that the crank and bearings are perfectly fine.

What im really trying to avoid here is a bore out job... at that point id rather just get a new block and call it a day.

This all really comes down to 1 thing... can the small nick in the block be negated. If so, id need a rehone on 1 cyl, head resurface, valve seats grinded, block sanding, 2 pistons + rings. And obviously the head gasket.

Plan of action here is to get the block done first. If thats unrepairable ill cut the whole plan off there and buy a new block.

[Albertan]

I do not know why people do not drop everything out the bottom. It is way easier. Jack car up about 2 ft. Lower engine and trans with engine hoist. Leave engine on crossmember. 4 bolts plus sway bar and some suspension. Easy. Roll all away on a skate board or wheel dolly.

[heinzboehmer]

You're to have to open the A/C system. The way to do it safely, for you, is to first make sure the area is WELL VENTILATED, and take a small screw driver pushing down on one of the A/C post valves. I'd not do this all at once because breathing the refrigerant in is very bad for you. R-13 in the early 90s wasn't really harmful to people but R-134a is. New cars have switched to R-1234yf which can be deadly to humans. They get progressively better for the environment though. Just so you know, this it is illegal to dump refrigerant into the atmosphere like it's illegal to pour oil down the drain. The system should be at around 70-80 psi throughout so it doesn't matter which valve you use. The pressure equalizes when the compressor is off for like 30 minutes so you won't have 150psi spraying out. It does come out aggressively to still push the screw drive out of your hand. Wear a rubber glove and long sleeve shirt.

I do not recommend doing this at all. Venting refrigerant to the atmosphere is incredibly harmful. R134a has a global warming potential of 1430, meaning that releasing one gram of R134a would have the same global warming effect as releasing 1,430 grams of carbon dioxide (wikipedia).

Also, he'll need to refill his AC system anyway, so why not get the correct tools and drain the system correctly instead of dumping everything into the atmosphere?

[heinzboehmer]

Would pulling the front end off would require messing with the AC lines and stuff? Honeslty I have no clue what I’m doing with that

I've pulled the front end off multiple times and have always just moved the condenser out of the way and rested it on top of the engine. The lines are not rigid all the way, so you can move the condenser around.



You obviously won't be able to rest the condenser on the engine, but it's possible that you can move it out of the way enough so that you have room to do everything. At the end of the day, having the front end off is not a necessary step for removing the engine, but rather something that will make your life easier by giving you more space to work with, so having to work around the condenser is not going to stop you from pulling the engine.

[Arith2]

I am pretty sure you have to disconnect them anyway. It would be a pretty big pain in the ass to do the engine pull without disconnecting the AC lines. Might be possible, but I'm not sure it is worth it.

It's pretty much impossible. I forgot to mention this.

You're to have to open the A/C system. The way to do it safely, for you, is to first make sure the area is WELL VENTILATED, and take a small screw driver pushing down on one of the A/C post valves. I'd not do this all at once because breathing the refrigerant in is very bad for you. R-13 in the early 90s wasn't really harmful to people but R-134a is. New cars have switched to R-1234yf which can be deadly to humans. They get progressively better for the environment though. Just so you know, this it is illegal to dump refrigerant into the atmosphere like it's illegal to pour oil down the drain. The system should be at around 70-80 psi throughout so it doesn't matter which valve you use. The pressure equalizes when the compressor is off for like 30 minutes so you won't have 150psi spraying out. It does come out aggressively to still push the screw drive out of your hand. Wear a rubber glove and long sleeve shirt.

[cozmo kraemer]

I thought the AC lines were rigid? Or are there a few soft ones that will allow it to move around?

I am pretty sure you have to disconnect them anyway. It would be a pretty big pain in the ass to do the engine pull without disconnecting the AC lines. Might be possible, but I'm not sure it is worth it.

[Arith2]

I appreciate it. I’m located near Chicago unfortunately so I won’t be able to see you.

im most definetly going to make a descicion after speaking with the shop. Did you go the route of pulling the front bumper?

Well I know there's someone on here that's local so if you need help, definitely reach out on here.

As for pulling the engine, which is inevitable at this point, I did not pull the front bumper off. The removal I did with the head removed so it was just the block coming out. That was super easy. I just screwed in some head bolts, put them through a chain, and lifted it out. Install was not a reverse of this. That was a nightmare and lead to me having to almost pick the engine up to get it to fit past the steering coupler and high side A/C port. I had to remove the windshield wipers and cowl to get enough front and back clearance but the engine was still leaning too far to the left. It sits at like 15° to 20° but the places we had it lifted caused it to tilt to around 45°. This didn't make itself known as a problem until the engine was halfway in the car. It took every ounce of strength to grab and rotate to engine with my hands for it to get around this. Like I said, just how it had gone in, and the two points we chose were not good. Check out my Unbuild Journal. I think I have that part posted with pictures.

Just for some ease on your part too, I saw .020" mentioned and thought, "Wow, that's alot because Chevy allows up to .030" but when I went to Google conversion it showed:
.020 inches = .508 millimeters
This would bring the bore to 87.5mm which is acceptable. I would fret about that. If the surface of the block is warped, that's a no go period but you can slightly bore these out. Alot of people putting JE forged internals in do this so it's not out of place for them to suggest this.

[SteelGreyM]

Where are you located? I have plenty of time on my hands and just went through and engine swap recently. I'd be more than happy to help. I'm around the Orlando FL area.

Before I swapped I tore it apart and inspected everything. There is a process to determine if there's more cracks on the block but really, swapping the engine is probably going to be cheaper and easier for you. You can sell so much of your engine since it doesn't have a piston that exploded but just some shards. This is much less of a headache than if metal circulated through the oil system, go spat into the intake, and throught the engine bay. It could be much worse so don't worry. This can be fixed whether it's a new engine or a simple rebuild.

I appreciate it. I’m located near Chicago unfortunately so I won’t be able to see you.

im most definetly going to make a descicion after speaking with the shop. Did you go the route of pulling the front bumper?