cleaning internal motor parts?

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connerray

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Just picked up a 360 mag from a 96 pickup for $100. Its been sitting in a shop for a year or two with the intake off and has some trash in it that a shop vac won't reach. Any ideas of what to use to flush it out? Also the drive side of the motor had the plugs out and no manifolds and I want to flush every thing before I put an intake on and plugs and headers. Any ideas with out tearing it down to a short block?
 
It was pulled cause it wasn't running right and turned out to be a scencor or something. It came from my buddy and trust his word. The truck only had ~120k miles.
 
Primed a gallon of WD40 through an engine to "flush" the oiling system. There would be nothing wrong with soapy water wash first, having the oil pan off would be best.
 
Why not just take it apart. Have the block hot tanked and put it back together. You still need a gasket kit anyway and with the top off that long, I'd change the bearings to be safe. Set of piston rings wouldn't hurt (they're fairly cheap anyway), hone the cylinders and slap altogether. Depending on what you're putting it in have the cam reground to a better spec.
 
Going in a 70 duster. What would be some good grinds for the cam? it will be carbed and headers only mods.
 
Cylinder bore wise, a FI engine will go for pretty decent miles......But the fact that it's been open, and you really don't know how it was treated during it's lifespan, i'd open it up. At least check the bearings and install a fresh oil pump. Figuring you got a great deal for $100, i'd make sure you'll get some miles out of the work you're doing to swap engines.
 
connerray said:
Going in a 70 duster. What would be some good grinds for the cam? it will be carbed and headers only mods.
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Depends, what tranny you using auto or manual? Got a gear ratio you are planning to use? What is the intended purpose of the car?
 
Personally I wouldn't even consider putting a used engine in a car that'd been sitting for two years without a quick visual inspection of the bores and combustion chambers. Not even if I bought it off Keith black himself.

It takes what...2-3 hours and a couple of gaskets?

Nothing worse than spending a weekend swapping a motor and then finding out it's a POS, does not make for a good night's sleep!
 
How in the heck could one determine a sensor was the problem AFTER the engine was removed. If you don't want to take it apart, may as well just turn it upside down and shake it, call it good.
 
RedFish said:
How in the heck could one determine a sensor was the problem AFTER the engine was removed. If you don't want to take it apart, may as well just turn it upside down and shake it, call it good.
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wise words!!
 
RedFish said:
How in the heck could one determine a sensor was the problem AFTER the engine was removed. If you don't want to take it apart, may as well just turn it upside down and shake it, call it good.
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I like the way you think RedFish!:blob:

For the investment of a couple of hours work and some gaskets, you will be avoiding possibly years of troubleshooting all kinds of possible problems. As Nike says, "Just Do It!"
 
Are you trusting the word of a guy that replaced an engine because of a "bad sensor"?

Just curious.
 
Trusting the guy hasn't a thing to do with it. It sat out in a shop uncovered for an extended period. There's dust and dirt in every crevice that can possibly be. I wouldn't run that engine in anything without a complete teardown and inspection. What will you be out? A gasket set. Big deal. You'll also be able to catch a potential problem if it's there before it happens. Do it right.
 
Alright. Looks like a tear down. But the cleaning question still stands. i don't know any machine shops let alone someone with a hot tank?... I'm still searching and asking around but just say I don't find one, what do I do?
 
Tear it down. If you want to check the rod bearings without popping them off you can wiggle them and see how much play they have. They will have side to side play don't worry about that. But they should not have much play up and down. Pretty much just wiggle them all by hand and if one has a bunch more play then the rest you have a bad or spun bearing. Another thing you can do is wiggle the pistons in the bore. They might move the slightest bit which is okay but if it moves back and forth 1/4 inch your going to have a very smokey engine.

Unless there is tons of crud in the engine I don't think you need to hot tank it. Clean it up yourself, make sure all your oil passages are free and clear.
 
Most local Napas have a machine shop with a hot tank. But any engine rebuilder should have one as well. Bare min if it were me is a hot tank, gasket kit, new bearings, new piston rings.
 
Use kerosene or block cleaner to cut through the oil and grease, then you can clean everything with hot soapy water. I do that even if it was hot tanked. If you hot tank it, you will be replacing cam bearings. Use a metal scrub brush on everything but machined surfaces and bearings. Use Scotchbrite on the machined surfaces. Just enough to get them clean. I use gun cleaning rods and brushes for all the passages. Paint external surfaces and oil down everything inside. Plastigage the bearings. Look at everything. Get a double roller timing chain set, a windage tray, and new gaskets and seals. If you have enough money now is the time to get a good valve job. If you are replacing the cam, get matching valve springs. After that you should be good for quite a while.
 
Just Pulled the passenger head and it is a little crudy but there Isn't a ring at the top of the bore. So I'm cleaning with some scotch bright and Cleaned the old gasket off cleaned my self up and went to summits web sight to search for some gaskets and there went any with a 4" bore. The smallest bore is 4.04 I think. All the way up to 4.1xx. What size should I get. I'm staying with the stock slugs and want a fairly thin head gasket to help bump the cr up a little. A valve job is out of the question for now. A cam is in order as well but not sure on the specs yet. Mainly building a street car and want the torque over HP.
 
Got to go get some bolts to throw it on the stand and I'll pull the oil pan and check bearings and check the pistons for any slop. It looks to be fairly maintained motor. Not a lot of build up looks to have been serviced regularly. I didn't even think of Kerosene...
 
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