SeanR

Grab a Snickers and empty your coolant. Good example of what happens when you let a car sit for a period of time (year plus).

Seized up and can you imagine what else looks like crap.

Rob Edwards

Valves? Or did the belt take it for the team?

granprixweiss928

that happened in my car too, but not anywhere that bad. I had some rust on my 1500 mile Laso pump impeller, it made a small gouge in the block, but I was able to correct that. I car was driven 1500 mile in 5 years, and then sat 8 months in a showroom. replaced my pump with a plastic impeller one.

SeanR

Just an engine that has sat for a couple years. Makes me a bit worried for the cars we've got in storage right now. Heh. I can preach it but not practice it.

SeanR

Should have taken a picture of the engine side. It wasn't too bad. Bit of roughness after I cleaned it up and nothing I'd worry about. More of a concern to me are the many that are out there that people pick up, add some power to the battery and crank them up. This was on an '88 so it could have been some really bad news if it had just been cranked up and run.

77tony

Evans waterless in Just Peachy. Maybe it's time to swap it into Just Peachy.02 T

JBGold07

Was this stored with or without coolant fiied?

SeanR

That won't be touching anything I own or work on.

The block had coolant in it, looks like the radiator was drained but that only gets 2/3 of the fluid out of the system. The coolant was up to the water bridge.

syoo8

Sean- what do you have to do in that situation? Does the engine need to be completely disassembled and cleaned out?

dr bob

About the only steel that the coolant touches there is that pump impellor. And the drain bolts in the block... So nothing else to "rust". But the aluminum in the water jackets gets eaten as the coolant pH goes low over time. The nicely machined surfaces at the junction of the heads to the block are very vulnerable. Even cars in storage need to have the coolant changed, or drain and dry the system and seal it up with dessicant. The radiator drains the block to part way down in te water pump, as SeanR's science project shows. The bottom hose connection on the block determines that level. You MUST drain the galleys via the two bolts on either side to get everything out.


I have a collection of interesting engines mothballed. they are filled with kerosene to the tippy top in the crankcase, cylinders, and coolant passages. The outsides are sprayed with marine preservative spray, and each is bagged with a few pounds of dessicant. Packed by hermit seals. 30+ years now on the Lotus race engines, look just like they did when I packed them with the cars. 20+ Years on the Yamaha's, same.

Greg Brown noted a few years ago that he went through a group of used 4.7l engines looking for one good enough to rebuild for his son's car. Coolant passages were too badly eroded by aged coolant exposure.

Got a 'spare' engine in your garage, in or out of the car? Preservation starts the first day it's parked, not a few years later when the damage is already apparent.

LT Texan

I'd consider this, but it seems I'm always draining the coolant for some reason.

That would get expensive

Dan

Randy V

Re-use it.

Dave928S

Notice the line of corrosion on the impeller, above where the coolant was drained down to.

If the engine had been drained totally dry, or left totally full with coolant I think it would have fared better.

Some coolant left in .. which evaporates water ... which condenses above the coolant line .. which is exposed to air (oxygen) = water + oxygen + metal = corrosion way more advanced than totally dry or submerged in coolant.

Edit: Another good reason for a plastic impeller.

yardpro

i agree that if left full you would not have had that issue