Tom M'Guinn

So, I had intended spending the weekend assembling the bottom end of my endless 3 liter project. Saturday was mostly clearance checking and measuring, and making sure I had all the correct fasteners. Yesterday, I was planning to clean the crankcase one more time for assembly today. I went through many cans of brakeclean, but it seemed no matter how much I cleaned the inside, I was still getting yellow/brown streaks in the brakeclean that ran off. In this picture, you can see a little stain near the #4 cover...

Tom M'Guinn

So... after debating it...I opted to remove those lower crank covers to see what was under there. The FSM says it is "usually not necessary" to remove the covers... guess this wasn't a usual block... I found this under 4 out of 6 covers. The pictures don't do it justice -- big clumps of sludge and crud sitting in standing water/coolant/gunk. Must of gotten trapped in there at the machine shop I assume...

Tom M'Guinn

So, those M6 nuts require Loctite 270 according to the factory manual, so I suppose assembly will be put off another week or so. Probably just as well, as I obviously need to spend some quality time re-cleaning the block, and everything bolting in or on it.... Here is the bottom of the crank case after cleaning one side (and yes, the other side was just as bad when I popped those covers off).

Mighty Shilling

it has covers there? why?

Tom M'Guinn

I presume (but don't know for sure) the covers are for oil control, since there is otherwise a big open pocket there on the 104 blocks.

billthe3

How many cans of brake cleaner are you going through to do that? I used a full can on my cam housing last night and I probably still have a second cans worth of stuff still on there. Why not just drop it off at a parts cleaner or something?

Tom M'Guinn

Many cans.

A parts cleaner will tank it, etc., but not really spend the time needed to go over the block with a fine-tooth comb -- at least I have not found a place willing to take that kind of time...