Pirrex

I'll try to make this short; two years ago I rebuilt the engine on my 951, and when i had everything back together, I had my head gasket let the coolant thru into #1 cylinder, even before starting her up. I had my head resurfaced during the rebuild, but not the block, so I had reason to believe that there were still some old crap which needed to be removed. Cleaned the block better and threw in a new gasket, and everything was working fine, until...

A month ago, after the car had been untouched for a few days, she was running on only 3 for maybe half a minute when i started her up. Everything seemed to be fine for the next days, but then the same happened next weekend, and i remembered my earlier problem from two years ago, opened my oil cap, and voila!



Since the car was running so bad at start up, I am confident it's the head gasket, and not the oil cooler. I take a look into the engine, after lifting the head, and my world falls apart.



When I had my engine rebuilt, the cylinders were taken care of as well, and they look like new, except for #4, which was way more scratched than before rebuild. Unfortunately I didn't confirm into which cylinder the coolant was getting, but can it really have caused this, or is this something else?

1/3 of the scratched part I can't feel with a nail, but the rest can be felt easily, while still not super deep. Is this still driveable, or do I have to take everything apart again and get it fixed, which I don't have time to do in a year or two?

lart951

I have a sleeve short block built by Eurosport in Virginia if you are interested $1599.00 shipped, you won't have to worry about scored cyl walls anymore

Pirrex

Thanks for the offer Lart, but I'm in euroland so shipping + taxes would not be cheap. Just hoping to get opinions whether it's OK to put together like this, or if i will just break more things that way. My dilemma is that I have quite some debt already, and have decided not to spend any extra on cars, as I'm planning to relocate to Asia in a few years time. Also don't want to put it together and wait for a disaster, as the car is otherwise in excellent shape, with a brand new paint job, most parts under the hood are new, transaxle with LSD, sport seats etc.

Pirrex

Any input is more than welcome, to avoid having to tow it to the garage and letting it stand there. When is it too scratched to run safely?

jmj951

Sorry to hear. That's a lot of coolant in the cap. What does the overflow tank look like? How long are you hoping to limp it along, and in what capacity (i.e. as a daily driver, or just running good enough to ship it to the next location)?

I think some data is going to be needed for anyone to provide worthwhile feedback. Put it (partially) back together and get the compression and leakdown numbers, and report back. No exhaust, just intake manifold+TB+some type of air filter directly on the TB, even if it's just duct-taped on.

Where in euroland?

Pirrex

The coolant tank looks good, and there is no traces of oil in the coolant. If it would be fine to use, I would have it as my daily car, but only getting like 3000 km per year. No point in sacrificing a new head gasket on just moving it 500km to my garage, as towing would be cheaper than a new gasket. Probably I could use the old head gasket just to get the compression and leakdown. I'm up here in Finland.

Pirrex

Now I'm finally at the point that I have the engine in pieces. My initial plan was to get the block sleeved and some good stock pistons, now I've started considering new pistons as well.
Cost of sleeving the block is 800 euros over here, and oversize bores + alusil is 400 euros. Which one should I go for? Car is not driven on the track.

As for the pistons, can I go straight to some 104.00mm pistons, without needing any other goodies and gain a little low-end torque, or just stick with with 100.00mm sleeves or 100.50mm bores? Stock K26/6 with an A-tune.

As for the pistons, probably I would go with Wössners or Wisecos. The price seems to be lowest in the US, but I'm a little confused as Lindsey has them for $1000, and wossneronline.com for some $700, is there some catch here, or does somebody have them at a even better price?

Paulyy

How did you clean the surfaces? preparation is a must before putting the headgasket on. the headgasket has a glue that sticks to the surfaces.

Pirrex

^I spent a couple of hours with a razor blade, but I assume it wasn't good enough.

Paulyy

any cleaning agent? I like to use things like paint thinners/gun wash. That removes anything. oil and grease remover works as long as it doesn't leave an oily residue behind.

Don't use things like WD40 or degreaser... they leave an oil residue behind.

I usually clean the surface then put the gasket on then drop the head on with out touching the surface.

Pirrex

I don't remember whether i used a cleaning agent or not, but i think i used thinner. I was offered a nice block which comes without any studs and machined surface. Is it possible to remove the main studs from my current block, and re-use them on the new one? The head studs i would get new ones, but i can't justify paying almost 400 euros for a set of raceware mains for a street car.