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Inspection Of Higher Mileage Engine

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Old 04-16-2004, 09:33 AM
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My whole car hit 200,000 KMs in October '03, which was part of my reasoning behind doing a full repair and makeover of the car during winter (painting car, repairing old drivetrain parts that may be on the way out). I figure it's a good time to inspect things and replace/repair them (on both the car and the engine) before they break on me.



I got my motor on the stand and started checking things out.



I pulled the oil pan off, everything looks pretty good. Clean, no major bits of debris from anything. The pan has a very small amount of metallic residue though. What's this from? Oil pump chain looks very good, doesn't show signs of excessive wear or starvation of oil. What else should I look for or check?



I'm also curious what the other sensor in the oil pan is for? Theres a level sensor and what's the other?



Also from what I could see the water jackets in the front rotor housing is very clean (as far as looking through the main water inlet/outlet on the front iron with a flood light goes). I was expecting to see some crusty residue but I could see shiny aluminum. Is this just because of the amount of flow that hits the front housing there? Should I expect it to be more 'rotten' at the back of the motor? Just curious what you guys have noticed with your motors.



I'll have pics of it soon enough.



But basically I'm looking for any input about what I should look for, or key signs of a possible failure of any parts (from what I can find by only taking the oil pan and front cover off - I am not cracking the whole sandwich apart to rebuild).



Thanks



-Colin
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Old 04-16-2004, 11:26 AM
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bascially you've done everything. what you really want to look at is the condition of the rotor housings, but you cant really do that together
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Old 04-16-2004, 11:32 AM
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sometimes with high milage motors its nto worth takign them appart as u will find enouf amount of wear not to use pretty much anythign from the core for the rebuild. so sometimes its just better of driving the thing to the ground, atleast how i look at it. and then maybe after that just gettign a reman and sending your in as a core.
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Old 04-16-2004, 11:45 AM
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True. I don't see any reason to take it apart anyways - The compression is rock solid.



I'll probably drive it for the summer then next fall/winter crack it apart and see what I can do with what's still good on it.



I have another motor I'm going to rebuild during summer and install in the GXL over winter..



Any comments on the sensor in the oil pan or small metallic flakes? I figured it would be from the oil pump drivechain but it showed minimal signs of wear.. Then again the metallic flake in the pan was not overly excessive, and the pan probably has never been off in the 17 years it's been on the motor..
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Old 04-16-2004, 11:59 AM
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Originally Posted by ColinRX7' date='Apr 16 2004, 08:45 AM
True. I don't see any reason to take it apart anyways - The compression is rock solid.



I'll probably drive it for the summer then next fall/winter crack it apart and see what I can do with what's still good on it.



I have another motor I'm going to rebuild during summer and install in the GXL over winter..



Any comments on the sensor in the oil pan or small metallic flakes? I figured it would be from the oil pump drivechain but it showed minimal signs of wear.. Then again the metallic flake in the pan was not overly excessive, and the pan probably has never been off in the 17 years it's been on the motor..
200,000kms isnt a ton of miles, id throw it back in and keep driving
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Old 04-16-2004, 12:14 PM
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i missed the kms, which is about 120k miles, that not that many u are right
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Old 04-16-2004, 12:18 PM
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Yep that's the plan.
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Old 04-16-2004, 12:58 PM
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You never know whats wrong besides the seals being intact. A friend of mine's motor with good compression and 70k on the clock had a damaged rear iron from oil starvation/overheating. My black t2sa motor did not burn an ounce of coolant, yet when I opened the motor the water jacket groove was cracked in several locations, the water jacket seal was still in place, but wouldn't be for long. We just cracked BigT's motor last night to check to see if anything was out of spec/messed up. Everything was good, just going to clean it up and buy a gasket set. Did you check the needle bearings?
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Old 04-16-2004, 01:01 PM
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now that 1Revvin7 pointed out the needle bearings, i wanted to add that when u put the from cover back on make sure u dotn jam the needle bearing thats closest to the front stationary gear with the spacer.
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Old 04-16-2004, 04:30 PM
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Yeah I will be inspecting those. I'm pulling the flywheel and front cover off tonight if it all goes smoothly (the main shaft bolt on the front pulley too).



I got heat and I got big tools, it should go okay.



So there's really no way to tell that much without pulling absolutely everything apart?
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