Gregski

I told my friends I thought I saw mud when I looked at the number four spark plug, but they didn't believe me. Then when I had all the spark plugs out I decided to spin the engine over by hand and mud shot out of the number four spark plug hole. Never seen that before! Well that would explain the $100 dollar price for it.

So tonight I decided to take the cylinder head off and see what lurks beneath. Here are some pictures of the "Mud Dog" for you, any advice on best ways to clean this mess up, please keep in mind I can not afford to send the block to the shop, so I need the shade tree mechanic solutions.



The Block - more pictures...



Cylinder Heads - more pictures...

Gregski

Just to give you a little background history on this motor. Pulled from a running vehicle to be dropped into another vehicle by the guy I bought it from. (I know we all heard that all before, right?)

When I went to pick it up it was sitting outside in his backyard, and I think at one time it was under his patio but then got moved by his fence with no protection. So I recon since there was no air cleaner on it, water got in the carburator and ran down inside to which ever valve was open at the time, and it so happened that it was number four.

I figure I share this to give myself hope that it is not a blown head gasket, cracked cylinder, or warped head, etc. By the way I checked the oil before I bought it and it was purdy, no milky stuff in it at all. So let's hope this is an unusual case of water in from the top, and that it will clean up nicely.

JMD

I think:....

It's not exactly mud, it is antifreeze, carbon, and rust from a blown head gasket.

Might look close at the piston and cylinder, and also make sure that the piston comes clean to the top of the bore (the same as the other pistons) to make sure it didn't hydro-lock and bend a rod.

kalli

yep. chances are that it suffered hydroloc alright, it might be a combination of oil and antifreeze collecting in that bore, maybe bad cracks somewhere. if it were mud from submerging or similar you'd see it in several bores. I wouldn't put that into any other car without having block and heads checked. maybe it was a badly blown gasket, allowing antifreeze and oill in there, but chances are you would have it in the oil as well.

Gregski

Good tip I checked and it does come to the very top just like all the others.

Gregski

The saga continues, drained the oil which looked nice and black no water in it that I could tell, dropped the oil pan today and pulled the number four piston out. Glad I did as the oil ring was nice and gunky. So I removed and cleaned the rings and put them back on. Then I honed the cylinder, (and forgot to take a picture of the mirror like shine), but here's some dirty cylinder and piston shots for you.