nerveink

iTrader: (2)

hello everyone.

i recently purchased an lq4 from a recycled parts store.
they gave me a pretty good deal on it and told me it passed a compression test with flying colors.
ran into a little problem though. when i first purchased the motor i noticed that the guys had done a steam clean on the engine right before it was loaded on the truck. really wasnt a problem i thought to myself. so a few days passed and i went to the garage to marvel at my engine. I then notice that the the fuel log is not properly seated into the intake and some of the injectors were kinda hangin out ( also some of the injectors had some crud on it. looked like a little bit of rust. also when i flipped open the throttle body a tiny bit of water came out. not too much at all but enough to be pissed off .

i was really concerned that the geniuses at the shop let some water in the block. so then i started taking off a few things like the wires from the coil pack and took out the spark plugs. some of the spark plugs looked pretty rusty but i dont know if it was from something else becuase the spark plugs were the ac delco ones which i belive are the stock ones that come with the engine

so at this point im kinda pissed and take the block back to the shop. they told me that they would need the engine hooked up and running to see if there are any problems. but they did have this one tool so you can turn the fly wheel. the guy was able to do 2 full cycles with ease and there was no change in the force that was needed to turn the fly wheel.

the guy explained that if there was any water damage you would know because you would have a hard time turning the engine.
is he right? do i sound like i may be ok?? i was able to turn the engine very easilly so im hopin theres no rust in the cylinder walls.
without the tool i can turn the flywheel by hand also.
really ***** up my hands but i can do it.

ran into this new problem though which is kinda bugging me too.
some dirt fell into the holes where the intake connects to the heads.
the top part was extremely dirty and i did not notice the ammount of dirt that actually was caked up on there. so yeah some dirt fell in there and now i think i may have to take the whole engine apart. btw when i took the intake off there was no rust on the valves or anything like that when i flashed some light into the engine.

( i was thinking about getting it sent to a shop soon anyway but im just concerned because the engine just sits in the garage and doesnt get turned over much often.)

should i still try to turn the engine to keep it lubricated? im worried that some of the dirt will fall into the cylinder walls and start scratchin em up. can i simply take the heads off to clean up and put them back on for now? what to do??



what do i do guys i feel hopeless right now.

i really just dont want my money go to waste.
some tips or advice on this would be very much appreciated.

p.s. the engine was purchased back in october of 2009 and has not yet been turned on. i have turned the engine by hand a few times. and the engine has been kept in a dry storage since then.

slayerized6

iTrader: (12)

i would just pull the heads and get a bigger look. its better the engine isnt in any car/truck now and will only cost you a little over $100 for new head bolts and head gaskets. if theres significant damage/dirt in the combustion chambers, return it to the junkyard and save yourself the hassle knowing it could of been worse later on

nerveink

iTrader: (2)

if i remove the heads though will i lose compression? do i just get gaskets, bolts throw em back on and ready to go? (assuming there isnt any rust damage in the block?)

slayerized6

iTrader: (12)

you will need to get new headgaskets (OEM) and new head bolts (OEM). The head gaskets are a one time thing, and the head bolts are torque-to-yield so you will need new ones. pulling the heads will take you about an hour or two with a beer in one hand; pulling heads with the engine in the car will be the most frustrating thing youve ever dealt with.

after pulling the heads, i would turn the engine over by a hand a few times and get a look at the combustion chamber walls to see if they got etched with dirt that may have fallen into the engine. after that, clean up the pistons and combustion chambers with brake cleaner, clean out the bolt holes, scrape off the old head gaskets material, then its all a matter of laying down the new head gasket and then torquing down the heads in sequence.

take a look at this link:
http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=3
it will obviously be much easier for you since the engine isn't in the car, but you should be able to figure out what to do for the most part. i followed this write up to the 'T' last summer when i did an ls6 head swap and it came out just fine. the only other thing i would do is just double check with a sponsor that the bolts/gaskets you get are compatible with your lq9.

Circa307

iTrader: (11)

i would deff pull the intake and heads and check everything out now. if for anything, a piece of mind. after cleaning and bolting everything back up i would keep the bores lubed up once a week with some wd40 thought the spark plug holes.

nerveink

iTrader: (2)

@ slayerized6: thanks man. im going to do that for sure. thanks for the link too. I took off the valve cover from one of the heads and theres no rust or crust or anything like that. hopefully its the same in the combustion chambers. and hopefully theres no rust in the cylinder walls or else im takin that engine right back.

@Circa307: thanks. im already in the process of taking the heads and will do an inspection to see if everything is okay. thanks also for the advice with the wd 40


if i were to take the heads off how would i go about getting them cleaned?
the heads are aluminum and I read some sob stories on other forums where some guys put oven cleaner on em and they turned black. I dont want to ruin the fresh aluminum so what are my options? is there any place where you can take em and have em looking like new?

can i just spray em down with castrol super cleaner? purple power degreaser?? maybe carb cleaner? whats the best and safest way to get the heads looking nice and fresh?

slayerized6

iTrader: (12)

degreaser is fine; just dont let it soak on there for too long. you could also you brake/carb cleaner cleaner. or you could bring it too a machine shop and theyll be able to clean it up as well

nerveink

iTrader: (2)

hey got a little bit of bad news.

i took off one of the heads last night and there was some rust in only one of the cylinder walls. the other ones were smooth as a babys bottom. the cylinder that was at the very back on the left side is the one that had the rust. i tried to turn the fly wheel again but it did not move. im going to a parts store right now to pick up one of those fly wheel turners.
i used a shop towel to take off the dirt and sprayed a little bit of wd 40 into the walls. all the rust was a real bright orange color and when i sprayed it, the rust went down a lot but there is stil some pits in the wall.....


slightly pitted.it feels like really light sand paper. is that damage enough to cause havoc in the future?? i have a feeling these guys at the yard are gonna give me **** and say "you shouldve ran it the day you got it" or somethin like that.

what do i do?? gonna need the walls bored out now or what??




will also try to post pictures of my project soon.