How long until failure? Options

[lsintampa]

75 914/4 2.0l

The story is that the car sat under wraps for years - as a complete unit. Motor was dropped, cleaned up and had new seals installed. When I got the motor it looked like this:



Well, by chance I found out that one of the valve guides was loose. So I had to have the heads rebuilt.

At that point I was beginning to have concerns about the rest of the motor, regardless of how she "appeared" on the outside, I was worried about other issues that may be hidden under all that makeup. So, I'm having the motor rebuilt.

The shop called me today and invited me over to see what they found (see pictures below). They said that somehow water managed to get into the motor and sat at the low points of the bearing oil channels, causing what you see below.

How long do you think this motor would have run without being rebuilt?

Aside from the rust here, cam bushings were also showing signs of rust along with some other internals. The pictures are of the worst of it.






Moral of the story, you really can't judge a book by its cover. I'm just glad and lucky that I found that valve guide floating in the exhaust port.

[76-914]

Lucky you, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) . Was that in the east coast flood a while back?

[lsintampa]

Lucky you, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) . Was that in the east coast flood a while back?

IDK, funny thing is that the car itself is "near" rust free. Let me say it this way: the car is the most rust free car I've taken on as a project. Body is solid as those that have seen it can attest to. Rails, floors, hell hole - all good.

So, I'm not sure how the motor got that way.

[SLITS]

You can take it completely apart and remove all the rust. Any pitting, the part gets tossed. Rust particles in the oil system will not be kind to the engine.

Your call.

[worn]

Lucky you, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) . Was that in the east coast flood a while back?

IDK, funny thing is that the car itself is "near" rust free. Let me say it this way: the car is the most rust free car I've taken on as a project. Body is solid as those that have seen it can attest to. Rails, floors, hell hole - all good.

So, I'm not sure how the motor got that way.

Car was left in the rain without running. Sooner or later the water finds its way in. Or some condition caused a lot of condensation in the oil just before storage. They cleaned up the engine, did water run out in the oil, or didn't they check?

[ThePaintedMan]

Well, that sucks...again Len. You did the right thing in the long run. That kind of stuff is always hard to predict when you buy a project car, but your good eye caught a few things that are doing to save you a lot of headaches down the road.

On another note, one wonders what Roger, the previous owner has to say about it now?

[lsintampa]

Lucky you, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) . Was that in the east coast flood a while back?

IDK, funny thing is that the car itself is "near" rust free. Let me say it this way: the car is the most rust free car I've taken on as a project. Body is solid as those that have seen it can attest to. Rails, floors, hell hole - all good.

So, I'm not sure how the motor got that way.

Car was left in the rain without running. Sooner or later the water finds its way in. Or some condition caused a lot of condensation in the oil just before storage. They cleaned up the engine, did water run out in the oil, or didn't they check?

That's a good point. It looks as though the motor was pressure cleaned and if so, it is highly likely that water managed to find its way in. Oil may have been drained prior to cleaning. I'll never know.

And to slitts point, the motor is in good hands being rebuilt. The shop is under instructions to replace all worn / pitted parts.

[Spoke]

How long do you think this motor would have run without being rebuilt?

I bought a 1.8L engine in 2008 for the dual Weber carbs and SSHEs and side shift trans. Engine was frozen when I brought it home.

I removed the plugs and squirted in WD40 and Liquid Wrench into each cylinder.

Little by little the engine started to spin until it spun freely.

I drained the oil to find about 1 gallon of water in the crankcase.

That was in 2008. I've been running the engine ever since. Seems to run fine and hasn't grenaded yet. Maybe it will tomorrow but still running like a champ with DJET FI.

[DBCooper]

I've done the same. Engine heat will get rid of any residual moisture, and a couple of quick oil changes after running the first time cleaned things up pretty well. It was assembled, so my thinking was if it fails I'll have had some use out of it before the expense of a rebuild, so no additional cost. But then the damned engine didn't wear out. I wouldn't have run it if I'd found a loose valve guide, but the moisture didn't seem to do the damage you'd expect.