Sludge, Carnage, some shrapnel and then more Sludge.

Well I have had a heck of a time getting motivated this weekend to go out in the garage. The task I have before me is still a very dirty one and that gets old quickly. Here is what I have to work with.

I put both engines on engine stands and am now in the process of removing parts that I need from the bad engine. I will then clean them paint if needed and install on the good engine. Seems simple enough but the bad engine is so sludged up on the inside and the outside that it makes it a miserable task. Here is some of what I am dealing with. I have removed the distributor, carb,valve covers and intake manifold.

 Here is some of the sludge inside the motor. Again: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T CHANGE YOUR OIL! It is really an easy thing to do and only takes a 1/2 hour or less. Even if you don't want to do it, pay someone to do it. Your engine will last longer and give you a long life if you do.

My curiosity got the better of me so I flipped the engine over and removed the oil pan and timing chain cover. I was surprised to see this engine was only a 2 bolt main. I thought all vettes had 4 bolt mains but I guess not. I researched the numbers and this engine is original to the car.  I guess Chevy went cheap on the vettes in the 70's, but then again the horsepower was so low for this engine it didn't really warrant a 4 bolt main block.

Here is where the carnage came in. The engine actually threw 2 rods. The one is easily seen and the 2nd on I am pointing to. Again, notice the sludge.

 Here is the shrapnel. I found all this stuff in the block. No wonder it sounded like BB's in a tin can when I started it up.

 This is the pickup for the oil pump. Notice all the metal in the screen. Hey at least the oil pump was working. It just was starved of any oil to pump through it so it decide to try pumping metal chunks.

 Here we come to the timing chain. You can see how much slack is in it. If this engine hadn't blown up it was ready to skip a tooth on the timing chain. This engine was very tired from poor maintenance and abuse.

I had a lot of people tell me that the engine I picked up looked pretty rough, but when compared to this one it looks like it just came off the showroom floor. The inside of it has no sludge to be seen and the timing chain is nice and tight. I think after some painting and cleaning it should be a great runner. It is a 4 bolt main and has more horsepower then this vette has ever seen so it should be a fun little engine to have. Now I just need to get some motivation to hurry and get the parts cleaned and painted and then the real fun will begin.

Engines, Engines, Everywhere

Well, my garage has been officially overrun by engines. Here they are all taking up the space that my bug should be. Good thing it's not raining and snowing everyday!! Oh wait, I think it's suppose to do that all next week. Oh well, Here is the engine freshly taken out of the vette. (The one hooked to the lift on the floor) and the one on the stand is the one going in the vette, and the one on the far side of the picture on the floor is the engine I have recently picked up for Isaac.s baja bug. As soon as I get this vette done, the baja will be in the garage getting it's engine pulled and replaced with this one. I was able to take the VW engine and the engine going in the vette to work. I boroscoped them and did a quick inspection and they both look really good inside. I finally got a chance to get back to the vette this morning and I finish pulling out the engine. I had to remove more then I really wanted to to get it out and all of the bell housing bolts were gorilla torqued  by whoever put them in the last time, but it came out. Here it is on the lift coming out.

This engine and engine compartment is a greasy pig. Holy cow, I think I will need to take a big putty knife and start scraping away at the years of gunk all over the underside of this car. This comes from years and years of never fixing oil leaks. After I pulled it I found a second hole in the oil pan. Here is the first one. Yes that is daylight you can see at the end of the pan.

And here is the second one.

 Now I just need to get a 2nd engine stand and start cleaning, painting, and swapping parts. I removed the oil pan on the new engine and checked out the timing chain. It was in good shape but I think I will change it out while I am in there anyways. I pulled the valve covers on both engines and the old engine looks just as bad inside as outside.

 It's full of sludge and crap. Another note that along with keeping oil in your car, you also have to change it once in awhile or it will turn into this.

 This is the old engine.

Here is the new engine. It looks amazing compared to the other one. This engine must of had regular oil changes and was well maintained. Well, it's going to be lots of cleaning and hopefully it should be a lot funner to put it then it was coming out. It is always nice to put in a nice clean engine. Stay tuned to see what happens!

You can't polish a turd.

But you can put an engine in one. I have officially moved on to my next project. I have a guy I work with that blew up the motor in his corvette. He truly loves this car and doesn't want to get rid of it so I told him I would help him get an engine for it. Here is a picture of it.

Now you know why I titled this post the way I did. It's a 1975 corvette and has been abused a lot in it's life. I have to admit though that I have a soft spot for these years of vette's (even though they are about the worst years of vette's)  because when I was 10 or 11 my Dad bought one of these at an auction and I helped him rebuild the rear end on it and fix it up. They are fun to drive too. They have a very unique feel to the way they handle and drive and just look at those curves. How can you not like them? Well, lots of people don't like them and I have had many comments on this one as it sat in my driveway waiting for an engine. Anyways, back to the car. My Dad located an engine for this in Logan. The price was right so on Friday I loaded the family in the truck and went to pick it up. The engine is a good one. It's out of a Chevy crew cab truck and actually has more horsepower and torque than the one that blew up in the vette. Here is what it came out of.

Here it is all loaded up and ready to transport back to Salt Lake.

Not much to look at but it will be a good engine for the vette. Now the fun begins with pulling the old engine out. Here is the old on in all it's glory.

 Removing the accessories to get some room to swing it forward.

 I actually took this picture below so I can remember where everything goes back on.

 Dixie and Ellie came out for a visit. These are the 2 car chicks in my life.

I was trying to put off laying on my back and removing all the stuff from underneath the car so I focused on the engine that I will be putting in the car.

 Here Steven is helping me pull it out of the truck.

 Got it on the stand and started removing all the components that were still on it.

I pulled the valve cover to take a peak inside and was pleasantly surprised. Everything looked clean and in good shape.

Well, I couldn't put it off any longer so I jacked it up and started removing bolts from underneath. I didn't get them all pulled today. I still have the 6 bolts that hold the trans to the engine, 2 more exhaust bolts and the 2 motor mount bolts but other then those it's outta there.

 This is an interesting photo. I found this while I was under it. This is a picture of the oil pan.

That is the connecting rod sticking out of the oil pan. When you here the term I threw a rod. This is what it means. This is also a good reminder that oil is important for your engine. The funny thing is I started this car 3 times since it threw the rod. In fact I was going to drive it into my garage so I wouldn't have to push it  but when I would put it in gear and give it some gas it was just too much for the engine. It did idle and rev up while not under a load. It sounded horrible and scared my kids so I quit trying.

This is the state of my garage right now and both me and my wife have been kicked out of the garage. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can get our cars back in.