Pulling my engine to reseal, suggestions?

[scotts90ranger]

It's probably easier to count the things that don't leak than what does, so it's time to pull the turbo engine out, it's an oily disaster under the hood... The things I have planned or am thinking about doing:

-front, rear main, cam, aux shaft seals, pull rear main cap and reseal the corners like someone was mentioning and fix my oil pan seal trough fix from before, thinking lead this time instead of JB weld...
-cleaning EVERYTHING
-swapping over to my replacement Saginaw power steering pump since half the oil that's everywhere right now is power steering fluid.
-put my replacement heater box in and modify it better this time, and attach the heat shield better...

-Thinking of pulling the head, doing a bit of port work (at least gasket matching) and throwing one of the copper head gaskets in, while I'm there pulling the pistons to hone the cylinders and install a new set of rings, questions I have on this are what rings, and anyone have a good place to get the fancy head gasket?

Worst case is I find something wrong with my block, luckily I have 2 spares including pistons...

Anyone have any other things to do while I'm there? Of course I'm going to check all the turbo oil and coolant lines and check out the turbo (contemplate a couple things there too, have two more turbos to look at in the garage), thinking of making myself a catch can to help fix the PCV system. The oil pan and valve cover gaskets were new when I put the turbo engine in 3 years ago so they should still be pliable, if not they will get replaced, will just replace the timing belt while I'm there, they're cheap...

 

[scotts90ranger]

One change to my plan, I think I'll pull the head from one of my spare engines and rework that to speed up the process.

 

[Xploda]

gg

 

[Xploda]

planned on building up my n/a 2.3 with the beefy aftermarket components from the turbo model so i could just swap em out when ready. Buuuuuuut gotta start n finish my swap, have to work some O/T to pay for the motor n new parts that I wana put in as I do the swap- electric fans, reseal x-case-clean engine bay dress up the fenders-paint the front axle-engine mounts n trans-had some ideas how I wanted my intercooler done but need to do some glassing n body work. I dunno just saving right now but def a good idea what your doing thanks for the input on mine.

 

[SAR STX]

are your other two engines duds? Why don't you rebuild one of them and just swap motors. Less down time and you can rebuild your currently used engine as a side project for a future swap.

 

[n_grimm]

Hello from down in Medford. You probably already know this but a couple things that helped my turbo 2.3's were good press on valve seals since boost tends to push them off the stems. Also a check valve inline with the pcv valve so it doesn't pressurize the crank case and blow oil out. Of course too much blow by will cause the same thing.

 

[Xploda]

I planned on that for when I do something similiar. But i really wanted to beef up the inards for MO POWA

 

[pinturbo75]

my biggest suggestion is dont waste youre money on the headgasket.... a good ole felpro 8993 will do just fine......i doubt many here will reach the power level im at and thats all i use...... ive popped 2 headgaskets in 6 years and it was not due to a cheap gasket.... use they money you save on other parts.....

 

[scotts90ranger]

hmm, good to know the $10 gasket works fine! (I'll be making a big ol Rock Auto order soon...)

Thought about going over one of the other engines but I've done a few custom things to the block like mounting the crank sensor, and filling the trough in the rear main cap with JB weld, and putting the dummy distributor shaft thing in. I should be able to refresh the engine in a couple weeks if I get the head mods out of the way which won't be a problem since the Ranger is just a toy right now. The main thing that will eat up time will be cleaning up the engine and engine compartment as it's a filthy oily disaster...

Hmm, just had another thought, these things don't generally have bearing issues that I've heard of, but assuming rolling in some new bearings wouldn't be a bad idea... Assuming Rock Auto has near everything I need I think I can get out for around $200

The other two engines I have are somewhat rough and need going over, one had an engine fire so paint and such is gone on a lot of stuff, I think that's the head I'll pull...

 

[scotts90ranger]

I planned on that for when I do something similiar. But i really wanted to beef up the inards for MO POWA

not much point on a 4x4 unless you are just into sand, the bottom end will handle about 350hp stock, and an engine set up for that power won't have the power available for normal trail riding... which is why I'm sticking to the stock or similar turbo and doing a few upgrades that won't hurt bottom end.

 

[Xploda]

I'm getting a 2wd from my neighbor so the motor will be a transplant if i'm happy with the results. which I'm sure I will be.

 

[Xploda]

I'm done trail riding. This is strictly my toy for when I'm not at work. something I can put time n money into n drink myself stupid.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Step one done, pulled the head off of one of the spare engines and it looks good other than the minor surface rust on a couple things (cam is scrap, a few lobes have surface rust, but this isn't an issue for me since I'm putting the roller in this head). I pulled the cam, scraped off the valve cover gasket, thermostat gasket and head gasket and stuck it in the back of my car to take to work to use the valve spring compressor and valve grinder sometime soon. I'll need to trace out the intake and exhaust manifold patterns so I can transfer them to the head (and vise verse) to get to grinding... Since I have one spare exhaust manifold (need to be sure it's an E6) and 3 spare lower intake manifolds I'll work on those instead of the ones that are on my truck.

Still a VERY long list of projects to do for this exercise:
-everything I just mentioned above
-gather ~$300 in parts (valve springs, valve stem seals, head gasket, bearings, rings, all engine seals minus valve cover gasket and oil pan gasket since those are fairly fresh, timing belt, syncro's for the tranny, probably input/output seals for the transfer case)
-pull the engine, transmission and transfer case from the truck
-clean the engine compartment in the truck
-clean the heck out of the engine and disassemble
-reassemble engine
-make a spacer to install the saginaw power steering pump
-mount the A/C compressor for the onboard air setup I want
-refresh tranny
-change speedo gear in transfer case
-clean up some of the wiring in the engine compartment
-modify then replace the heater blower housing
-reinstall engine, tranny, and transfer case

dang, what have I got myself into... long list but I think I can get it done in a month

 

[Insanejughead]

YOU CAN DO IT!


Like I said, YES YOU CAN!

 

[scotts90ranger]

I know I can, it's just a lot of work to do by myself I'll probably just try to take a couple days off work when I start the reassembly proces...

More decent news, got the spare exhaust manifold off and it's an E6! and attached to it is a Garrett .60/.63 with tight bearings but 4 broken off wastegate housing studs and 3 cracks propagating from the wastegate bypass hole... Also the block is in decent shape other than the rust at the top of one cylinder wall that doesn't look too bad, it turns over harder than it should but freed up a lot after half a turn...