Do these cylinders look "normal" to you?

[Hot COCOAL]

Hey guys-

I'm trying to gauge this used engines condition, please give your opinion!

These pics are labeled/numbered by the cylinder's actual true position as it would be called by the book, not in the order you'd see them when just looking at the block

Cylinder #1

Cylinder #2

Cylinder #3

Cylinder #4

Cylinder #5

Cylinder #6

Cylinder #7

Cylinder #8

 

[Hot COCOAL]

I haven't touched anything, well I guess I did a scratch a couple places with my finger. But this is just how they looked when I pulled the heads and gaskets.

This engine hasn't been ran in a while and it had no coolant or oil in it, so I was a lil surprised to see "wet looking" cylinders...

Also, some cylinders look like I would expect and a few of the others are oily and have very visible "build up" and residue on the cylinder walls, wether it's EGR related I don't know...?

So please give me the best insight you can! I don't really know what to look for, what's normal and not normal or warning signs that might be a tell tale sign of an issue.

As I said I'm trying to gauge the condition of this used engine I got, wether it looks like it's a good engine, before I place it in the engine bay and fire it up.

Also, I'd like to know y'alls thoughts before I go and spend the time and money getting the heads cleaned, surfaced and reinstall them and swap all my accessories over to it.

Thanks you in advance for your insight!!!!

 

[Hot COCOAL]

BTW-

The heads look great! No pitting, the valves appear to fully seat and I placed a straight edge across them and they appear to be flat, yay! And there was no indication on the gaskets of any sort of a leak...

 

[andy-stevenson]

Did you take any of the build up out and feel it? Not sure if it's just the pictures but looks gritty?

 

[Hot COCOAL]

Did you take any of the build up out and feel it? Not sure if it's just the pictures but looks gritty?

It was, and I did remove the build up.
I think the grit you're talking about was from the dirt that was lining the perimeter of the gasket that fell in when I removed it...? It's hard to say, but the oily wetness was there before I removed the gasket. It seems to be oil. As the pistons travel, they are leaving a skim coat on their way down. At the top of the chamber in the combustion area the residue along the cylinder walls mixes with the oil and leaves the black streaks down the cylinder..

I did wipe the cylinders and piston tops down after those pics. There was carbon build up in a small ridge along the edge of a few pistons and some in isolated small spots on the top of and toward the bottom of several pistons. The carbon is very hard and gritty like sand.

The pistons travel very smoothly within the bore, the bores are very, very smooth and have no evidence of any damage, there is very good crosshatching in all cylinders as well.

There is very minor pitting starting to occour on the top of #8 and #4 piston, when I say minor I mean there's only a few pits that are hardly noticeable and can barely be felt or caught by a fingernail, but they are there.

With the cylinder bores looking and feeling so good, I'm half tempted to toss in some de-lipped LB7 pistons while I've got this thing down this far, but my practical side is saying just put it back together

 

[jlawles2]

#5 looks like it filled with liquid at some point.

I would straight edge the deck to TDC of each piston to see if there are any bent rods.
The pistons should protrude above the deck. Using a straight edge is how I found the bent rod in mine.

 

[PureHybrid]

I wouldn't run that without running a reamer, pulling pistons and hitting them with a ball hone with new rings. How many miles? Just looks like a normal junkyard motor that's been sitting forever.

 

[Hot COCOAL]

What I dont get or understand is, why in some of the cylinders the tops of the pistons were completely dry and why some were oily/wet?

I would've expected them all to look/be dry?
But more than that, I would think they would all be the same, dry or oily, the fact that they're different makes me think there's something wrong

 

[Hot COCOAL]

#5 looks like it filled with liquid at some point.

I would straight edge the deck to TDC of each piston to see if there are any bent rods.
The pistons should protrude above the deck. Using a straight edge is how I found the bent rod in mine.

I didn't run a straight edge, so to speak along the top of the block, but I did take every piston to TDC and then used a utility blade to remove the carbon. They all protrude out of the bore I'd guess 1/16"

I'll try it with a framing square across the top

I wouldn't run that without running a reamer, pulling pistons and hitting them with a ball hone with new rings. How many miles? Just looks like a normal junkyard motor that's been sitting forever.

That's just it. I don't know how many miles...
I bought it thinking I was getting a 64k mi engine, after delivery I started to remove the EGR and saw the buildup and was like, HOLD UP!!!!

So I called the guy and he tells me:
"I remember telling you that one sold and I was bringing you one that was a replacement engine in the truck it was pulled from, we don't know how many miles it has"

So basically, I say well F'you man, you didn't tell me that, I would've remembered that little tidbit of info and I wouldn't have wanted it, he says he told me and said it's a "sweet running motor" and I have nothing to worry about.

He also tells me that since I tore it down to the intake runners he wouldn't take it back and was questioning any warranty he had previously offered...

At this point I'm thinking I pretty much hate people...and now I'm doing the best I can to make sure this engine will be good. I guess if I have to, I'll slap some new parts into it...

Can I just have the block checked for square and surface smoothness? Then put new bearings in? If I could just add new bearings, rods and pistons without machining the block, I might do that if I can afford it.
At this point I'm so vested in this thing I pretty much feel screwed

 

[PureHybrid]

You're not screwed, just take it apart. Doesn't cost anything to look! If you install lb7 slugs you might need to balance it, and that means a new flywheel usually.

What are the goals of this again? Are you pushing this motor, or are you building it later on? I would take it apart and just reinstall the lbz parts.

 

[Dmax87]

My guess on some pistons being wet and others not would indicate faulty injectors on that hole.

 

[Hot COCOAL]

You're not screwed, just take it apart. Doesn't cost anything to look! If you install lb7 slugs you might need to balance it, and that means a new flywheel usually.

What are the goals of this again? Are you pushing this motor, or are you building it later on? I would take it apart and just reinstall the lbz parts.

Well man, the goal of this engine was to have a drop in engine so I could just drive my friggin truck again! But I'm a long ways away from that now...

I'm already tearing it down, so I'm not sure how I feel about what to do with it.
Honestly I'd like to tell the seller I want my money back and he can expect me to be dropping it off on Monday morning. Then I'll just build my block I've got, why not, right? I was trying to take the cheaper route to appease my wife and by the time this thing is said and done, it won't be any cheaper than a "budget build" would've been, cuz I was supposed to be getting a low mileage engine and I didn't return a core, I paid a pretty penny for this junkyard dog

 

[snowman]

Looks good to me. But hard to see the crosshatch. I wouldn't worry about the wetness on the pistons or the build up. That's caused by a bad injector. Spray pattern off a bit. Check the deck, check protrusion, and go by spec. If it checks out ok, I would run it. I've seen the same thing with engines with 200-300k km mileage. If everything checks out and the cylinders have lots of crosshatch I run them. These engines are durable.

 

[Hot COCOAL]

What's this?
A ray of hope! Thanks for the reply of confidence Cale!

I can try to get better pics of the crosshatching in a couple minutes if you'd like to take the time to look.
I've wiped the bores and piston tops down now and the finer details should show up better in a picture

 

[Hot COCOAL]

Here are some pics of the crosshatching

 

[JoshH]

I'm confused about why you would tear apart an engine that you plan on keeping stock, especially if it has a warranty. That said, I don't see anything there that concerns me. Anytime you pull heads, you're going to get crap in the cylinders. The oily stuff on the cylinder walls just means there was oil in the motor at some point. That's a good thing. Just because the oil and coolant was drained, doesn't mean every last drop was out and it was bone dry inside. Post some pics of it all cleaned up. I'm most interested in seeing the pitting you're talking about.

 

[Hot COCOAL]

Hey Josh-
This started as me taking accessories off an engine I thought had 64k miles... sure I was/am planning on keeping it stock, but I am going to be running a tune and all the bolt on's I had on my current engine, so stripping everything down to a long block and then an intense cleaning was part of the plan.

I got the EGR motor/valve off and was pretty surprised by the build up, as I got to the y bridge it was like watching the plot of a gear head horror movie unfold. I deducted that this engine had many more miles than what I was told and that was verified when I contacted the seller, although he said that he told me that the engine we originally talked about sold and I was getting something different...

It was then he told me the engine was a replacement engine in the truck it was pulled from and that the actual mileage of the engine was unknown...

At that point he also told me that because I had torn into it, he wasn't sure he'd honor the normal warranty that comes with the purchase...mind you I had only taken the intake runner covers off and the heads were still in place, but he said contamination into the intake runner/head was a probability and that would void the warranty...

So, that left me with ZERO confidence in this engine. Beyond the gunk build up in the intake, I was concerned about the wear in the cylinders and wondering about the bearings etc. I wanted to see everything to get a feel for it's age and possible usable lifespan.

So I took the heads off, I wanted them cleaned if I was to run it anyway and I'm going to be adding my head studs too.

So that's the "why" I'm doing this, is basically to determine if I should go to the effort of installing this dog the way it sits into my truck or not.

Here's a few pics of it cleaned up, I just wiped it down with a rag and some solvent and then wiped it down with a rag and oil...

Drivers side (even bank)

Passenger side (odd bank)

The "pitting" I'm talking about is so insignificant it doesn't show in the pics my I phone takes. It looks like a carbon "freckle" on the piston but when you touch it you can feel that it has "feature" to it, it's not smooth

 

[Hot COCOAL]

Is it safe to use a scotch brite pad on the piston and the 1/2" combustion area where the rings don't touch at the top of the cylinder to clean off the carbon deposits?

 

[JoshH]

I didn't catch you said the pitting was on the piston. If the rest of the cylinder walls look like the ones you posted close-ups of, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Those cylinder walls look perfect to me.

Yeah, you can use scotch brite on the pistons. I wouldn't go at it with a roloc wheel, but using it by hand will be fine.

 

[Hot COCOAL]

I didn't catch you said the pitting was on the piston. If the rest of the cylinder walls look like the ones you posted close-ups of, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Those cylinder walls look perfect to me.

Yeah, you can use scotch brite on the pistons.

Awesome!
Your word is good as gold to me bud!
Yeah, the surface of the heads look golden, no pitting whatsoever

I'll be taking the heads in today to have them cleaned and surfaced, I'll probably get them back Monday or Tuesday.

So this weekend I'll take my engine out of the bay and start stripping it down, then I'll be ready to dress the donor engine and install it later next week, I was hoping to have the truck running this weekend, but one more week is a drop in the bucket at this point
:rofl:



Thanks for all the replies guys-
:hug: