The box is an under-bed storage container with wheels I bought from Wal-Mart. It's just about perfect for sitting there and catching all the drips and drops that are an inherent part of taking apart a groady engine. I then pulled the head off following the Helm's manual instructions. The top of the combustion chamber side looked pretty good!
This is a pic of the cylinders and pistons as they were in the block. It looks like only the #2 cylinder (second from the left) was functioning as well as it should.
Here are a couple of pics of the cylinder bores. They aren't in the best shape, as two of the cylinders were left open to the elements because the spark plugs were not left installed.
Make a note of that if you want to store engines: either leave the plugs in engines you store, or suffocate them in plastic wrap! Not wanting to pre-judge the engine just from the bores, I dug in further.
I then took the water pump off (which looked like it had been replaced fairly recently). This engine had obviously had regular coolant changes:
That was a pretty good sign.
Flipping the engine over on the stand (over the container to catch the leftover fluids), you now see the big dent left in the pan!
Needless to say, I didn't use this pan when rebuilding the engine!
Here is what I found when I pulled off the pan:
Not too pretty, but not the worst. All the dark sludge was not caked on, it actually wiped off pretty easily. That usually means there was enough oil in the engine (even if it was crappy oil) to keep it happy.
I next took off the main bearing cap. As I understand it, later model civics don't have the steel caps that the early D15s and D16s have. Whenever I build a SOHC D, I will stick with these earlier engines for that reason!
This is a pic of the cylinders and pistons as they were in the block. It looks like only the #2 cylinder (second from the left) was functioning as well as it should.
Here are a couple of pics of the cylinder bores. They aren't in the best shape, as two of the cylinders were left open to the elements because the spark plugs were not left installed.
Make a note of that if you want to store engines: either leave the plugs in engines you store, or suffocate them in plastic wrap! Not wanting to pre-judge the engine just from the bores, I dug in further.
I then took the water pump off (which looked like it had been replaced fairly recently). This engine had obviously had regular coolant changes:
That was a pretty good sign.
Flipping the engine over on the stand (over the container to catch the leftover fluids), you now see the big dent left in the pan!
Needless to say, I didn't use this pan when rebuilding the engine!
Here is what I found when I pulled off the pan:
Not too pretty, but not the worst. All the dark sludge was not caked on, it actually wiped off pretty easily. That usually means there was enough oil in the engine (even if it was crappy oil) to keep it happy.
I next took off the main bearing cap. As I understand it, later model civics don't have the steel caps that the early D15s and D16s have. Whenever I build a SOHC D, I will stick with these earlier engines for that reason!