Day 5 ~ Just get a little done

  I've been reading up on another person's kit car build blog. He stated early on that if you make it a point to go out and at least do something that soon enough, you'd be done. Well I'm so exhausted today from a hard day's work and too many late nights, that I really just want to go to bed. Nah. I headed down to the local O'Reilly Auto Parts store to "borrow" some tools. Tool rental is so handy. I don't know what I'd do without it...probably be broke buying all kinds of special-app tools.
  Anyway, so I grabbed the harmonic balancer puller, valve spring compressor, and decided to get a timing gear puller just in case it was needed. I went back to the house and grabbed a couple wrenches. Of course, just for the heck of it I lined up on cylinder #1 TDC, not that it was needed at that point, but it's always better to be there and not need to be, than forget and be in trouble.
  Wow that puller was great! I had the thing off in a jiffy, then took a few minutes to observe, take pics, and line up all the timing marks before removing the chain and sprockets. I wasn't out of adjustment on the tensioner, but close. Good thing I ordered the new set today with all the gaskets, freeze plugs, and head bolts. After removing the upper timing gear bolt, everything slid off pretty easily...no puller needed.
  A little cleanup and DONE, just in time to go return my tool rentals too before the store closes. Well off to go fall asleep to a movie with the wifey. = )

Day 4 ~ Beheaded

  Another late night is required so I can figure out just what parts to order to complete my rebuild kit. I found a super-helpful guy over at partsdinosaur.com who knows his stuff and has a pretty good website layout for engine rebuilding parts. He's prompt to reply to email, so I just need to get in there deeper now to figure out what I need to order.

  Pretty much everything's a breeze now that the engine's out on the stand. Of course I missed a bolt, or two, arg...4 on the lower intake plenum. No wonder it didn't wanna come off with only 8 of 12 removed. NOTE TO SELF...read the dern manual. It's right there. Well one thing I learned long ago is not to force things, so thankfully I didn't do any cracking or breaking today. = )  After the lower intake popped off, I got to take a good look at the blasted gasket seal. Dude, that thing blew out in so many places it's a wonder the engine ran with only one code (cyl 3 misfire)!
  Rocker arm/valve covers came off and then pulled the heads. Wow what a mess in there. Hydraulic lock it was. Amazingly I'm stoked to see that all cylinders are looking really good as far as wear goes. No vertical scratches or galling, and even a light remnant of the cross-hatching from the factory honing is still visible.
  I am bummed about the crankshaft balancer/damper. It requires a special puller to remove, and the front cover and timing chain assembly are hidden underneath. That will have to wait for tomorrow. With nearly 195k miles, and the kind of maintenance issues I'm seeing, I doubt it's been recently changed. I'll go ahead and order the new set. All in all, I'm happy to have a few things off. Really wishing I wouldn't have to guess at timing assembly condition though. That's a few bucks I'd like to save if I can.

Crusty buildup on Piston #1

Oil filling cylinder #5

Coolant filling up cylinder #3

  Enjoy the pics. Note the brownish goop on the head gaskets and contaminating the coolant. Someone apparently liked their StopLeak and overdosed. I'm wondering how much that kind of clogging contributed to the seal blowouts. NAS-T!