The tear down to short block proved to be fairly quick, with the 10mm cylinder studs giving me a bit of a challenge but no loss of case savers.
Now two of the cylinder studs came out when I was removing the heads so I still need to try and get those original nuts off of them, probably in the vise with a little heat.
All of them appear to have had some kind of thread sealant on them that will need to be wire-brushed off before deep cleaning them.
The case savers installed here differ from those in the AH case. They are the “open” kind in which the stud is exposed to the inner part of the engine. The AH engine’s case savers were all closed at one end, though the replacement one I bought for the AH case is open like these.
Sand Seal
Sean seals are totally new to me, given that all prior engines I’ve torn down, even the one that I was told was used on a sand rail, did not have this.
Apparently the case can be machined for them or a bolt-on variety can be used. This proved to be the latter, with a flat head basically making it possible to just push out the seal and the surrounding support.
It is basically a ring that slips into the crank pulley space over a gasket/seal and then an inner seal very much like a wheel bearing seal, goes into that.
I’m not quite sure why this was installed, as there’s no indication this was used in off-roading and of course, there’s no documentation on the engine at all to show it one way or the other.
Some info I’ve done implies they can be used for oil leak issues but that would make me think that it is not really solving anything, or at least solving the core of the leak. It is basically a patch.
That said, once the case is cleaned up and power washed I really need to determine if this is even necessary. I would prefer it not to be on there (since I have zero need for it in my own application) but It isn’t hurting anything if it is there.
I’ll need to find a replacement gasket, as the original broke into multiple parts.
Pistons
I’ve mentioned before the heavy scent of gasoline coming from the drained oil. There was definitely an issue with the engine and it was either running too rich, the piston rings have issues, or a combination of both.
I’d love to blame it on the mass air flow sensor, Coolant temperature sensor, O2 sensor, MAP sensor, and the intake air temperature sensor but we all know that ain’t happening.
The carbon on the combustion surface is pretty bad, but I’ve already decided to reuse the new 87mm set I have on hand.