My valley of death

[timothymoore]

what do you guys think of it. it looks pretty dirty an rusty. i even found walnuts in there when i took the intake off. do you guys think i should pull the motor and trans and clean everything up or should i just try to stick it out and clean everything up?


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[sean]

I don't see an immediate need to pull the engine but I think the heads will need to come off.

[Morpheus]

Good luck getting those y-pipe bolts out... in fact, be prepared for them to break when you attempt to take them out.

[content22207]

Do not use constant torque. I have a little 3/8" impact gun that I dial down as low as possible, then slowly increase the air.

Knocking those loose copper washers into the intake openings would be a bad idea.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[sean]

Do not use constant torque. I have a little 3/8" impact gun that I dial down as low as possible, then slowly increase the air.

Good advice right here, give them a good soaking in your favorite penetrating oil for a few days leading up too.

[Ozzie]

I would respond to your question with a rhetorical question: "How much time and money you got?"

You could certainly clean (w/o removing the engine) that valley, with time and elbow grease - and maybe even a few helicoils.

..but given time and money :evil3: , I'd remove the heads and have them checked for warping (hopefully not) and then have them professionally cleaned inside and out at the same place (they come out looking ...like Tony's Concours car), and replace the head gaskets while you're there. Admittedly this is a much bigger job, but it does address several things "while you're there" and more.

Oh, yeah, and like Bill says, for goodness sake cover up those intakes with rags as soon as possible.

...and of course this all assumes that you have no existing casting/rot issues in the block, as I don't know the history of your ownership (as in: was it a running car before).

[TTait]

My engine compartment and valley had 3 gallons of nuts, twigs, rodent droppings and chewed wire in it. Just clean it out thoroughly and see where you stand. If the bottoms of the depressions in the top of the engine (behind the water pump) have not rotted through, then you should be ok...

You clean those out use a shop vac, then get a smaller hose and feed it into the vac hose a bit, then form a seal so you have a 3/4" or so vacuum hose. A toothbrush is helpful too. Get them 100% cleaned out before you crack open the cooling system or remove valve covers etc. Don't be impatient and you won't make anything worse.

[timothymoore]

ok. i just got to it and freeked when i saw all the rust, theres liquid in the depressions...... is that good or bad? i would like to get it taken care of, but its not like im racing to get the car drivable. this is probably going to be a 3-5 year project for me as im headed to college in a few weeks