Inside the the heads..

[Nick774]

Hey guys, so right now I have the heads open and removed the chain cover. All looks relatively decent except for some white powdery nasty stuff im finding in the heads and around the chains. Is this from oxidation or from water damage? Anyone ever have this in their blocks?

107941079510796107971079810799

[DMC5180]

Yikes! Do you know if there was some kind of flood history involving this car? I take it you are trying to resurrect this engine from 20 years of sitting. That's a lot of corrosion. Your going to need to go deep into this one and verify he integrity of the block. Especially the VOD deep recesses (under the intake manifold). As long as there aren't any swiss cheese holes in the water jacket it can be disassembled bead blasted and cleaned too make it live again.

Btw: please fill in Some info about yourself. So we can better you and know who we are trying to help. I'm going to guess your name is Nick am I correct? It also helps to know the last 5 of the VIN and what City , State or Country do you reside. You never know there may be a very knowledgeable owner in your neck of the woods.

[Nick774]

Correct you are sir, Nicks the name and 000774 is the vin number. I reside in Howell, NJ and am ten minutes south of Marc Levy from the DMA club here. I intend to do a full engine revival. The car sat for the past eleven years so the work has been eventful! I still have to finish setting up the rest of my profile here but I get sidetracked so easily as soon as I log on, Ive grown quite fond of the site here.

[DMC5180]

Ten minutes south of MARK LEVY! You have our sympathy :hysterical: But seriously, Mark is a good guy and strong supporter of the Delorean marque and club activist. One of a handful of behind the scene event coordinators at DCS events. Will you making trek to DCS? D'less of course.

[David T]

It would appear to be from condensation and corrosion. Depending on how deep you want to go you can do anything from a full disassembly to cleaning up what you can and then changing the oil a couple of times and an engine flush once you get it running. More important would be a borescope inspection of the cylinders and a compression test. If they look good I would just try running it and cleaning it up with a couple of flushes.
David Teitelbaum





[QUOTE=Nick774;58975]Hey guys, so right now I have the heads open and removed the chain cover. All looks relatively decent except for some white powdery nasty stuff im finding in the heads and around the chains. Is this from oxidation or from water damage? Anyone ever have this in their blocks?

[MFaulks]

Oooh sorry to see that, doesn't look that great. I would bite the bullet and rebuild it, chances of it lasting otherwise; however hard you try to clean up is probably going to result in a short lived engine. Aluminium oxide is abrasive carried in oil so better to be thorough, pity to see that... but opportunity to change to the OE ally rockers, and do some other performance upgrades too, I'm sure lots of US forum members can advise.

[Delorean Industries]

I would suggest pulling the engine completely apart. Too much debris and corrosion. Running this will result in a restricted oiling system most likely at the pick up.

[LEVY]

+1

You might have a good engine that just need cleaning, if you fail to completely disassembly and inspect your engine, you may end up spending a lot more than needed.




I would suggest pulling the engine completely apart. Too much debris and corrosion. Running this will result in a restricted oiling system most likely at the pick up.

[Nick774]

10847

So this guy's been living in my block for 12 years...10848

[LEVY]

Bet you will also find wasps, bees and even rodents!

[dvonk]

So this guy's been living in my block for 12 years...

haha, gross.

[DMC3165]

Truthfully I expected worse Nick. Best to take the advice from the guys here and completely tear it down. You might also want to think about looking around for a decent used motor or consider doing a 3.0 upgrade. I know you'd like to keep it original but you know what your in for with this motor and if the valley in the block is badly corroded its probably not worth mesing with.

[Nick774]

Thanks everyone, As of now the motor is stripped completely to the block. My plan is to have it sandblasted and powder coated as long as there is no damage to the valley and such. However I may have an alternative if my block is no good. my brothers 06' chevy cobalts tranny is shot leaving a perfectly good motor up for grabs. I havent looked into the specs of it yet but if it is adaptable this could possibly be a solution and save me the expense of buying a new motor. I still would prefer to keep my engine or atleast still use another donor delorean motor but this is just an idea im tinkering with. Any thoughts on this one guys?

[dvonk]

...My plan is to have it sandblasted and powder coated...

this sent up a red flag in my mind. IIRC it was previously mentioned by a knowledgeable member that powder coating can trap heat in the engine... i.e., blocking or reducing the metal's inherent heat-dissipating capacity.

however, i could be wrong. can someone confirm or refute this?

[LEVY]

I don't believe is true. Rust, dirt, oil and grease will trap more heat than a clean painted surface. Black will disipate more heat than bare metal.

LEVY




this sent up a red flag in my mind. IIRC it was previously mentioned by a knowledgeable member that powder coating can trap heat in the engine... i.e., blocking or reducing the metal's inherent heat-dissipating capacity.

however, i could be wrong. can someone confirm or refute this?

[Nick774]

Ok so after looking into the specs on the cobalt engine I am not impressed with it. 130hp, 4cyl. engine? id rather take my chances with my block being rebuilt.

[Squall67584]

The ecotec can be built up to make HP, but torque might be limited by it's displacement. There was a turbo version that came in the Solstice GXP and Saturn Sky Turbo, 270hp and 270tq if memory serves. But again I'm not sure how much of that torque is usable in real life situations instead of full throttle dyno numbers.

[David T]

The motor is water cooled. This means you do not dissipate much, if any heat directly from the metal of the motor to the surrounding air. The heat is transferred to the anti-freeze in the cooling system which gets circulated to the radiator (heat exchanger) which then transfers it to the air. Roughly 1/3 of the heat energy of the fuel is handled this way. Another 1/3 goes out the tailpipe and 1/3 is converted into mechanical energy and propels the car. Painting the motor will have no effect on it's temperature. You do need a certain kind of paint. It must adhere to a casting which can never really get cleaned perfectly and the paint must be able to take a large temperature range without losing adhesion or cracking.
David Teitelbaum




I don't believe is true. Rust, dirt, oil and grease will trap more heat than a clean painted surface. Black will disipate more heat than bare metal.

LEVY

[dvonk]

fair enough, i like to be proven wrong (especially with a logical explanation) because it means i learned something new. :biggrin:


now if i could just figure out what exactly i was trying to remember... unfortunately, i believe it was in a thread from the old forum, so i may never know for sure. :frown:

[LEVY]

If you can feel your engine is hot, then your engine is dissipating heat directly to the atmosphere. When sizing a radiator for a specific application, engineers take in consideration all the heat dissipated through the engine, cooling system lines, exhaust pipes, transmission etc.

LEVY



The motor is water cooled. This means you do not dissipate much, if any heat directly from the metal of the motor to the surrounding air. The heat is transferred to the anti-freeze in the cooling system which gets circulated to the radiator (heat exchanger) which then transfers it to the air. Roughly 1/3 of the heat energy of the fuel is handled this way. Another 1/3 goes out the tailpipe and 1/3 is converted into mechanical energy and propels the car. Painting the motor will have no effect on it's temperature. You do need a certain kind of paint. It must adhere to a casting which can never really get cleaned perfectly and the paint must be able to take a large temperature range without losing adhesion or cracking.
David Teitelbaum