Home 3.2 top end rebuild: Costs, Thoughts & Lessons Learned

[r-mm]

Hello Pelican Parts,

I just completed a top end rebuild on my 1987 coupe and thought I'd summerize my experience for anyone contemplating the same. If you have a few hours and want the details, here's my thread: 1st drop & top end observations & questions

The Car:
Had 105k miles and no documented motor work. Previous owner was very diligent and kept the car beautifully (which greatly helped my project) but not one to go in for aggressive preventative maintenance. She was using more than a qt every 500mi, which is borderline. However when sitting in some traffic on the highway this summer I was seeing a decent puff puff of smoke at idle. Plus there was clearly a triangle related oil leak.

Me:
I've been wrenching for a while. Always adjusted my own valves and so forth. Have a pretty good collection of tools. Never rebuilt a motor before. Well, I have rebuilt the motor on my Alfa GTV but that is a multi year project and the motor has never been started so I can't say its a success under my belt.

The Rebuild:
Besides having the heads reconditioned by Anchor Atlantic (HIGHLY recommended) I also replaced the clutch assembly & cross arm, lower head studs, fuel lines, refinished one of the heater boxes, replaced all the larger vacuum and oil lines, had the injectors cleaned, replaced most of the sensors. I did not re-ring my alusils as the pistons, cylinders and rings were comfortably within spec. If and when I do need to work on them, I'd likely go the overbore route I just learned about of boring to 3.4, nikasil plating and using JE pistons which seems like it may come in cheaper than factory new nikasils.

Duration & Costs
Took me about 2.5 months, working quite intensely (2-3h) almost every day. I work (as in my job) normal hours and some weekends. Including ALL tools, chemicals, books, parts, shipping and tax, my costs were almost exactly $4000. Yours will vary. For instance, I had an engine crane already but upgraded my jack & stands for this project. I patronized PP heavily for parts, but also shopped around for some big ticket items and saved a bunch. You can see the details below.

Lessons Learned:
1. If you followed my thread you know that I had to drop the motor again once it was in and running on account of an oil leak at the P/S cam paper gasket. I would say that installing this correctly is one of the trickiest parts of the rebuild as its very easy to get wrong and very hard to know if you got it wrong. I was aware of the pitfalls and looked VERY closely and thought I had nailed it. I had not, and the error was invisible from the outside. In short: my p/s chain box was not perfectly centered on the sealing surface of the cam tower (most likely a combination of the heads being cut very slightly and using a thicker than stock graphite gasket at the chain housing to block juncture) and as a result the cam seal was "folded". The solution, which has worked for the 25 miles I've driven the car since, was to use a bit of RTV to "glue" a new gasket to the cam housing before sending the (new, to be safe) thrust plate home.

2. It's sort of hard to know which specialty tools are absolutely required. I ordered tools as it became obvious I absolutely needed them, and this slowed me down some, but not terribly as there are so many side tasks associated with a rebuild such as painting the engine tin, etc. I'm glad I took a wait and see approach. I will also say that while PP has great prices and top shelf service on gaskets, engine parts, hoses etc, I think one would be wise to think more broadly about the specialty tools needed - for instance, one can buy whole sets of XZN sockets (for the flywheel bolts) and long allen sockets (for the heat exchanger barrel nuts) for less than PP asks for single tools. In addition I found that no special tools were needed for R/R the head studs. I'm sure PP's price is fair for the very high quality items they're selling, but think it through. I did not find there to be any lower priced alternative to the Z-block or cam holding tool. I used an ebay $90 5 arm yoke with a HF 750lb stand and it felt absolutely rock solid and spun in a nice controlled manner.

3. I used a very nice alum fast pump jack and HUGE 12t jackstands to elevate the rear of the car. This was cake. I was so worried about this going into the project, but it was the easiest part. I used a HF ATV jack to raise and lower the motor. In general, it is a good technique, but I had to wheel the motor from one bay of my garage, outside, and into another bay. The surrounding paving sucks and there is a big "lip" at the garage slab to asphalt junction and the atv jack was not fun to wheel around. I noticed that without the muffler installed its possible to get the atv jack way further forward for a far better balance point. I would recommend this HIGHLY, as you will otherwise need something under the transmission such as a dolly, which makes "steering' the whole ass'y that much more annoying.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me! I'm hugely grateful to those who assisted me and eager to pay it forward as much as I can with my limited experience.