After a prolonged hiatus I have finally made some more progress with my tear-down. I got the correct tools, and then took the weekend to remove the cam towers and heads. This afforded me my first view of the pistons and cylinders and I have some pretty encouraging news. The cylinders are Nikasil (slightly magnetic), and they appear to be in very good shape--there is no pitting or scoring and the cross-hatch hone pattern looks great to my untrained eye. Additionally, the valves (although heavily carbonized) are seated very well, have no cracks or apparent damage, and if machining is deemed necessary, they all have plenty of material to be re-worked.
Nikasil Cross-Hatch:
Right Side P&C's:
Heads/Valves:
With this latest step, I have a few questions that I was hoping that someone might shed some light on for me.
1st: Should I pop the cylinders and pistons out of the block to clean them up, or is it possible to decarbonize the piston heads as they are? The pistons only have 30,000 miles on them, so I imagine that the rings are good, and I would prefer to leave them unperturbed if at all possible.
2nd: Should I send the heads out to be reconditioned or just decarbonize them and clean them? The valves and valve guides were replaced at the same time as the pistons as were the cams and rockers. I think that mechanically everything is probably ok, but I don't know if I can thoroughly clean the cam towers and heads with everything assembled.
3rd: I have been trying to find out if there are case savers installed in this block, but I haven't had any definitive evidence one way or the other yet. None of the head stud nuts were loose, and there was no blow by on the heads...indicating to me that the studs have been tight since the last rebuild.
Here is a picture of what I hope is a case saver or helicoil...any opinions?
Thanks for the advice! I'm really excited to get this baby back together!
Alex