Last night I fully separated the engine from my 1996 Q45 from the transmission and am en route to getting it on an engine stand. My question is how far would you suggest tearing down/refreshing engine components while it is out of car?

I bought this back in July and have slowly been tinkering with it since. It was drivable when purchased but had clearly been leaking oil from the valve cover gaskets - because of this I took on a full valley refresh including knock sensors, coolant hoses, valve cover gaskets, rocker cover grommets, etc. this somehow snowballed into pulling the engine to clean the crevices where oil has been collecting from the aforementioned gasket leak!!!

During its time under rehab I do know small bits of dust found it’s way into the intake valves, no matter how much I tried to protect and cover them. I would like to not have to pull this engine down the road for a bottom end refresh if it’s something that should be handled now.

Long story short - what is everyone’s thoughts? Head gasket? Bottom end inspection? Something else perhaps?

Good idea to get Kompression test before any of the above , have you done compression - in car - out of car ?
What's the #'s look like ?
If not yet , is it feasible to do now out of the car ?

macgiver wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:51 pm

If not yet , is it feasible to do now out of the car ?

It's easy enough to rig a battery to the starter with jumper cables and trip the solenoid terminal with a screwdriver. There's no need to have it in-car to spin it.

macgiver wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:51 pm

Good idea to get Kompression test before any of the above , have you done compression - in car - out of car ?
What's the #'s look like ?
If not yet , is it feasible to do now out of the car ?

Great question. I did test the compression before pulling the engine or starting any sort of maintenance on this car. All cylinders were around 180 - pretty impressive that they’re so close within factory spec at 25 years old.

My two cents worth is to do as much as your time and money take you , and begin with THE most critical aspects geared toward heavy emphasis on inspection & inspecting first ANYTHING in your book that makes a ' Deal breaker ' of that motor's plan of attack.
You don't want to crawl waaay out on a limb to have the branch breakoff under you. ya know

Some people here with beaucoup experience on that particular motor may chime in with " best way " to do things , and like what to watch for ???

How many miles do you have on the engine? The '96 in particular seems to be the most prone to sludge issues if oil changes haven't been kept up with. With compression numbers like that I don't know how deep I'd go into it.

Q451990 wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:34 am

How many miles do you have on the engine? The '96 in particular seems to be the most prone to sludge issues if oil changes haven't been kept up with. With compression numbers like that I don't know how deep I'd go into it.

It’s sitting at 132k ish. One half of me feels like while I have it out I mine as well tackle head gaskets and ensure there isn’t future problems as visually inspecting the exposed areas of gasket they look like they have had better days… No doubt because of the fluids covering the engine block.

Is there anything in the bottom end that might be worth taking a look at or upgrading while I am in there? Not looking for crazy power figures or anything but have considered upgrading camshafts and valves. My understanding is the bottom end is good for well beyond 400hp if it is all in good condition.

Head gasket failure is extremely rare. At that low of a mileage I'd clean it up and put it back together, assuming you didn't see signs of significant varnish or neglect while you were changing the valve cover gaskets. I would probably replace the rear main seal while it's out. Of course put new motor mounts and transmission mount in when you reinstall.

I'm not there, but from here it seems like you have solutions looking for a problem.

Please post some pictures.

I have a '96 from new and would keep hearing what you have done and what more you are going to do.

BTW look for and buy a new fuel pump and fuel pump controller for the future. I am pretty sure I bought the last OEM last year available in the states.

Q451990 wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 18, 2022 5:31 pm

Head gasket failure is extremely rare. At that low of a mileage I'd clean it up and put it back together, assuming you didn't see signs of significant varnish or neglect while you were changing the valve cover gaskets. I would probably replace the rear main seal while it's out. Of course put new motor mounts and transmission mount in when you reinstall.

I'm not there, but from here it seems like you have solutions looking for a problem.

All very good points! I’m planning on ordering new/upgrading motor mounts as well as trans mounts as suggested!

sandydennis11 wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 19, 2022 3:57 pm

Please post some pictures.

I have a '96 from new and would keep hearing what you have done and what more you are going to do.

BTW look for and buy a new fuel pump and fuel pump controller for the future. I am pretty sure I bought the last OEM last year available in the states.

I’m actually considering converting to a flex fuel/e85 system. Deatschwerks actually makes a drop in fuel pump that will provide the correct flow for an e85 system for our cars. My injectors were a bear to get out and I broke a handful of them so I have been considering upgrading those to 650cc - that being said a slew of things are required to properly convert from what I can gather IE earlier ECU w/ nistune, ethanol sensor, etc etc etc. I don’t want to turn this into a project that never gets on the road but one can dream!

Photos inbound!!!!! Might take me a couple days but I’ll make sure to post a few.

Looking forward to pictures!

Heath makes some good points, particularly re: rear main seal (do it!) and NOT messing with the head gaskets--unless there is clear evidence of an overheat, or you are planning on running huge boost.
I'm confident your oil pan is seeping unless it's been resealed, and likely your front main seal is in need of a refresh as well. So, I'd do those. reseal (rtv) the front cover both the lower and the two uppers. Be careful of the head gasket at this region, which is sandwiched between the upper and lower covers. While the pan is off, you could check a rod bearing or two for wear, but I wouldn't go beyond that unless you find a lot of missing metal. #6 rod bearing seems to be the most prone to failure fwiw, but your mileage may vary of course. Remember that you need to achieve 270 lb-ft on the crank bolt when you re-attach it, as only friction drives the oil pump sprocket. Speaking of which, look for wear on the oil pump chain (stretching) that may have allowed the chain to chew into the oil pump aluminum housing.
If you do pull the cams, your HLAs are likely at least partially collapsed. clean them (don't necessarily submerge in solvent unless you have a plan (?) to get it all out of there), check the body holes (oil feed) for obstruction, then drown them in fresh oil with the HLAs vertical, and very important....burp them to get the air out and let them pump all the way up.
It sounds like you have an eye for detail, and that is well suited to a preservation approach to what you have.