Water in my engine D:

[Fkhuk]

I am doing a VH swap on my s13 currently. I've had the actual motor stored for a months since I've been away from home. I get back into town with all of my parts and get my car ready to install everything. I go over to my motor and see there is water sitting in between the cylinder heads. Knowing this doesn't look good at all I flip the motor over and pull the oil pan off and there is a fair amount of water in there. My question is, is it even feasible the motor is salvageable without a rebuild? I've never had an issue even remotely similar to this but from what I've read o nine is that as long as the motor isn't locked its possible to push my water out from the cylinders. Is this true!?!? What can I do to try and save myself from having to wait for another motor to show itself online?

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Ehh, its risky. You can probably change the oil a few times and try to get it all out, but you might have some rust related pitting on some of the surfaces that are supposed to be pretty damn smooth (like cam lobes, cylinder walls, bearing surfaces, etc).

It'll probably run, but who knows for how long, and it will probably be less efficient. You can always pull the valve cover/oil pan off and check things out.

[flohtingPoint]

Simple solution, put a big a** socket/bar on the crank and see if it'll spin. If it's not seized, more than likely fine'ish. With that much water though, I'd be more worried about warping from an overheat.

[Fkhuk]

I pulled the valve covers and oil pan, I don't see much rust in the bottom end but there is definitely rust on the cam lobes. Thou I can't tell if the rest of the heads are full of rust. It wouldn't be a question if I could find another motor to replace it with. But I'm ready to drive the car. I'm thinking I'm going to it it in (assuming its not seized) and just be really careful about how I drive it and treat it for the first few thousand miles (it's a track car so it'll be difficult, but a new clutch calls for that for the first 500 anyways)

[flohtingPoint]

it's a track car so it'll be difficult, but a new clutch calls for that for the first 500 anyways

Track cars dont have break-in periods on clutches =P

[WDRacing]

I've had surface rust on cams and on the cylinder walls of an RB20 that was exposed to weather. It was only surface rust though. There wasn't any pitting. Take some steel wool to the cams and see if there is pitting.

See if you can borrow a bore scope, pull a plug and look inside the cylinder. This is probably where rust would cause the most problems, like a massive loss of compression. I pulled the head off of mine and ran a bottle hone through all 6 cylinders to clean them up. Put everything back together and it ran fine with even compression across all 6 cylinders.

If you don't want to take it apart, spray some pb blaster or WD40 inside each cylinder, alot of it, and let it sit for a few hours. Then turn the crank a few times. Any surface rust should come off from the piston rings scraping the cylinder walls. After you rotate the crank, reinspect with a bore scope.

Best bet would be pulling the heads though. Anything else is fairly shade tree.

If you use a impact gun you can do a compression test on the cylinders to get a general idea if you have a cylinder that is really bad. You'll have to spray some oil in each cylinder though, you don't want to have metal on metal contact.

[Fkhuk]

Thanks fr the insight that helps alot. From what I understand head studs for the Vh are kind of hard to come by so I'm a little skeptical about pulling the heads. I will definitely use a borescope an everything else first though. Thanks again.

[WDRacing]

Does the VH not use head bolts?

[Fkhuk]

I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive I remember reading that they are studs and have to be special ordered through arp

[WDRacing]

I'm pretty sure studs are an upgrade. Like 99% sure.

*EDIT*
Did some reading, they are indeed head bolts. They can be purchased from the dealer, bout 6 bucks each.

[Fkhuk]

Thanks for checking up on that for me, heads will indeed be pulled then

[WDRacing]

Check your local dealer and see what the prices are.