Re: Rope in cylinder

[jlandry@domain.elided (John A. Landry)]

J MICHAEL SHAW II <103253.3336@domain.elided> scribbled in the sand:

>I'm almost resigned to pulling the top
>off of that side, but don't know if that is more of a job than everybody
>was recommending when they said that the best way to learn it is simply to
>do it.

Mike,

First off, I really feel for you.  I can't tell you how many times I've felt
that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when some mechanical adventure
went awry.  I've learned over the years that *usually* the best course of
action is to do a job right, or don't bother at all.  At this point (if I were
you) I'd just pull the darn heads off (both), get the rope out, clean any
carbon buildup that you find, check the valves, etc.

Many times I've procrastinated and put off supposedly "big" repair jobs on my
vehicles because I feared the supposed complexity of the task.  For example, I
have a 1987 Subaru GL-10 Turbo Wagon that developed a noisy (I mean machine
gun clattering) lifter on a long hot trip from Washington state to Texas and
back.  This was back in 1992 maybe?  You can't properly appreciate how
intimidated I was of this engine until you pop open the hood and see miles of
fuel pipes, vacuum hoses, wires, electronic switches, relays, intake runners,
etc.  Basic tune-up tasks were one thing, but it looked like a delicate and
complicated maze of expensive parts beyond that.  I knew the lifter needed to
be replaced, but because the noise would sort of come and go to varying
degrees I kept putting it off.

But a couple of weekends ago I decided to take the plunge.  It took me a full
day to get everything apart.  You wouldn't believe the pile of stuff on the
garage floor.  But I took my time, followed the Subaru shop manual and
everything worked out perfectly.  It took two more lazy days to get everything
cleaned up, repaired and back together.  When it was all over with I couldn't
understand why I was so worried in the first place.  It felt really good to
look back at the engine and seeing that maze of parts in a totally new light
one last time before I closed the hood.  Granted I still have better things to
do with my time than waste a weekend tearing apart my Subaru, but that engine
no longer intimidates me in any way.  I have a much better understanding of
how it functions and where the weak points are.  I've been through this
scenario countless times.  I'd admit to still being intimidated by the thought
of rebuilding an automatic transmission, but in reality I know that if I had
the proper tools and shop manual I could handle that too.

So my point is that many of us waste a lot more time, effort and worry
fiddling around trying to avoid the correct (or best) repair procedure than
actually doing it!  Taking the heads off your IH engine is not difficult... a
pain maybe keeping you from watching the X-Files tonight... but not difficult.
I can almost assure you that you will find some amount of carbon buildup in
the cylinders, and this will give you a nice opportunity to see how much there
is and clean it out.

Once you get the heads off, to clean the carbon out you can buy a couple of
sizes of small fine or medium wire cup brushes to fit your hand drill.
Depending on how high up the piston rings scrape the cylinder walls, there
will usually be a small ring of carbon buildup on the very upper portion of
the cylinder wall.  Rotate your engine so the top of a particular piston is
just shy of this buildup (so you can get to it with your wire brush.  Next,
pack a small amount of light weight grease around the gap between the piston
and the cylinder wall.  Wipe away all traces of grease except what's in the
gap.  After covering other parts of the engine (to protect from flying
particles) clean the top of the piston and the side of the cylinder wall with
the small wire brush on the hand drill.  Go easy on the top of the piston as
the metal is soft, verses the hard cylinder wall.  In any case you're trying
to remove the carbon and not metal.  The deeper layers of carbon will be rock
hard... almost ceramic like.  It takes a good bit of work to get it off.
Vacuum up the accumulated dust and carbon with a shop vac.  Next, rotate the
engine so the piston drops away a short distance from the grease ring in the
gap between it and the cylinder wall.  Clean this grease up with something
like WD-40, transmission fluid or very light weight engine oil... NOT SOLVENT!
Solvent will possibly leave behind microscopic abrasive particles that could
lead to cylinder wall scoring.  Cleaning with light oil does a better job of
getting all the junk off the cylinder wall.  Once you get all of it you can,
move the piston down a little more again and repeat the cleaning.  Each time
you move the piston down, a bit more of the crud will stay on the cylinder
wall.  In this way (using the grease) you'll keep the carbon particles from
dropping and getting lodged between the piston and cylinder wall.

Cleaning the cylinder heads is similar, but you may want to invest in a valve
spring compression tool (not very expensive for home mechanic quality) so you
can remove the valves to clean and evaluate the valve seats.  You can clean
the carbon buildup you'll find in the exhaust ports and under the valves.
With the valve springs removed, you can see how well each valve moves in it's
guide (no sticking or excessive looseness).  Make sure each valve stays in
it's original seat.  Upon reassembly, it'd be a good idea to replace the valve
stem seals.

You'll learn a lot and gain confidence and your engine will be much happier...
go for it.  We'll be here to answer any questions along the way.

Good luck and merry Christmas,

John
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