I Need Seasoned SC'ers Opinions on Rebuild Bottom End Yes or No...

thirdbird

Registered User
Hi,

I have an 89 SC w/200K on the motor's bottom end(i'm assuming).
It Blew a HG Yesterday.
Somebody here who builds his own motors as a hobby says I should do the lower end as well as the top, and it would be dumb for me not to. He is not a Ford guy, and never worked on our cars....
I have a felpro upper gasket set on its way to me already, and will be ordering arp bolts, and I have the help of somebody else on this board who has a garage, and has done his HG's himself already.

I don't have the $ to put in better pistons and rods,
which I would want to do if I did redo the lower end.
I barely have the $ to have the heads reworked, which I at least want to do if I'm going to the trouble of replacing the HG's.
I have another motor in a 92SC that already needs total re-work. If I had to do a rebulild, I would build the 92 slowly over time while I was driving my 89.
So.........
Should I sink 5-7 hundred into the 89 motor top end to get it going, and would it be a wate of $ to do only the topside of a motor with that many miles on it?
or
Should I just park it for a long a_ _ time and get a complete rebuild?
I realize that these questions are probably stupid, but I ain't gonna learn if I don't ask!
I am Grateful for this resource!

paul:)
 
Since you have to do a rebuild anyway you might want to hit up the junk yards and try to find a decent 94/95 block as they had a stronger bottom end than the early models. If you can get your hands on one of these and rebuild it, you should have no issues with running the bottom end stock while upgrading the top side.
 
It sucks to be without a running SC, so I say slap on the HGs, get a $200 valvejob, surface heads, and be on your way. Oh, I'd use some 15-50 oil in an old motor too...

I got a box o' spare stock head parts I'll give ya if you need to replace a valve or something when getting the valvejob done.

As long as you didn't run it long at all, or leave the coolant in the oilpan, I'd bet you're OK for another few K miles.

I wouldn't expect it to last a loooong time or anything. But get it running that way you can slowly build the other one how you want it.

I'm having SC withdrawls myself, been down since just before Christmas, just no time to get things togther...

Just my .02:cool:
 
thirdbird said:
thanks!
I feel better now......
Hey what do I have to do to get those parts form ya size?


Now that was just my .02, so you may want some other opinions before you decide.

On the parts, you probably won't need anything, you might have a spring that is too worn, or a slightly bent valve or something.

When you take the heads in for the valve job, they will tell you if you need any parts. If you need something, I'll send it to ya and let you know what shippin is. I got a spare setup from my aftermarket springs and big valves.

A quick re-iteration, if you haven't drained the oil yet, I'd do it asap...
 
sizemoremk said:
Now that was just my .02, so you may want some other opinions before you decide.

On the parts, you probably won't need anything, you might have a spring that is too worn, or a slightly bent valve or something.

When you take the heads in for the valve job, they will tell you if you need any parts. If you need something, I'll send it to ya and let you know what shippin is. I got a spare setup from my aftermarket springs and big valves.

A quick re-iteration, if you haven't drained the oil yet, I'd do it asap...

Drained coolant and OIL, refilled OIL and run for a cpl minutes, but not drained again.... I figure ill run it for a minute every cpl days to be anal..

It ran better with all the coolant out of it! I think I will drive it cross-country now!:)
 
94/5 motor run by 89 Electronics

T-bird Tim said:
Since you have to do a rebuild anyway you might want to hit up the junk yards and try to find a decent 94/95 block as they had a stronger bottom end than the early models. If you can get your hands on one of these and rebuild it, you should have no issues with running the bottom end stock while upgrading the top side.

Will a 94/5 motor run with 89 electronics?
Are there sensors in different places with different plugs on them?
Have you or anybody done this swap?
I may find a newer motor, and I wanna have an idea what I'm up against
Thanks!

paul:D
 
Don't keep running it with blown head gaskets! I've put a couple of these engines back together after blowing the HG's without going through the bottom end without any problems, but in each case the engine was shut down immediately after they blew.

The 94/95 engine swap has been covered here before. It is quite doable. Try doing a search for more info.
 
If you are planning to just drive it around and have no plans of rapeing it at the track or pumping in 20 lbs of boost and cranking the horsepower on up, then just fix the head gaskets and go on with it. Good to see that you are using the ARP's. But if you are planning on doing any of the previous then get a spare block and save your pennies and do it up right. :D
 
I can't

I can't believe what I'm hearing here-you have a car with 200k miles on it, that just had a headgasket failure. If ANY coolant mixed with the oil, I'd bet my car against yours that the bearings have copper showing on them. Last headgaskets I replaced on an sc that made a milkshake (under 5 minutes mind you) It was knocking within an hour of the head replacement. If your oil was contaminated, do yourself a favor and get new rod bearings at least. Despite what you're hoping for, you have to go with the worst case scenario. What happens when you spend all that money and the lower end lets go?
 
Well he is already planning on building up another motor for the long term.

Either he gos without a SC for a long while (which is not goo for any of us;) )

Now I've only taken down 4 motors in my day, all were runing, a 351, a 300 I6, and 2 were SC motors, and all had plenty of copper showing....

If he don't go crazy on it, and he has good oil pressure, runs some thick oil, I suspect it has a good chance of it lasting him a few K miles while he builds another one.

We all know the full build would be better...
 
Charkly said:
I can't believe what I'm hearing here-you have a car with 200k miles on it, that just had a headgasket failure. If ANY coolant mixed with the oil, I'd bet my car against yours that the bearings have copper showing on them. Last headgaskets I replaced on an sc that made a milkshake (under 5 minutes mind you) It was knocking within an hour of the head replacement. If your oil was contaminated, do yourself a favor and get new rod bearings at least. Despite what you're hoping for, you have to go with the worst case scenario. What happens when you spend all that money and the lower end lets go?

I can tell you that I was under the car last night.
The oil was not TOTALLY black, but it was not brown either... Diddn't look real polluted to me. I took the dipper out for giggles, and the crankcase seemed to be around a quart overfilled.....If that gives you guys an indication of coolant infiltration amount.... ? ? ?
I have another SC with Definitely bad motor mounts(177k) and the oil filter was rubbing on the cross member, plus the oil pan looked crooked/not level with it like the motor was not sitting level.
And my 89's oil pan is noticably higher + level off the cross member, plus the oil filter is not touching anything.....Also its clean down there, maybe that's no difference i dunno.......
I am no expert, as I have explained in the beginning of this thread, but it seems to me that this engine (for whatever reason) was possibly out of the car at some point. I bought solid rubber mounts/engine+tranny, so I am hoping that if they were replaced, (the engine mounts), they were stock replacements.
I spoke with the seller of the car again tonite, he and I agree that the running condition of the car when he had it and I bought it is indicative of having had engine work at some point or another..... Maybe it was HG's, who knows. It pulled real well when it was running..... Anyway, I can get
re-worked heads for $100 from a friend, so I'll risk it.
I paid $800 for the car.
I can't afford to fix the whole thing for a long time anyway, so I might as well give it a shot..... And work on the other motor at my own financially pathetic pace...

paul:)
 
I've seen it both ways and there are arguments for both sides It all depends on what happened when they blew and what you plan on doing in the MODS area when you rebuild. Also depends on how much you are willing to spend. I've seen one blow the #3 cylinder replace the HG's and shortly after send the #1 rod through the side of the oil pan..very ugly...Then I've seen some with 50,000 miles after just an HG replacement..it's all going to depend on what else you do...Just my .02
Rick
 
Wow!

I must be pretty lucky then, huh? Blew my HGs, parked it for a few to know for sure what the problem was, topped it off with hose water, hopped back in, fired her up and drove her home almost 30 miles away. I thought for sure I was going to HAVE TO rebuild it from the bottom end up. I drained the oil as soon as I could (about 40% water) and then yanked everything out of the engine compartment in my driveway. Got an upper set, some stock head bolts, some good ole blue RTV and went to town. Cleaned it all as good as I could while I was in there and then threw it all back together. Bought a case of el cheapo oil and a few quarts of ATF and a couple of el cheapo oil filters. Mixed my oil/ATF about 4-1 fired her up for 5-10 minutes and then dumped the oil again. I did this three times. After the third time I put in 4 quarts 10-40 Valvoline High Mileage and a quart of Lucas with a K&N oil filter fired her up and have had absolutely no problems. I do change the oil every 3K and always use about 20% Lucas.That was 14 months or so ago and I do drive it like I stole it everytime I fire her up.

This is NOT to say that anyone else should do this, but at the time I didn't have the $$ nor time off work to keep her down and out while I did a complete rebuild.
 
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