K-dog

So, an autopsy confirmed my fears, valves are sticking intermittently. More followers fell out simply cranking by hand, valves are definitely stuck open today. Guides look really bad. Doesn't look like corrosion, more like deposits from the bad fuel. Deposits have the consistency of partly cured JB weld, and stink. So.... Lesson learned. No matter how well an engine was stored, a decade is too long to sit. Could have gone thru the fuel system and probably saved a lot of headaches. Learn from my mistakes.... Spent my lunch break tearing it down with high hopes too. Lol Good news is that I have plenty of experience working on engines, have a machine shop at my disposal, and found a REALLY good parts guy for vintage subies (Viva la socal). So, all is not lost, only postponed.

I got the car from a close friend of mine, who installed the reman in 05 when I was a kid, only to have a bunch of wiring issues and trouble passing smog. Lol I never really thought of the condition of the fuel, it was empty when I got it. Everything looked clean, but I suppose the injectors and fpr could have been hiding something. Suppose the only thing to do is take it apart and figure it out. Gaskets are cheap, screw it.

My latest acquisition, a 1988 RX coupe, has an interesting problem. It has a virtually brand new engine, that's been sitting for 14 years. Ran good for a week, went to fire it up one day and it sounded like it had no compression when cranking. Then, like voodoo, it suddenly had compression, and fired up. FF to yesterday, it had compression on the pass side bank and not the other, but was quiet, and again, fired right up. Air puffing from the intake told me it had a stuck valve. Couldn't find any issues with the valves, so I reassembled the towers, it fired right up, and magically had compression again. Now, it has no compression in the two forward cylinders. Still quiet as a mouse. Runs good (just to see if I could find a funky sound), and has bad reversion on the intake and exhaust corralating with the two cyls without compression. Leakdown shows similar, air past the valves on both cyls, intake and exhaust. The borescope doesn't suggest a ring issue, or foreign objects in the cc. No HC in the cooling system, no water in the ports. Thegine is pretty clean on the inside, as it was stored properly, and has very good oil pressure. This leads me to believe that it may need the lifters cleaned and reprimed after having sat for well over a decade. Can the lifters stick in the fully pumped position and lead to low compression? I assume this would hold the valves open, given enough lifter protrusion. Just want to be sure before I tear down (what was/is) a perfectly good engine, only to have been able to fix it easily, and without significant downtime. Might add that the timing IS CORRECT. Both valve and ign timing as per the Mitchell book, and being new, the belts and tensioners are in great shape.