Rust in the cylinders... My own dumb fault

[71chevellejohn]

When the heads lifted on my 87 blowing the gasket, I decided to sell the roller.

My brother has been slow at work and offered to disassemble the engine and re-gasket it if that is all it needs. If I can re-gasket the engine and make it run, then I'll put the car back together and sell it running - as opposed to a roller.

We loaded it yesterday and he started this morning. He called me and said that the center 4 cylinders have some surface rust in them. Apparently when I pulled the plugs to look at them, I didn't put them back in to plug the hole.

I haven't gone over to look at it yet since I'm working, but is there anything that can be done for hopefully mild rust in the cylinder. I'm thinking that if it is just surface rust then a quick run through with a hone may clean it up to run dependably. I'm still selling the car and I don't want to sell somebody a problem.

Just looking for options...

Thanks in advance

[Stunter Bob]

A good honing should be just fine as long as you didnt have any major rust buildup in there.

[lowthreeohz]

yup, drop a stone in there and a lot of wd40.. should clear it all right up.

[greenbullitt]

IF he has the engine apart...he didnt say anything about a rebuild though...

[71chevellejohn]

I'm going to go look at it after he gets done from lunch, so I have a better idea of what I am dealing with.

If it is too far gone, I could re-ring/re-bearing the other 5.0 that I have bagged up...

[46Tbird]

My dad's Cavalier blew a head gasket a while back. It was about two weeks before we could get to it, and by that time there was some pretty good rusty scale in the cylinders.

We let it sit with some PB Blaster for a day or two, then scrubbed the cylinders with steel wool. Then wiped out the gunk, spun the crank over by hand a few times until you couldn't feel any excessive resistance, and put it back together. It's been fine ever since.

Do not take this as gospel advice.

[71chevellejohn]

My brother made it sound worse than I think it is. I went and looked expecting to see something resembling a quarter panel from a 72 Pinto that spent it's years driving up and down the coast. What I found was just some mild rust scale in the cylinders. Nothing major - I'm 99% sure that a well lubed hone will take care of the cylinder walls.

The valves have some rust on the stems, which may cause some problems. I have a spare set of E7s somewhere that I am going to clean up and slap on there.

One other question, my brother showed me where the rods had been stamped - I don't know the history of this engine.
Did Ford mark rods when they were assembled, or is that an indication somebody has pulled the rotating assembly in the past?

[junk racing]

My brother made it sound worse than I think it is. I went and looked expecting to see something resembling a quarter panel from a 72 Pinto that spent it's years driving up and down the coast. What I found was just some mild rust scale in the cylinders. Nothing major - I'm 99% sure that a well lubed hone will take care of the cylinder walls.

The valves have some rust on the stems, which may cause some problems. I have a spare set of E7s somewhere that I am going to clean up and slap on there.

One other question, my brother showed me where the rods had been stamped - I don't know the history of this engine.
Did Ford mark rods when they were assembled, or is that an indication somebody has pulled the rotating assembly in the past?

chances are its been rebuilt at some point

[mustgofaster]

One other question, my brother showed me where the rods had been stamped - I don't know the history of this engine.
Did Ford mark rods when they were assembled, or is that an indication somebody has pulled the rotating assembly in the past?

A couple of years ago I freshened up the 351 in my 93' Lightning. They were stamped & I know that it had not been apart before. On the same note, My wife's 01'Focus dropped a valve seat a couple of mos ago. That one was stamped as well & it too had not been apart.

[71chevellejohn]

Ring sizes?

Everything honed out and looks good in the cylinders. Measured the bore and it is still 4.000".

Most of the rings were fine, except for the 4 piston that had the rust - a few of the rings snapped when he was trying to free them up. I was going to order a ring set but don't know the ring thickness for each ring. The measured the top ring and it came out at .056 - looking at summit's options, nothing is close to that.

They list 1.5mm, 2mm, and 5/64" as available thicknesses for the top ring.

Does anybody have some insight as to the ring thickness for the top / second / oil rings?

[turbostang]

The metric conversion is .039375 - so, in this case you'd divide .056/.039375=1.42MM

Check my math to be sure, but that should be right (I'm on my phone)

[71chevellejohn]

The metric conversion is .039375 - so, in this case you'd divide .056/.039375=1.42MM

Check my math to be sure, but that should be right (I'm on my phone)

OK. I think earlier when I was converting mm to inches, I neglected to convert the 1.5mm over(office internet was pissing me off, had to leave). Now that I did, it comes out to 1.5mm = .059".

I also found a handful of mustang threads that listed the ring thickness as 1.5mm,1.5mm, and 4mm(oil).

[greenbullitt]

what pistons? factory trw forged are 1.5/1.5/4.0

[71chevellejohn]

what pistons? factory trw forged are 1.5/1.5/4.0

That's them.