I told my friends I thought I saw mud when I looked at the number four spark plug, but they didn't believe me. Then when I had all the spark plugs out I decided to spin the engine over by hand and mud shot out of the number four spark plug hole. Never seen that before! Well that would explain the $100 dollar price for it.

So tonight I decided to take the cylinder head off and see what lurks beneath. Here are some pictures of the "Mud Dog" for you, any advice on best ways to clean this mess up, please keep in mind I can not afford to send the block to the shop, so I need the shade tree mechanic solutions.



The Block - more pictures...



Cylinder Heads - more pictures...

 

Just to give you a little background history on this motor. Pulled from a running vehicle to be dropped into another vehicle by the guy I bought it from. (I know we all heard that all before, right?)

When I went to pick it up it was sitting outside in his backyard, and I think at one time it was under his patio but then got moved by his fence with no protection. So I recon since there was no air cleaner on it, water got in the carburator and ran down inside to which ever valve was open at the time, and it so happened that it was number four.

I figure I share this to give myself hope that it is not a blown head gasket, cracked cylinder, or warped head, etc. By the way I checked the oil before I bought it and it was purdy, no milky stuff in it at all. So let's hope this is an unusual case of water in from the top, and that it will clean up nicely.

 

It certainly looks like the water entered through the intake runners.. You might clean the bores and pistons, then rotate the motor over looking for any excessive cylinder pitting ect.. Once cleaned and a good flashlight in hand, blowing compressed air around the top/comp ring area usually will reveal the 'ring end' gap.. A 'decent' way to measure the amount of ring wear.. If more than on gap, your in trouble Next, clean the head and set the head on its side.. Fill the intake chamber with cleaning solvent and watch the valve face/seat area for bleed through.. Same with the exhaust.. If there is any leaking, try wedging the valve/s open and use a soft wire brush to get rid of the trash.. Test again.. If the valves still leak, better to have them done now.. Put the heads back on and do a cranking comp test.. If it specs out ok, your good.. 'Best' to have the cylinder balance PSI not more than 10% difference, but on a used motor thats open to judgement

Any water drained out of the pan, or show on the stick?

 

Excellent advice, very specific, thank you very much. I will follow it and let you know how it turns out.

 

The saga continues, drained the oil which looked nice and black no water in it that I could tell, dropped the oil pan today and pulled the number four piston out. Glad I did as the oil ring was nice and gunky. So I removed and cleaned the rings and put them back on. Then I honed the cylinder, (and forgot to take a picture of the mirror like shine), but here's some dirty cylinder and piston shots for you.