Mustang Motor Tear-down

Brian and Colin were down this weekend and we put the Mustang away for the summer, but also got the old motor out and took it apart.  I'm pretty sure the plan is to buy a new drop-in crate motor, but I still wanted to see if the old motor was salvageable.  I also wanted to give Colin and Brian a chance to do some "wrenching" and see what the inside of a car engine looked like.  When we took the engine out of the Mustang we put it on an engine stand and it has been there in the equipment shed for the past two years.  We got it out and over to the shop and started taking it apart.  We had the intake manifold and the heads off before I thought to take some pictures, but what we found was the most caked-up engine I have ever seen.  This photo of the lifter galley was taken AFTER a lot of the gunk had been removed:

Then we turned it over and took the oil pan off:

 
Some residual coolant drained out plus more gunk:

 

Colin got to take the oil pan bolts out the old way while I used the quick and lazy way:

 

Next came the lower end con rod bolts:

 

Once we started taking the pistons out we were in for a big surprise; two of the pistons had broken skirts:

 

We found the broken pieces and they were intact and had not been ground into little bits, but it must have made a heck of a racket to have them rattling around in the crank case. 

Many of the bolts on the motor were quite a bit looser than I expected, especially the intake manifold and head bolts.  Maybe this engine had over heated and stretched them.  The crankshaft bolts were another matter, and it took Colin some extra effort to get them loose:

 

Once he popped a few of them loose, I showed him how much easier it was by using an air wrench:

 

We didn't actually take the crankshaft out as it was getting time for dinner and we still needed to get the cam chain off, which meant a bit more disassembly.  I will do that later, and also try to find a way to measure the bore diameter of the cylinders to see if the block can be bored again.  I don't think it can, as a crude measurement with my calipers showed it was already about 0.045 in. over and there are some scratches from those broken pistons that would have to be removed. 

The next day was Brian and Colin's day to help gram and gramps with some home projects.  The first was the removal of a tree that we had planted when we first moved in that was now so big it was shading other plants that Carolyn wanted to get more sun.  I made some partial cuts and then hooked the tractor up and pulled it over:

 

 

Then we chipped the branches:

 

And hauled off the big pieces.  That Colin is a strong kid; I don't think I would want to try to lift that log:

The next project was to help me with my firewood gathering.  I'm getting close to completing my yearly 4.5 cords, but any help is appreciated.  First we load up rounds I've cut from our property next door:

 

Take it to the wood shed:

 

And commence splitting and stacking:

The axe man:

 

The loggers: