Hello everyone! Thank you to everyone who has given me info and tips about my carburator and everything else - I really appreciate it! I'm on working on taking apart the inside of my '71 Comet under the hood, cleaning, painting (some things and not others of course), and replacing old, worn out parts. I'm wondering if I can manually take apart my engine, clean it from the inside out, and replace the parts that are worn out and do this all without a motor lift (don't know if that's really the name of the thing that looks like a little crane to lift the motor). I'm wondering if I can/should clean all the pieces in the motor by hand, put in new grease, gaskets, whatever pieces it needs, etc. See link below to see what I wish my motor looked like. It currently has black, gunky, grease about 1/2" thick under the caps/lids/tops of the motor. I took the 'lids' off and the springs under it are dirty and gunky. If I clean it - any suggestions on what cleaners to use? Any suggestions on what type of new grease to put back on the springs? http://www.pawinc.com/Images/Kits/SPBFOR302N/SPBFOR302N.jpg Can I take the transmission out by hand with a jack in order to take it out and have it inspected/maybe rebuilt by a transmission shop - again w/out any equipment lifts? Thank you for all of your ideas and suggestions, I really appreciate it greatly! Take care, E. V. View attachment 32355 View attachment 32356 View attachment 32357 View attachment 32358 View attachment 32359
that "grease" is oil sludge. i recomend puting the motor back togther with your new parts. then run 4 quarts oil and 1 quart atf through the motor. dont drive it just let it idle for about 20 min. the atf will brake down the sludge in the motor. then drain the oil/atf out, change the oil filter and drive it. then in about 100 miles just put another quart of atf in (you dont have to drain a quart of oil out) let idle for 20 min then drain the oil and change the filter again. this should really clean alot of the sludge from the insides of the motor. pull a valve cover if you want to see how well it worked. while you have the intake off the motor take a look through the ports and look at the valve stems. if the look like they have a cone of black stuff on them they have carbon deposits on them. start running fuel system cleaner through the fuel tank. i recomend cheveron fuel system cleaner or lucas fuel system cleaner. that will start cleaning off the carbon. running cheap fuel and not doing regular oil changes results in all this sludge and carbon build up.
to clean up the cylinder walls you will need a...bar hone... i would suggest you take the...long block...to a machine shop and let them clean all the pieces and re-assemble. (new rings, pistons, bearings and do a valve job). JMO...Frank...
I did an Astro van that way. It is not as easy as it sounds but it can be done. The hardest part was glaze busting the cylinder walls with the dash board in the way. I bent a cotter pin to roll the main bearings. The crankshaft was still in good condition and didn't need machined.
I would say no. You are going to have to lift the motor in a Maverick somehow to get the bottom end apart. OR you are going to get so frustrated that you will give up. To do it right you have to pull the motor in my opinion. To take out the tranny you have to get it up in the air on jackstands with enough room to pull the tranny out and clear the car. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it will be a lot harder.
One drawback to running any additive thru the oil to clean the insides of the motor on an old engine is it's going to leak oil like crazy afterwards. The detergents used to accomplish this will also clean the sludge and oil deposits from the old gaskets, that done, it'll be like running it with no gaskets at all. Been there-done that. You may as well pull the engine and do it all right. You can rent an engine hoist at many parts houses and tool rental shops.
You also have to be careful about cleaning out the gunk without pulling the engine all of the way down as it may stop up the screen on the oil pump. You CAN rent an engine hoist for a day to pull the engine, do your work and then rent it again to install the engine. OR if you think you will be messing around with cars for the rest of your life like a lot of us do look around and buy a used hoist. Or, buy a hoist, use it then sell it to get a lot of your money back clint
try using the high milage oil. it has extra additives to help clean the motor and condition the seals. is the motor running well? if it is id say put your new parts on and go. that sludge is not really hurting anything. it will run the same with that sludge there or if its gone. if the motor doesnt run well then its worth pulling it and having it rebuilt or swaped for another motor.
Thanks to all for the info! Do you think I can replace the gaskets and then do the ATF trick without causing oil to leak? The motor ran fine before - I just am trying to get things cleaned up and old stuff replaced so when I put it all back together again it's in the best shape it can be in so it'll run great. I'd like to try to do the work at home - so whatever tips I can do from home is best for me (budget and all, you know?). When I disconnect the transmission - which I will HAVE to take to a transmission shop instead of me working on at home - can I just disconnect it, or do I need to do anything special? Thanks again!
Disconnect the driveshaft, Undo the shift linkage, Undo the cooler lines, Don't forget to take the nuts off of the torque convertor. You might have to give a couple of tugs on the tranny. Watch that the TC doesn't fall out. You might want to drain the tranny fluid first. I also put a sandwich bag taped around the rear of the tranny. Some fluid always leaks out on me. I keep lots of kitty litter around to soak it up. Remember there will still be fluid in the TC too.
why do you want to remove the transmission? i feel that doing the atf treatment will not clog up the oil pick up screen. the atv disolves the sludg, then you drain it out while hot so it doesnt have time to congeal. i also doubt that it will cause leaks. if you want to regasket and seal the motor thats fairly easy thing to do compared to doing a rebuild. you can get a complet gasket set from any autoparts store. you can remove the oil pan with out pulling the motor. if you pull the cylinder heads off then take them to a engine machine shop and have them checked out and a valve job done. also take the oil pan and valve covers and ask them if they could clean them for you. this would take care of 75% of the sludge. while you have it that far appart you can put some sort of catch pan below the motor and scrub and clean the lifter valley. if you do this poor oil over the lifters and cam when your done cleaning. felpro now makes a one pice rubber oil pan gasket. i highly recomend puting it back toghter with the one pice gasket instead of the 4 pice cork and ruber ones.
I think the best suggestion has been made with going to your local rental shop and renting a hoist. That way you can take it in and have your block boiled, your camshaft bearings replaced and have a hone run down your cylinder walls. If you are this much into it why not take out all of the possible problems, from there you can get a new cam and lifters fairly cheap and add a little performance too it, and a new high volume oil pump and you dont have to worry about some crud that possibly got knocked loose by the ATF plugging up one of your oil passages and burning out a bearing. "Also if you are really daring (not really alot of people do it) you can pull your motor and transmission out at the same time with a hoist, the $35 (around here) is well worth the time trying to wrangle a transmission out from under a car all by yourself, much less trying to put it back on a transmission plate on a floor jack and pushing it under the car by yourself to stick it back in.".....been there done that.. got the "T-shirt"...and two broken fingers and a wasted weekend too but my transmission finally went back in
