ok heres the deal...

my motor is developing a slight knock...

I'm tearing down one of the dohc blocks I have laying around the garage so next week when i get paid I can swap the sohc head onto the dohc block since I really aint got the cash to get the dohc pcm and everything needed to swap the dohc in... plus I'm looking forward to the compression bump...

So anyways I have come to the point of needing to take the cams out of the head to get to the head bolts....

how do i hold the cams still so i can brake the bolt loose... without damageing the cams...

also the timing belt is off... i probally should have broke the bolts with it on but I dont have a vice avalible to get the tentioner pushed back...

 

ok well I got the cam gears and cams off along with the headbolts witch destroyed my 15mm craftsman socket... thank god for the free replacement... got the head off...

What is the best way to clean the pistons while there still in the block??? Soft wire brush, scotch right pad??? Does simple green hurt pistons????

heres some pics...

 

wow...those things look pretty nasty...looks like its been burning alot of oil..

you can use pretty much anything to scrub off the pistons, abrasions wont hurt them, its the cylinder wally you have to be carefull with..
i wouldnt suggest simple green incase it drips into your pistons rings

 

I ended up turning the crank a 1/4 a turn to get all the pistons in the middle and spraying enuf brake cleaner to cover the top of the pistons let them sit for about an hour and then brought 1 and 4 up and the carbon pretty much just wiped off... exept the valve relife's I used a scribe to get down in there and get them clean....

Is it ok if there are some superfical scratches on the piston???
there not deep just maring the serface a bit...

 

scratches wont hurt them at all....

most important thing is to remember the torqu pattern of those cam tower bearing cap bolts....its very important to work in a spiral direction or else you can warp the cams.....taking them out or putting them in

 

whats the pattern and specs

 

the head has allready shot a plug and stripped out the plug threads... I think im going to just use this head to practice porting and polishing... I dident know that you were supposed to losen the bolts in a pattern... I just broke them all lose and then went threw and took them all out... I'll save the cams if I ever go 2.4...

heres some after pics tell me if all looks good...

All four



1 & 2



3 & 4



cylinder wall they all look the same...

 

you should go ahead and hone the cylinders since you got it all apart, they kinda seem glazed to me.

have you considered installing some heli-coils it the old head?

 

yeah i have but I have 2 perfectly good dohc blocks and heads sitting in the garage besides this one, and I plan on a 2.4 so instead of waste money and buying all the stuff for the 2.0dohc I just want to make it easy on myself and learn how to port and polish on this one so i can do it on a second one and use it on the 2.4...

This block was just chosen to fix the knock im starting to notic... plus cant bitch about the compression bump.

 

yeah i would definatly put a hone to them cylinder walls. other than that the pistons cleaned up well and while you have it apart you might as well replace all the bearings and rings. make it just about brand new