Ok, I'm gonna pull my engine and rebuild the coolant seals soon... but should I get just the seals, and reuse all the gaskets and o-rings or spend the extra 70 bucks to get all of those too? (100 for coolant seals vs 180~ for *all* of the soft seals and gaskets)

The engine is a fairly recent rebuild (10K) too... (apparently)

and should I replace the front and rear seals, plus the pilot bearing (it already has a new clutch, apparently) and seals, even if they look fine?

I'm thinking maybe since it's not compression I'm worried about I should just skip all the clearancing and some of the cleaning, and just pull the rotor with the seals all in place (held in place with a rubber band), and just reapply the nessicary sealants, oils, jellys, etc. And make sure none of the housings are too torn up, of course.

Any suggestions?

 

Not that I'm impatient or anything, but I need some sort of advice soon... since I only have two more weeks to get my car running properly or I'll have to leave it home when I go back to college...

 

unless the hard parts such as apex seals, side seals, corner seals etc are out of spec there is no reason to replace them, however any soft seals should be changed. it would suck to rebuild a motor only to find out you should have replaced the oil control ring bungies. so i think you should spend the 70 bucks and know you replaced any possible bad seal.

 

I think $70 is a lot less than the annoyance/time/energy of having to pull the engine again because a reused soft seal isn't sealing.

I would spend the extra money & replace all the soft stuff.

-=Russ=-

 

me too!!

 

what if they're almost 20 years old and have gone through a million heat cycles and are weak as crap?

if you have a coolant problem you're probably going to need a new side housing at the least if the channel for the rings has blown out, which it sounds like judging from your other thread.

i tried seating old side seals (well within specs) onto a different iron side housing than they had run on for many miles and i cracked and lost one within 150 miles.

if you do decide to/are able to re-use them, then you have to be meticulous about where you put them back.

as far as the gaskets, you should buy the whole soft gasket kit... you're going to need the rubber washers and o-rings for the engine bolts and dowel rods, etc.

my advice; do all you can while you're in there or you may end up spending alot more money in the long run.

glad to see you're finally addressing the rebuild!

 

I would ALWATYS replace a soft seal that has been compressed. for 70 it shouldnt even be a question.

 

yea, i'd go ahead and get the new soft seals. a little peace of mind...

 

Yeah, I get the picture. Every soft seal in the short block should be replaced...

But what about the gaskets? Them too? Guess I'll just get them anyway... soon I hope since I want to get around to pulling it within a few days.

I sure as hell hope I don't have to replace a side housing... besides new ones being expensive as hell, I just hate to see all that finely-manufactured iron go to waste Where would I get one that doesn't cost me as much as the car did?

Hmm, JB Weld? If it's good enough for a Peri-Port, why not good enough for fixing a coolant seal trench...

Do I need to get the side seals lapped even if they're in spec? (I'm hoping to buy a dial indicator soon... my dad bought a caliper... for himself... lol. But I wanted a digital one anyway. That and some feeler gauges, and a straight edge I hope.

 

what if he said it had 10k on the rebuild? reading the thread is a good idea... plus if they were that old there is no way you'd keep them in one piece getting them out..

more to the point.. I took an engine with zero miles apart and i replaced all the gaskets. Gaskets get smashed in order to seal.. and when you take them apart they aren't exactly too elastic

 

buy new ones!

 

I'm also wondering how to put 600 foot pounds of torque onto the flywheel nut when I'm back putting it on... lol

I don't have a torque wrench that big, nor do I have a compressor that strong... oh well. I guess 600 pounds just means torque the crap out of it with a bigass breaker bar?

 

it's only torqued to 350ft/lbs not 600??

 

how did you get it off?
i fabbed a 55mm/2.125" socket with a hole in it for a length of 3/4id pipe. In the past, I'd have the engine on the ground with two people holding it like crazy and just torque it till it felt like 350 LoL.. but in these modern times i've built a box.. but i still guess at the torque.

 

most 1/2" drive impact guns torque in the range of 250-350ft/lbs. getting them off is the same way of geting them on, never had any problems before and I've done alot of teardowns and rebuilds.

 

Sorry for going off topic... but I'm trying to locate the coolant seal in the FSM... but with no luck... Does the FSM go by another name?

 

alright, i missed something, no need to get rude...

it's also still a good point as he doesn't know the details of the rebuild, and old seals could well have been re-used.

and what's so hard about taking out old seals? my experience with an 86 original block with 200k on it last year went smoothly