I have taken apart my 13b with over 184,xxx miles on it. Both of the housings measure between spec in width. But what gets me is deciding what is usable and what isn't. I have done some searching, and the comparisons between what is usable and what is not is almost conclusive upon the moment its looked at.
Basically, can you help me double check my conclusion on whether to trash these?



Front


Here is the Front housing. I believe it is trash. The coolant passageways show no signs of deterioration, or cracks. The corner seal trace can be felt with a fingernail slightly; I can't feel chatter marks with my finger. But, above the trailing spark plug, is a groove that I can feel(if the housing was a graph it would be on the X-axis at 2 if it was in mm spacing, and its visible). It isn't deep enough to catch my fingernail though. It can be seen in the second picture. The bottom and top are similar to the first picture.


Rear


This is the Rear housing. I believe it is re-usable. I cannot feel any chatter marks ;the corner seal trace mark can slightly be felt with my fingernail. There are no cracks around the spark plugs or any signs of deterioration in the coolant passageways. But based on my research, it is acceptable.

*As a bonus, I'm interested in the idea of sending these to JHB Performance to be resurfaced and coated. Since anyone who has had their housings serviced by JHB have not shown their housings further down the road as sort of a "they work/don't work" thing(except 2 that I can find), would these be acceptable candidates?

Tell me what you think based on these pictures, I can produce more if needed.
Thanks for the help!

 

Forgot to embed the rear housing...

 

I honestly couldn't tell you, but I'd like to see as well.

 

I'm no expert but for 180k on those, they look pretty good.

Re-useable is not my area of expertise but i've seen alot worse.

 

What are you using this engine for?

 

DD streetport/ do cool stuff. Cool stuff is like drift, autox, rev at stuff.

My irons where also in spec and very nice. It lead me to believe that my engine was rebuilt, but the two previous owners I showed my internals too didn't blame the condition because they babied it too.

 

LOL! Like trees and squirrels and stop signs???

 

those look pretty good for 180k... since you're just building a fun toy, i'd be tempted to reuse.

another thing to check is flatness around the compression side, basically around the trailing plug hole. the housings sag = lost compression.

if its a serious car you should buy NEW housings. every engine i've built with new housings (even better irons and rotors too) has been really good

for fun experimental toy? those don't look too bad

 

Use em. it's n/a after all.

 

Pretty much.
...

They had great compression before I pulled my engine. I was using a "piston compression gauge", the front was 112,114,110; the rear was 112,114,112. Way back they were lower, it could of been the weather, and I digress.

So I'm going to port them, change the sleeves, and hope for the best.

*I have another question before this all happens. Is there something I can do to make these have a uniform finish with out removing up to .001 of material?

 

You can have your irons lapped but i dunno about the housings.

 

Housing looks pretty good at 180k miles. But it has a slight flaking.. to me, any flaking means failed

Compression number looks good but at what rpm and was the engine fully warmed up

 

i'd reuse those. search it out and you will see housings faaaaaar from the condition of yours.

 

I already thought for a bit more. I sent them to be coated, my irons are being lapped aswell.

The compression was done with the engine warm.

 

lapping is a good start.

 

but lapping will also remove the factory's nitride treatment.

I mean anything before 1979 never had that treatment and it still works fine, if you're on a budget or if you don't need every single bit of durability then I guess it's not bad.

 

Lonetlan,
Did you get your housings back from being refinished? How were they?

 

ahhha, i got a bonez exhaust on my NA from the downpipe back. revved it at some little kid and scared him!!

 

I once revved it outside a church. There were bands playing outside with tons of people. They were all pretty damn mad and i manage to scare the **** out of a pack of kids. Good times...

As for those housing they look good for 180k. You had solid compression before the tear down so i say use them.

 

If the irons are in spec, don't lap them. You're better off re-using them as is, with a little prep with an orbital sander and kerosene.

For the housings, they look typical of an engine that had the oil changed regularly and had the oil metering system in place. No visible chatter, not much flaking chrome. The grooves concern me a bit. I would replace them, but if it's just a fun car, go ahead and re-use them.

 

I changed my mine. When I was about to take them out, I came across a couple of threads about how they, maybe won't exactly give me back the same housings I take to them or, even get my housings back. So I had a chat on the phone, the guy was very nice until I brought up these matters and he kinda felt like his back was up to the wall. So I respectfully declined the transaction.

I'm going to most likely try to get new TII housings and the caps when I actually build my engine, or try to find "like new ones".

For the irons, I tried Lynn E. Hanover's way, but I felt dumb. They are in spec, so I'm going to just leave it at that.

I want it to be a fun car, but reliability is still at the top.

 

you're going to hell.

 

it's your first build, am i correct? if i recall, you're also porting for the first time, too, right? as long as you've resigned yourself to possible mistakes, then i say use them. it might even be better that way in case things go south. you wouldn't want to hose better housings and be stuck with "less-than-better" housings.

 

those housings are fine, bleh reuse them.

 

The grooves on the edges, is that normal? I pulled a blown motor apart + the side that didn't blow an apex seal had a groove like that on the edge. I can feel it w my finger. Good or bad?