Well it finally happened... My original motor ate a coolant seal. It still runs OK just blows white smoke.

Now I might not be able to do a rebuild for a while (maybe a couple months, maybe longer...).

What's the best way i can preserve the internals until i can get around to getting it rebuilt? I don't want to come back only to find out that what used to be good parts are now ***** of rust and need to be replaced.

 

i would break it down and scrap whats unusuable

 

Immediately tear it down, that is the only way to keep it from rusting everything.
I did it myself on my garage floor in a weekend when my coolant seal went.

 

its ok as long as you dont let it sit with water in it. drain coolant, dump lots of oil into the combustion chambers

 

Yup, right away. I wouldn't be so worried about rust as I would the ethylene glycol takin the chrome off your housings.

 

Sorry, but there is not reliable way to get all of the coolant out of the chambers that won't possibly damage the engine. If there is any possible way to get it apart, do it ASAP.

Here's what you can do in the meantime, though: First, get one of those rad caps with the red pop-top on it. Making sure you start with enough coolant, run the engine for a little while then stop the engine and immediately pop the release valve on the rad cap. This will send the excess coolant pressure into the overflow container instead of into the combustion chamber. It could still leak some coolant into the engine, but it is a lot better than nothing. Do this every day or two to prevent rust.

If there really isn't any way you can pull the engine apart for a while, run the engine for a bit, bleed off the pressure as described, then IMMEDIATELY drain all of the coolant out of the engine clock and rad. Once the engine cools down some, you might even want to run the engine for a few more seconds to burn off the extra coolant, but it is slightly risky as you could mess up the housing from too much heat.

 

I was thinking of doing something like that with the radiator cap. It only gets any coolant in it after it's warmed up and shut off for a while. If i de-flood it, it runs fine (even no smoke while running, maybe the leak is on the combustion side?) and has plenty of power. The main reason i think it's coolant is because the smoke it pukes out after i get it de-flooded is WHITE.

Maybe that and some fogging oil...

 

Oddly I had catastrophic coolant seal failure in a JSPEC that I bought The seal was shot, because my engine ATE the coolant. Milky goo (oil+coolant) shot out my filler . It was a disaster. The radiator was bone dry afterwards. ONE YEAR LATER, I finally tore it down after it sat! I had drained it and green coolant poured out of my pan I opened it up... and nothing rusted! Just a bunch of gunk in some of the coolant passages. So maybe dumping a butt-load of oil in the chambers could save you.