2.0L 16V: The Project Begins

[treed2@u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

It came today.

It was a thing of beauty - carefully wrapped and padded, bolted securely
to the crate. a towel protecting the head gasket surface. I was itching
with excitement..

My shortblock was here!!

9A, 80k miles, compression 215 psi x 4

It appears to be in good shape. I can still see the cross-hatching in the
cylinder bore. Nice and shiny inside, small amount of carbon in the
centers of the pistons. The valve cutouts in the tops of the pistons are
still shiny. No rust in the oil passages, but there does appear to be some
rust inside the water jackets. I'm kinda concerned about that but I will
clean out as much as I can now and flush the engine after its installed.

I dropped the oil pan and there's a windage tray installed. It appears to
be a factory part - 037 115 220. There is an integral rubber gasket that
looks like it replaces the oil pan gasket and is probably designed to be
reused.. No other markings. Anyone know anything about this?

How do windage trays work, anyways? I know they're supposed to keep oil
away from the crank so it doesn't cause "parasitic drag" or something. But
it doesn't look like it would keep oil away at all - it has a bunch of
holes and cutouts in it. Seems like it would just take up space in the oil
pan. And don't you want some oil on the crank anyway to lubricate the
lower cylinders..

I'm thinking maybe when you pressurize the lubrication system the oil
level in the pan drops enough that the windage tray acts as more of a
splash shield than anything. Anyone care to educate me here?

I changed the rear main seal and bolted the pan pack up. I forgot how many
oil pan bolts there are - it seemed like fifty! I had a big pile of them
going..

Are all the crankcase breathers and oil filter flanges and all that crap
the same on 1.8 vs 2.0 ? It looks like it but I won't know for sure until
I pull my 1.8 16v out, I suppose. The dipstick appears to be a different
length by about 1/4" .. I'm gonna use the 2.0 one.

I finally figured out what the hell that little flange with the "wishbone"
cover on it is for - the distributor mount for 8v motors. I've seen 8v's
before with the distributor there driven off the intermediate shaft, but
for some reason it never really "clicked" with me that they used the
"same" block and I always wondered what the hell the purpose of that thing
was. I assumed it was covered up crankcase breather or something..

Anyway, I started pulling parts off the 1.8 but I won't be able to dig my
teeth in until tomorrow morning. The tough parts are gonna be getting the
lower stress bar off and the bolts back in the a-arms without anything
moving (been there, hated that), and getting the exhaust manifold off
without breaking studs off flush with the head. The downpipe nuts are
only 1.5 years old so they should be no problem. Any tips would be
appreciated. The rest of it seems like kiddy stuff since I've done it all
already.

Since I have a hoist I'm now wondering if it would be easier to take the
motor out the top instead of lowering it down and taking it out under the
front of the car. I can't tell if I'll need to pull the hood off or not.

After I get the motor out I'm gonna have plenty of time to go over
everything with a fine toothed comb since my lightened flywheel isn't
going to arrive until Tuesday (UPS apparently needs 7 days to ship coast
to coast). I will be cleaning the piss out of the engine compartment,
putting in new steering rack bushings and redoing drive flange, selector
shaft, and pushrod seals in the tranny. Plus installing a new throwout
bearing.

What else I should do while in the area.. I gotta go back to the local
parts place to return my extra oil pan gasket anyway and I've got some
extra time.

Should I replace the gasket between the block and the oil filter flange?
Do these have a reputation for leaking because I'm considering reusing the
old one - it looks like its in pretty good shape - still soft. The guy who
shipped the shortblock removed the flange to ship it but before that it
was installed.

I'm pretty tired from carrying everything including all my tools up a
steep ass hill to my friend's garage and then squatting in front of a
motor for the afternoon and evening so I'm gonna go to bed now so I can
dig in for the long haul tomorrow. 'Roc and roll!

-Toby

--
'87 16v soon to be 2.0 16v