"Jeff Zimmerman" wrote in message
om...


1. How did all 8 cylinders get water in them?, did it just leak past
the valves?

You mentioned that at least one cylinder had an oil/water mix in it. I
would guess that somehow there was a path where water leaked onto the engine
and found its way into the block. I would suspect that it entered through a
faulty gasket or a crack in the lifter galley, that water ran down the flame
arrester, under the intake manifold and pooled in the valley underneath,
filling up to a point that it found a path into the crankcase.

If water continued to enter this way it would eventually fill the crankcase
all the way full. I would expect it would eventually come out the dipstick,
but it is possible that the dipstick sealed well enough to allow the level
to go a little higher.

Once the oil/water level in the crankcase rose above the level of the
pistons then it would start to leak past the rings into the cylinder. The
rings do have a small gap (especially when they are cold) that would allow
water to leak past. If the water level got high enough to flood the rocker
arm covers then water could leak past the valve guides into the exhaust and
intake manifolds to flood from that side as well.


We're going to do a compression test on all the cylnders to see if
there's anything unusual there. Are there any other tests we can do to
determine how much damage there is without tearing it apart?

I would not have a lot of faith in that motor, but if you can tolerate the
likelihood of it failing fairly soon it might be worth trying to get it
running again. I would expect that there will be some major rusting of the
cylinder walls, especially right at the point the rings were sitting all
winter. If the cylinder walls are pitted then the rings are going to wear
pretty fast. Based on the previous work to repair cracks that you have done
I would think that a major overhaul or new engine is in order.

Rod