What would I need to do to an engine that has sat in the rain etc for awhile? Take everything apart and clean it? New seals?

Also, if a block has been sitting in the rain with the head off, could I just hone the sleeves a bit and use stock pistons (assuming there isn't a hole from rust in the sleeves).

 

you are headed in the right direction. A lot has to do whether it has been in the rain a week.... superfical rust, or has been there for a season or more.... significant rust, galvanic corrosion and pitting.

You will have to see what you find when you open her up. If you have water aluminum and steel all together, the aluminum sacrifically corrodes. That will most likely result in pitting of the pistons. If you have to beat the pistons out of the cylinders, seriously think about a set of oversized slugs and bore/hone to fit. If it was sitting in such a way that the oil pan filled with water, that is a whole other story....

 

for a nice refresh, i would change all the seals/gaskets, rings and bearings.
yeah if there isnt a lot of rust you can hone and use stock size pistons.If there is a lot of rust you gonna have to bore/hone and use oversized pistons

 

I agree with the above, give it a complete teardown and rebuild just to be on the safe side. Also be sure to have the block and head checked out for any significant damage.

 

like what was said before it all depends how long its been sitting there.
i had a ls block sit on my backyard for bout 3 months catching tons of rain. sold it to a kid and he ended up putting .25 over pistons, runs great. best thing to do is to take it to the machine shop first and they most likely tell you to get oversize pistons to be safe. as far as the head if its been sitting there for a long time i notice cams will catch tons of rust on them, but stock cams can be purchase pretty cheap. and finally also have everything clean out in the machine shop is fairly cheap.

 

After I clean out everything and start assembling it back together, what should I discard and replace with new pieces? I know seals, gaskets, o-rings etc, but what about if I want to use the same pistons and rods? Can I just leave the existing rings and rod bolts? I need to study my helms.

BTW, anyone have a link to the helms PDFs?

 

As mentioned above, you will probably want to overbore a little to make sure that you get a good cylinder wall surface. from there you will need oversize pistons (not that expensive). You can reuse your rods and rod bolts, but not the pistons rings, I'd definately recommend replacing them.

 

Is there anything I should do to the crank etc.?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slashDEVslashNULL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is there anything I should do to the crank etc.?</TD></TR></TABLE>

well, if youhave some extra money you cant get the crank balanced or/and micropolished.
If the journals look good, you dont have to though.