quick questiona bout slight surface rust on cylinder walls

[mob]

Hey guys, ive had my heads off my car for about a month now, and my cylinder walls have built up a tiny bit of surface rust. I didnt pay much attention to it because I planned on taking the motor apart and getting it honed, but I am considering not getting it done because I dont have the money, is there anyway I can get rid of the rust w/o pulling the pistons, or would it be safe to just run the car like that without touching it? I will see if I can get a picture soon, maybe ill throw the heads back on to protect the walls. Any advice would be good, thanks.

 

[tannerc91gt]

Yes you'll have to pull the pistons and IMO running the motor with rusted cylinder walls is NEVER a good idea

 

[capri debris]

Taking it apart and cleaning the cylinders is definitely the best idea, but if you just aren't willing to do that, there is an alternate way. I know an old timer who has one of those garages with about 50 engines laying around and he's run into the same problem as you when he goes to use one of them in something. He puts it on an engine stand and points one row of cylinders towards the floor and soaks the rust with wd-40, then uses a green pot scrubber to carefully rub the rust off. Then he rinses out the cylinders with more wd-40. The trick is NOT to rotate the crank before or while you do this... just put the engine on the stand like it sits right now and do what I explained. Clean as much of each cylinder as you can on one bank, then do the other bank and THEN slowly rotate the crank... some pistons will move up and some will move down. In the cylinders that the piston moves lower in the block, repeat the process to finish cleaning what you couldn't get to with the piston in it's original position. Then rotate the crank in the opposite direction as before and clean the rest in the same fashion. This will minimize damage to the rings and help make sure you got all the debris out of the cylinders. When you rotate the crank, only do it enough to make the pistons move about one inch in each direction... you don't want to drag the rings through rust any further than you absolutely need to. I hope this idea helps you and you should be fine even though it's not the BEST way to clean rust from you cylinders.

 

[90lxcoupe]

just pull the pistons and do it right the first time, get a hone tool that hooks to a drill and run it through the cylinder yourself, then reassemble the engine, it would also be a good time for rings a bearings.

Spend the 300 now on the rings and bearings and save yourself alot of headaches in the future

 

[S&B]

no point putting it all back together and then have to take it appart again

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

Start it up and run it as-is. If you're really worried, give them a quick rub down with some clean oil, but they'll be fine.