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Do I need to rebuildđź‘€? 94trans am

2K views 23 replies 3 participants last post by  TealHornet 
#1 ·
I bought a 1994 trans am about a week and a half ago it was supposed to have just been a blown head gasket. So I decided to buy it and fix it and put it back on the road in no time. Well I dropped the engine and popped the driver side head off to find water in 2-3 of the cylinders with a lot of rust . Same for the other side as well. The engine would not turn over . I have since cleaned the heads and the block they are completely level without warpage. The only problem is that the cylinder walls were rusted pretty bad and I had to sand the walls with some 240 grit in order for the pistons to be able to move enough to turn engine over. So there is one chip in the top of one of my pistons about 1/2 inch long 1mm deep and 1 mm wide . My questions are 1 do I need to replace pistons and completely rebuild . 2 why was engine so severely rusted after supposed 1 year of sitting , and 3 . Should I just put a used running motor in it and be on my way? And yes I added trans fluid to help get motor to turn over
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#2 ·
make sure you dont have a bent rod .on broke piston.
how many miles are on engine?
And How fat is your wallet.
and is the walls of the cylinder heavily pitted from rust.
You also might have a cracked block or head because the broke piston
Its a possibility water got in the cylinder that had compression.
Make sure theres not a bent valve on that cylinder .
get it all cleaned up
those hyper pistons are realy tough
the piston might have had to tight a ring gap swell into cylinder wall and popped the top land.
Is there realy a broke piston?
Cant tell with it full of water and oil lol
 
#3 ·
make sure you dont have a bent rod .on broke piston.
how many miles are on engine?
And How fat is your wallet.
and is the walls of the cylinder heavily pitted from rust.
You also might have a cracked block or head because the broke piston
Its a possibility water got in the cylinder that had compression.
Make sure theres not a bent valve on that cylinder .
get it all cleaned up
those hyper pistons are realy tough
the piston might have had to tight a ring gap swell into cylinder wall and popped the top land.
Is there realy a broke piston?
Cant tell with it full of water and oil lol
Yes there is a chipped piston, I will upload pictures tomorrow of that . As of now I have taken the oil pan off and cleaned up the pistons and cylinder walls pretty good. I will upload some bottom end pictures which everything looks to be ok and .. I am starting to think I can just end up slapping her back together .. 160,000 miles thst I know of .. unless motor was replaced at some point .. but the overall it’s looking really good now.
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#6 ·
Well I put a straight edge (a level) not to see if it is level but if there were any gaps in there and there were not in any of the heads or engine block . I did go ahead and remove all the pistons and honed the cylinders lightly to get rust off . Also some of the pistons rings are stuck pretty good with rust so just cleaning that stuff up.
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#10 ·
Call me crazy but I like paint thinner for cleaning rust like that and a wire cup wheel on a peanut grinder lol.
Hay if you have a caliper could you measure the D exhaust ports vertical and horizontally
on cylinder heads?
I am fully rebuilding even painted the block it wasn’t anything for parts .. only thing is I didn’t have any tools when I started all of this . So basically costing me a lot of money in tools that I will reuse .. I have to wait for the new piston rings to get in and can start the rebuild. Here are some pics
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#9 ·
I bought one of those quality rebuilds from a good source .
the oil pump got reused ,went the first week .
The bearing on bottom were new but 50,000 mile bearings the cam bearings got reused.
6000 miles They lasted
Head gaskets are nothing he never said how many miles are on it
But you never have a bad feeling when you torque head bolts in sequence with a separate person putting a dot with a marker on the head bolt as you lift off and going through the sequence 3 times with three dots
and sequence written on the head
You ever see any of those master engine builders on youtube do that like that???
 
#12 ·
No I have never rebuilt one before but pretty mechanically minded when it comes to auto work. Also, no I do not have a caliper for the exhaust ports .. I could get one .. what exactly are you wanting me to measure … I need to do it because I am in the process of porting and polishing my heads .. but I have another set anyways
 
#20 ·
And how many miles are on it?
so youv driven it?
Dont be so fast to jump to conclusions
1st and reverse usually go first
put it on jack stands run it through gears and keep checking trans fluid
tork converter has to have filled all the way in order for clutches to work
linkage has to be right
wiring has to be right
tranny fluid cant be burnt
do your home work.
 
#21 ·
And how many miles are on it?
so youv driven it?
Dont be so fast to jump to conclusions
1st and reverse usually go first
put it on jack stands run it through gears and keep checking trans fluid
tork converter has to have filled all the way in order for clutches to work
linkage has to be right
wiring has to be right
tranny fluid cant be burnt
do your home work.
186000 fluid is black black… now red… torque converter was filled when put in .. all wiring and linkage correct
 
#22 · (Edited)
Im guessing but 186000 is a lot might be caused from overheating of engine if they kept driving but thats hard
with white smoke bellowing out .
if the fluid smelled burnt id call it.
if not id try 3-4 shift solenoid and make sure the valves in valve body are free.
But im a t350 guy.
Id start a new blog about your trans
see if anybody chimes in
or join z28.com
Good luck
 
#23 ·
Im guessing but 186000 is a lot might be caused from overheating of engine if they kept driving but thats hard
with white smoke bellowing out .
if the fluid smelled burnt id call it.
if not id try 3-4 shift solenoid and make sure the valves in valve body are free.
But im a t350 guy.
Id start a new blog about your trans
see if anybody chimes in
or join z28.com
Good luck
Ok thanks!! I traded some parts for a 4l60e with 80k on it that works. Now I’m just working on getting the trans out without taking motor out
 
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