3.4 fan mount bolt @12:00 on engine 911

Doind a r&r water pump.

Removed all necessary components including fan mount bracket.

Sprayed hot water over engine block face, into water jackets and bolt holes.

I just realized the bolt hole for the fan bracket at the 12:00 position is not blind and it goes at least 5 or so inches back.
No idea how much water I sprayed in there while I was trying to flush rust out of coolant passages but i certainly got enough to ruin this engine if that top bolt hole is open to rotating assembly or oil passages.

Does anybody here know if that hole or any of the holes on engine block face intersect with oil passages or moving parts or am I good to start with the replacement process?

 

Pic of top bolt hole

 

Pretty sure that doesn't go into the crankcase. I've done a ton of timing belt/water pumps on those engines and I've never pulled an oily bolt out.

 

I just realized the bolt hole directly to the right of the 12:00 bolt hole shows light into the 12:00 hole but doesnt appear to reflect light into the water jacket directly below.

 

Yeah that 12:00 bolt was dry as a bone but I'm no engineer.
What so you know about any of the other bolt holes?

 

I don't remember having to seal any of the bolts at the front of that engine. If they come out dry, they can go back in dry

On a side note, you know why there was a bunch of rust in there? Probably from someone running straight water in the cooling system.. but you probably already knew that

 

Perhaps you can stuff a blunt clothes hanger in there and see if anything oily comes out - think of it like an oil dipstick?

 

Its dad's truck. Bought it new in 97. Argued with him today for about an hour and a half about this very issue as well as the thermostat.

I ran hot water through the water jackets in both directions for a good 8 minutes or so on full power. Black gunk came out first and didnt turn somewhat clear till around 5 mins.

I explained to my dad that a new oem thermostat is mandatory as I'd have to remove the same parts to do the water pump swap to replace a likely compromised thermostat so it should be replaced at thia time as a "while you're there" replacement even though it looks ok. I also told him that we need cootant flush and 20 gallons of distilled water for the at least 5 flushes necessary to clean the whole coolant/heater core/radiator/block system and to properly evacuate the caustic coolant flush.

He says he known guys who put regular tap water in their cars and theres never been a problem with their cars or his. I ask him at what frequency did he perform coolant degradation analysis to log this "problem free" data. Turns out that is unnecessary and if the car drives that means good. I wouldnt know this though cause at 41 years old I lack the vast chemical engineering and mechanical knowledge that he mustve obtained secretly at night. His rebuttal is "you're young, I've been around 30 years longer"

Funny how his cars never had any issues from being ran with tap water and I wouldnt understand yet this truck has sat for over 2 years due to a water pump shaft to seal leak caused by excessive rust and whatever the hell that black crap was.

This is the way every repair on any of his vehicles go. I refuse to so the bare minimum which he always insists I do. I only want to do a job once and correctly so he can get more life out of the trucks. Hea never flushes the coolant, ps fluid, trans, axle, brake or changes anything on this truck or his prerunner. He then blames his wife that the truck performs crappy cause she abuses and drives the trucks hard.
Lmao old man drives me crazy with his Steven Segal "I'm an expert in everything" personality.

 

I drove my mom's 97 all through high school. It was cherry red, manual trans, 3.4 and had that new car smell. Good times

 

If anyone will know, it will be @Speedytech7

Why can't you just drain the oil?
If you're that worried, you have nothing to loose.

If water is in there, it's in there. And oil will need to come out anyways.

 

Sounds like my hs truck candy red 96 s10 4.3 5spd stick. The manuals made autos funner and more trustworthy in that era of dogshiit auto trans. At least for american autos that is. Wasnt a bad little truck for the time till I screwed it up by puting on a fab tech kit only to realize the hot chicks in the adverts/off road shows don't exactly translate to a proper whoop bombing suspension. This is how retarded kids were before the ogoogly but instead had a Tailgate magazine or other picture heavy information deficient product dvertisement mag. Forgot the lift spindles or upper a arms altered the brake caliper location so when I would make a turn more than a half rotation the caliper would make contact with I believe the lower a arm wheel lockout tab resulting in literally no brake pressure until I pumped brakes at least 5 times. The more of a turn the more pumps required. So many close calls almost plowing into unsuspecting victims. Drove it like this for about 5 or 6 months as fabtech said this is not related to the installation of there product and they didnt have any solutions. A buddy cut the tab off and mofos got brakes again. Cant believe this simple step wasnt included in the install instructions from a company fronting with that "tech" in their name.
Unrelated info to the original post but I find it funny how my actions were solely motivated by my smooth brained idea of how the advertisement with the hottest chick will obviously translate in real life cause science.

 

I thought of this however I have zero experience with overhead cam Japanese engines. I dont know the reason for the at least 5" of depth of that hole and why it wasnt designed as a blind bolt hole. I dont feel confident enough that whatever water may have entered a critical area that it will drain or drain completely to the oil pan. I dont know even the slightest location of the rotating assembly or the rough size of any engine component in these engines nor have even seen a video diagram of this OHC engines operation and how this hole may or may not have intersections with oil or coolant circuits or vacuum pathways that also might hinder gravity from allowing water to fall to the pan in it's current static condition. My fear is once engine starts and crankcase pressure is introduced whatever possible water that made itself into block will cause damage.
On certain cummins models for instance, there are at least a few locations that if a bolt is removed from the block or head water can enter into non blind hole but will not simply fall to oil panin a static condition. When engine is falsely determined to be safely operated, said water would then enter critical areas causing a variety of issues.
I still cant seem to find a proper cad file online that would shed light on this issue which is why I'm here hoping a seasoned 3.4 engine builder will clarify the destination of the 12:00 bolt hole. I'm fine buying the water pump and doing the r&r for my dad. Not trying to buy my dad a new engine cause jumper the gun by making a false assumption.

 

Pretty sure that hole just goes into the valley in between the two cylinder banks. It doesn't really have much up there besides your knock sensors. If you wait until tomorrow I can look at the bare block I have sitting in my garage

 

Thanks for helping out.
I thought you might know.

 

I knew a dude that drove a ‘69 Eldo for at least 5 years with zero coolant up in that bich.

 

This looks like a prime candidate for Evaporust…



i never intentionally mixed coolants, and did flushes and always kept advance of manufacturer schedules…

…my water pumps, thermostats and coolant passages look no older than the day they were machined… twenty-one and eighteen years ago. Nice and shiny.

((without evaporust, for clarity))

 

Sweet thank you sir. Let me know your findings. That makes the most sense so far

 

Thanks for notifying the resident expert brotha

 

I've been pondering running some evaporust through after the coolant flush is properly evacuated with a good 3 or so distilled flushes.
Havent done any research yet but I was thinking of running a gallon of evaporust and filling the rest of system with distilled. Not sure if that would be too diluted of a mixture for the evaporust to do its thing though.
I've so heard of running baking soda through the system to neutralize the rust/residual coolant flush.

Guess I need to find what coolant flush is most compatible with these engines.

 

He's right about that