What happens to oil after 4 years in an engine?

Actually, my primary concern would be overheating the caustic solution leading to a boil over, fire and increased corrosion of the mild steel used for the parts washer housing. Twenty gallons of a hot corrosive liquid on the floor can be quite a mess to clean up, not to mention a burn hazard. Plus an electrical hazard if the element were to fail. And secondary damage to whatever was on the floor...

I spent a decade working as a safety engineer at a superfund site...one of the processes we cleaned up were molten salt furnaces designed to run at over 1000 degrees F to heat uranium billets. Another process was HOT, concentrated nitric acid used to dissolve uranium as a preliminary step for refining, with a third process of roasting uranium oxide in hydrofluoric acid. I had EPA on speed dial

If I was building this for my personal shop use, I would get a thermostatically controlled heater, probably immersion type from Grainger or McMaster-Carr rated for the environment it will be used in. That would transfer the responsibility for the heater hazards to a deep pocket corporation.

Building and maintaining environmentally safe parts cleaners has been a challenge for industry for the last 20 years. I have priced the premade, heated, water based parts cleaners, like simple green and purple power but the price tag was easily 20 times the cost of the mild steel solvent based ones from HF or Northern Tool or TSC. Plus the cost of keeping the material warm and from freezing in my selectively heated shop through the winter would be high.

We can talk off line on some design elements for your particular needs, I am not fully comfortable doing this on a open forum where things can be taken out of context.

Howard
hetkind@bestweb.net

 

I guess you have not been reading my entire posts? I have mentioned on more than one occasion that I will be using a thermostatically controlled system. I also mentioned that I will not be using caustic cleaners.

 

Jesus, Hetkind. If you want to debate parts washers, start a new thread. Those of us subscribed to this thread are here because we're interested in the thread title.

 

DOWN BOY!....SIT!.....GOOD BOY!

Actually it is going along pretty good! I have the heads installed, valve covers installed, intake manifold (upper, mid, and lower), and expect to be turning the engine over the first part of next week.

 

As mentioned, it was bought this way after 4 years of being outside. From talking to the new owner, I am sure it will be taken much better care of by him.

 

I know what you mean. The biggest "disgusted" situation I have ever seen was an uncle in law. This guy had a 1969 GTO Judge. Not the wanna be, but the rare one that actually had "Judge" in the title. The poor thing was sitting up on blocks in his back yard being rained on for nearly 10 years that I know of. He refused to sell it, but wasn't able to afford to restore it either. I was so sad that I actually bought him a car cover for it, just so that it wouldn't have to bear the worst of the weather.

 

Lookin' good Bill!

 

It looks like this job is coming to a good conclusion...and without five gallon buckets of nasty mixtures of grease, solvent and soap back in the corner.

We have come a long way from the heated vats of carbon tetrachloride (one of the early "safety solvents") and the even earlier tanks of benzene (flammable and a known carcinogen).

I am interested in what happens at start up...just out of curiosity, how many hours do you have into this job so far?

Howard

 

You haven't seen all of the pictures then. I have about 6 quarts of muck drained from the original engine, and went through a total of 5 gallons of Purple power to get this thing clean. lmao. I think it is about time though to put to rest the comments about the parts cleaners. You are shooting a dead horse at this point. I have about 10 hours of physical work on it, spread out over several weeks. I let the owner know that this would be an ongoing project, and that a lot of time would be spent with parts soaking in the washer for 24-48 hours or longer. The heads themselves spent 4 days in the cleaner.

 

Reminds me what I rescued a /6 dodge truck powerplant and NP420 transmission out of a junkyard for rebuild...I had to scrape the carbon out of the valve covers with a putty knife.

 

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!.....Sort of.....

Well this morning the truck fired for the first time. After all of the extensive work done on the engine, I was ready to start it this morning. First I disconnected the coils and cranked the engine over a couple of times. I spun it up for 15 seconds each time. This is done to build up oil pressure so that none of the bearings or other lubricated parts are dry when the engine starts. After that we reconnected the coils, and she did not want to start. Checking showed that we had no fuel pressure. Seems like the fuel pump does not want to energize, or perhaps the relay has gone. Heck, after all this time, we may be empty on gas. I still have to check on that. What I did do was used a small amount of gas that I sprayed into the intake. Engine fired up, and of course died quickly as I was unable to keep fuel going into the intake. So once we have the fuel issue worked out, we will go from there!



MUAH! Dr. Frankenstein has breathed LIFE into the Tacoma!!

 

Not sure if that will help but few times on vehicles when I had to work on engine or oil pump I used to remove oil filter and pour clean oil down toward the oil pump to prime it so oil pressure builds up faster.

 

A method commonly used, yes, however I have learned that it does not help very much when the engine was totally dry. Just in my experience. But still a good idea.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_ashG5jGlo

 

well, did you get gas to the engine yet? I want to know if the lower end is still good...

 

Still waiting on the replacement fuel pump. Once we get that, and get it installed we will have more information.

 

Fuel pump has been replaced. I had to remove the tank and clean it out a lot first though. Lots of crystalization of old gasoline. Now she is running and the engine has been assembled. Right now I have to evaluate the transmission, and finish putting the grill/front end together.

 

progress...

 

Yeah. It has been a project truck at this point. I have had to be on and off again on this truck several times. At the rate I am going under the hood, I think the truck is going to want an engagement ring soon...lmao.

 

Projects always seem to come together sooner or later...