Rebuilt engine maintenance

[miked]

Hello
In 2019, I looked into having a spare engine I have rebuilt.
I approached an engine rebuilder I know about the cost involved. And he informed me he had one sitting in a corner of his shop, which he had not been paid for. He offered this motor to me for 3000 dollars.
It had been bored out .030 over
I know he used to rebuild a fair number of these engines in the past for school bus companies, so I figured this engine should be a good bet to buy

He sent me pictures of the engine and of the original invoice. It had been rebuilt in 2009
the picture showed that the engine had been stored uncovered, and I asked him if he would be concerned dirt may have gotten into the open injector and glow plug holes, He suggested using a vacuum to suction each cylinder.

He also told me he had also at some time removed one head bolt for another job.

For the price he was offering it to me, I decided to buy it.
I have since stored it in my shop with a blanket and tarp covering it.

I think suctioning each cylinder out should work, but am open to opinions.

But I would like to know if I can just install a new bolt into the head and torque it to spec.

Or whether I should loosen the other bolts, then torque them all as per spec.
And if I do that, should the head gaskets then be replaced.

I am also looking for opinions of whether there are any other areas of the engine I should look at, since it has sat this many years?

Thanks

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

Wow. Over 8k for a rebuilt IDI that wasn't even sleeved... in 2009. That's insane to me.

I can't help you much on the dust inside the engine thing, except the say that if you're planning on running this as a performance build, buy head studs and pull the heads to be sure they are clean and rust free.
If you aren't gonna do that, then it's perfectly fine to drop one head bolt in and torque it down. Ford actually called for a re-torque of the head bolts in the engine bay at 60k or something like that. I've done it on my engine and it all but stopped a coolant leak I had. Made me feel a lot safer when I added a turbo later on! I was amazed at how easy it was to loosen some of those head bolts.

The pattern for re-torqueing is: Loosen one bolt 1/4 turn, then tighten it back to the final torque spec. Do this according to the factory tightening pattern. In your case you'd probably check the torque on all of them but just run the single bolt in and call it a day. Re-torque after 50 or 60k. I think OE install is one drop of oil on the bolt threads. Been a while since I looked that up.

 

[miked]

The original invoice did seem like a lot to me, but here in Canada, our prices always seemed much higher at that time than prices in the US.
Example from memory, In the early 2000s the cheapest glow plugs I could find where I lived were around 30 dollars each for the cheap glow plugs. On a trip to the US, I found beru glow plugs for 9 dollars each.

Thanks for the re-torque info, This not for a performance build but will have a stock ford turbo on it.

 

[Kdo58]

Where are you going to find another rebuilt motor for 3k? You could always offer him 2k, I did a back yard rebuild on mine and it was not fun.

 

[Nero]

Do you know what type of head gasket it has in it? Stamped steel or composite?
If its a stamped steel, perfect time to swap it to a composite gasket and head studs. Then you'll be set for life. Plus you'll be able to wipe out any dirt that may have gotten in.

 

[Kevin 007]

Wow. Over 8k for a rebuilt IDI that wasn't even sleeved... in 2009. That's insane to me.

I can't help you much on the dust inside the engine thing, except the say that if you're planning on running this as a performance build, buy head studs and pull the heads to be sure they are clean and rust free.
If you aren't gonna do that, then it's perfectly fine to drop one head bolt in and torque it down. Ford actually called for a re-torque of the head bolts in the engine bay at 60k or something like that. I've done it on my engine and it all but stopped a coolant leak I had. Made me feel a lot safer when I added a turbo later on! I was amazed at how easy it was to loosen some of those head bolts.

The pattern for re-torqueing is: Loosen one bolt 1/4 turn, then tighten it back to the final torque spec. Do this according to the factory tightening pattern. In your case you'd probably check the torque on all of them but just run the single bolt in and call it a day. Re-torque after 50 or 60k. I think OE install is one drop of oil on the bolt threads. Been a while since I looked that up.

Yup, i'm all about re-torquing head bolts as preventative maint. They're always pretty loose if they've never been touched before. I've never blown a head gasket on an idi, with this practice and of course driving them as a slow old diesel is intended on being driven.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Whatever you do, I will recommend that you do an oil change soon after you get it running. I'm thinking about less than 200 miles. That will help to flush out anything that may have gotten into the engine other than by the glow plug and injector holes. It probably wouldn't hurt to put some type of oil in your cylinders. Let it sit for a few days and then turn the engine over by hand several times to get rid of most of it before you install the glow plugs and injectors.

 

[miked]

Thank-you for your replies
I have the info I was looking for to finish this engine.