I was storing a short block at a friend's, outside. It was moved to an unsheltered spot, the lid wasn't on square, and rain happened. I don't know how long it might've been in water, but given that the bin wasn't completely full (you can see the waterline), at least months??
Inside the block it's actually remarkably clean, just the smallest amount of surface rust on the crank and surface of the block. When I sprayed the also-submerged flywheel with the garden hose, most of the crusty E36 M3 like what's in the worst-affected cylinder actually came off.
It's not rare or valuable, but it's not common, either (Saab 2.1L, '91-'93 only, only non-turbo 900s).
- Is this even worth trying to give away, as in, potentially worth it to someone to at least tear down and attempt to salvage?
- Or maybe you've seen much worse, and this is probably just a matter of cleaning and standard machine work?
- Unknowable from a pic on a car forum?
Probably scrap it. It's more what it is taan the damage. All that could be machined and reused, but who is going to put in the effort (money)?
Looks like a paperweight to me.
honestly, I don't think it's salvageable. The bore spacing looks really close, so unless you think it could be taken out .040 or .060 I don't think you'd find clean surfaces. If it was a thick casting with readily available oversized pistons and bearings, you'd still have to pay a machinist to bore it before you'd know anything for sure.
Couldn't hurt to throw it on cl or FB for free and see if someone wants it. But scrap is worthless right now so unless you want to make a crankshaft mailbox stand I'm not sure it's worth even tearing down.
I had a motor that got water in two cylinders and my first thought was it was junk. But I got the pistons out and it was an easy cleanup.
once the crank gets involved, probably more work than it's worth.
throw it online for free and see. Or make it $100 and see if you get more interest
Salt and vinegar dunk for a few days, let that fight the crust, and then see how easy it is to take apart and start evaluating from there. I'm assuming you actually had some kind of plan for the motor or else you wouldn't have put it into storage. I'm a sucker for a fiddly project like getting this thing into shape or finding out it's trashed and selling it for scrap.
I wouldn't touch that with a hammer.
Maybe it's better in person, but from the photos it looks like it was raised from the Titanic. I'd probably scrap it and be done with the mess.
