New Timing Belt / Head Work Question

[Wreckless Hype]

My 95 DX that I have been DD seems to be having some temperature issues. As I was driving home yesterday, the gauge would shoot up as I accelerate and when I would coast or lay off it, it would drop down some. It never hit H, but came up about 4/5 of the way. I limped it home, let it idle, sat just over half. Shut it off for the night.

This morning I popped open the radiator, didn't see anything. Put about half gallon of distilled water in it, started, let is sit for about 30 minutes, temp never budged about normal. Took it around the block, no issues, took it to the local Wawa mile or two away, no issues, rode it a bit harder home, nothing, never budged above normal. No idea, w/e.

There's a noise of what sounds like a bad bearing, it's rotational, moves with the sound of the accelerator kinda and comes in and goes away randomly. It sounds like it's coming from the belt assembly area near the alternator. My guess would be the water pump. Could be related to the cooling issues? Idk.

So, car is old, feels tired, needs some work. I was going to replace the water pump and timing belt. I'd like feedback about Gates kit? I know they're like bees knees on Subarus, but doesn't apply across the board necessarily.

I'll likely replace the thermostat, radiator and hoses as well since they are just filled with so much crap it's insane. Also need to blow my heater core out again I'm sure.

I was going to rip the head off as well and replace the gasket and get some head work done to get it running slightly better. I was mostly looking at RockAuto stuff for replacement parts as I'll be doing most of it myself and was wondering what I'd need total. I've got in mind the timing belt kit with water pump (by Gates as I said), Head Gasket itself by Fel-Pro, I know I need head bolt but I will have to likely get them from Honda. I'll need a valve cover gasket. What else do I need, or should I know as I dive into this.

(Also, I'm not doing the head work myself, that's getting sent out.)

 

[sleeper si]

i got a gates TB kit and it is great stuff.
if you got so much crap inside your cooling system why not try to flush all that crap out first?

 

[SpeedTechnik]

i got a gates TB kit and it is great stuff.
if you got so much crap inside your cooling system why not try to flush all that crap out first?

x2

if you want it to feel revitalized you can just begin to upgrade things as well if you feel you can. A fsm Is additionally helpful and a somewhat must. The upgrade will depend on what you are after though.

 

[Wreckless Hype]

As far as flushing goes, I've run a pretty heavy powered hose through the radiator and hoses, thermostat and crap. I've also ran the system full of vinegar a few times and I can get tons of s*** out, but there is just so much caked inside of it, at this point, I'm just going to be replacing it all with new. Everything is going to be Gates, Dorman, and Fel-Pro parts and for the prices, it's pretty good. I've got a guy who a friend used to diamond cut and clean some high end Mustang heads and charges next to nothing, excellent work, so he'll be taking care of that. Then I can scrub the piston tops off a little bit and maybe get the compression a little more leveled out. Hoping it should feel a little better afterward.

Mostly was curious on the parts. Also if there was anything else I should look at as a normal D series issue that may come up. Really it's going to get a real nice tune up and should run much better.

Not looking to go nuts on upgrades at this point, mostly just keep this engine alive while I source and build an H22 for. At the same time the front end needs to be redone, suspension, brakes and some interior love. It's not yet ready to be a project car, just an A to B, until I can afford the project and a replacement DD.

I'll post up what I find as I pull it apart then and let everyone know!

 

[Wreckless Hype]

Found out what the rattling / failed bearing sound was coming from the water pump area... So let's go all the way through this.

Bought all of this a week ago:

Then this started happening on a very regular basis:

 

[Wreckless Hype]

Pulled off hose to find this (even after running about 15+ gallons of vinegar through the system to flush it 3 times in the last 2 years)

Steel Dremel brushed that all out:

Smooth sailing, smelled like gas, but whatever:

Head off!

Tons of orange rust colored rust water and what LOOKED like gasket fragments inside the block cooling galley(?). Pistons are caked with crap (expected). And then the valves...

Middle two

 

[Wreckless Hype]

So the water on the passenger side of the looked like this (also why I have no heat...)

Yea...

SO
Here's the noise and water leaking issue (losing half gallon a day roughly towards the end). The seal was bent open under the impeller, the 3 teeth were actually what LOOKED like gasket fragment inside the coolant galley in the block. The wheel spun very loosely and wobbled a good bit.

Wrapping up for the day, drill with steel brush to piston? YEP!

So clean!

 

[Wreckless Hype]

The cylinder walls look perfect, the cross hatching is flawless.

The valves look pretty burnt. I think it would be more worth looking into a replacement head for the car. I guess the same head likely be fine for this. I know a rebuilt D15B7 head goes for about 250 with replaced valves, springs, rockers, etc.

Also, I'd like to just throw on some not-so-crazy aftermarket manifolds, exhaust and intake. I'm going to likely go ebay special here, except that I found a complete Z6 intake manifold with injectors, fuel rail, and sensors for like 100 bucks. Any feedback here?

Appreciate your help guys!!!

 

[RonJ]

Good luck and nice job cleaning up the engine. However, if it overheated severely, it may never be the same. In this case, most people will just shop for a new engine. But good luck.

 

[Wreckless Hype]

Good luck and nice job cleaning up the engine. However, if it overheated severely, it may never be the same. In this case, most people will just shop for a new engine. But good luck.

There never seemed to be an issue with coolant and oil mixing anywhere. The car never overflowed the radiator. It would get as hot as it did in the picture and immediately drop back to normal. The issue running hot was clearly a faulty Duralast thermostat I forgot to replace next to the car losing a bit more water every day. Obviously hoping it's not a total loss, so will see.

Exhaust manifold was ordered, rebuilt head, gaskets, heater core, some other crap. Hope to get it back together next weekend.

 

[RonJ]

It would get as hot as it did in the picture and immediately drop back to normal.

The temp reading in the picture could easily warp the engine and destroy the bearings.

In addition, the engine shows clear signs of oil sludge, so the oil was not changed regularly.

Just sayin'

Obviously hoping it's not a total loss, so will see.

Best of luck.

 

[Wreckless Hype]

the engine shows clear signs of oil sludge, so the oil was not changed regularly.

.

I don't doubt it, it was rough the first oil change. I bought it with 159k miles, I put just around 40k on it and have always changed it around 6-6500 miles.

Should I be dropping the oil pan to clean it out while it's sitting? It's going to be just sitting in the garage for the next week until I have a couple days to put it all back together. Dropping it, scraping it out and slapping it back up with a new gasket isn't a big deal if that's all there is. Will that also let me just run something through the return lines and just clean it all out?

 

[RonJ]

It's difficult for me to advise you. How many miles on the engine? I'd put synthetic oil in to clean it out and then replace the oil and filter every 3K miles for a few cycles. However, some would say that this is risky for that old beaten engine and I would be hard pressed to argue with them.

I really hope all this turns out well for you.

 

[Wreckless Hype]

How many miles on the engine?

Currently sitting at 198'479. I generally just put in hi mileage since I have heard the same about synthetic in that kind of motor. Usually Shell or Valvoline, never Mobil 1 after all the stories of spun rod bearings when I had my WRX.

I really hope all this turns out well for you.

Appreciate it. TBH, I'm surprised it lasted this long and if putting a few hundred bucks gets me another 40-50k, I'd be happy. It's paid for itself over and over again, and I wouldn't be the least bit shocked if the whole thing crapped out shortly after reassembly, if it even runs past that.

 

[Wreckless Hype]

Also, is there any gain or reasonable positive to running something like a Z6 intake manifold (which should bolt right up iirc), over a stock B7 manifold?

I ask because I thought getting someone else's online that has already been cleaned, etc. would be easier and less of a headache than cleaning this nightmare:

However, I bought tons of carb / choke cleaner and bottle / toilet brushes to dive in if need be... Also got a TB gasket coming since I need to disconnect the two and clean that mess out...

 

[Wreckless Hype]

Dove into the intake manifold.

Throttle body:

And cleaned:

Some wire brushes, bottle brushes and carb/choke cleaner seemed to do pretty well here

Dirty

Purdy

 

[Wreckless Hype]

Heater core came in. Might as well get all of that out of the way I thought...

No Chilton, I suck...

But it came out, relax time

Back to work.

Yep, gross...

HALP!!

While tugging on the box with the heater core in it, it gave way and the cable seemed to unravel itself and just fall out. I know I'm lucky none of the arms broke, the mechanism still works.
I don't know how the cable was looped, what it was looped around

I can see that the arrows, the cable needs to be in the metal clip. I just don't know what or how it's connected to. Any chance anyone has a proper setup photo they could post?

 

[Wreckless Hype]

Got it. Thanks guys!