General questions and discussion - '87 323 SL

[JKuhn]

I suppose there's no other way then. But chrome work is expensive...

[nickz]

That motor does not run adjustable lifters no, You won't silent those lifters with an adjustment,hydros should self adjust. You could try a flush, or a heasier weight oil,chances are those lifters are pooched my friend
Lovely little car you got there.

[JKuhn]

I'm currently running it on 20W50, and the lifter tick isn't that annoying. But I do have a strong suspicion that they can do with some adjustment (even if it doesn't silence them). But I suspect they're goign to stay as they are for now, because I first need to get settled into my new job and find a trustworthy mechanic (lack of tools, lack of space to work on the car, and I can't afford to go to Mazda).

But speaking of the noisy lifters, I actually kind of like how in this car I don't only hear the exhaust, but also the engine itself. All the noises combine to give a pretty nice sound. It's just when the car is idling that I'd prefer the lifters to be slightly less noisy.

[JKuhn]

Just hit an important milestone (or is it kilometrestone?) today.

[atomant48]

�� nice!

[JKuhn]

Next stop:

323323
323

That's going to take a few years though.

[JKuhn]

Let there be life!

It seems the time has come. I'm currently busy giving the entire car a shade-change respray (doing it in sections), and had the engine out to do the front. And while a friend and I started working on replacing the clutch and almost all the gaskets in preparation to put the engine back in, we noticed that the engine turns over WAY to easily. And of course stripping the engine turned into a major operation, as the head bolts were stuck from all the sludge that packed into the holes. We managed to get the head off, but most of the bolts will have to be removed from the head by the engineering shop.







That last one is a pretty sludged up head bolt, in case somebody wonders.

EDIT: And just for the record, it's now sitting at 303k km.

[FE3-323]

holy crap thats dirty! run some ATF fluid in your oil to help with desludging

[JKuhn]

The engine is in pieces. So that's not possible.

It seems the mechanics didn't do the services that my parents paid for all those years. I've been servicing it myself the last few years, and changed the oil yearly at less than 5k km. The last oil had maybe 1.5k km on, and looked like it was in the engine for 20k or more!

We're now struggling to find pistons. It looks like we're going to have to do the bottom end the cheap way for now (new rings and bearings, put everything else back together after a proper cleaning and hopefully cutting of the ridge). And if finances allow I'll have the head redone and given a nice gasflow (quoted R1k for a basic recon, or R2k plus parts for a gasflow). And then if all goes well I'll do the bottom end properly later.

As for the overall condition: The cylinders have definite ridges. The friend who's helping is afraid that the new rings might break, which is obviously a problem. The bearings looked great with only minimal wear (to be expected considering the engine has 300k km). And the head doesn't look bad, apart from the obvious gunk. Not even a hammer can move the head bolts that are still in the head (in either direction). That's how stuck they are. The head is now soaking in paraffin, to hopefully get those bolts out without having to go to a second engineering shop. There's an old man over here who's pretty famous for his cylinder head work, but he won't touch the head as it is now.

[me109]

Definitely ream the cylinder ridges.

[JKuhn]

We'll try to get that done. But I'm told that not all engineering shops have the equipment to cut a ridge.

That said, the car did rev out on a decently regular basis (for what it's worth, I've heard revving an old engine out can cause the rings to impact the ridge).

[JKuhn]

Just one more thing that I'm wondering about. What's the opinion here about synthetic oil? This friend firmly believes that synthetic will destroy any older engine irrespective of condition (or viscosity). He believes it MUST be 20W50 mineral, and nothing else. The only potential issue I could find is ZDDP content, what you you folks think? We can get 5W40 full synth here (or 10W40 semi), and according to the manual the engine can take an upper viscosity of 40 or 50 in our climate. Obviously I won't run the engine in with synthetic.

[me109]

I run 10w30 synthetic. If you've got leaks it might leak more than equivalent mineral oil, but it's just better stuff.

[JKuhn]

What we get here is as follows:
Mineral: 20W50 (regular), 15W40 (premium)
Semi: 10W40
Full: 5W30, 5W40, 10W60

We also get 25W60 high mileage, I assume that'll be mineral. But I never checked as I refuse to put that syrup in my engines.

[JKuhn]

Update.

The block will need a rebore, so that means doing everything. But it's on hold for now, because we don't know if the head can be salvaged. Two more bolts have come out. So there are now 5 still in there, with 3 of them showing promise. But the remaining two still refuse to budge.

If it comes down to a swap, what should I look at putting in? Bearing in mind cost to buy (which will depend on supply and demand), cost/effort to install, and long term affordability. I'm thinking B6 carb or maybe FE3 (that might be a pain to install and much more expensive both initially and long term, although the mounts do exist). I don't think I'll be able to find an even remotely decent E5 to replace this one with (or even just a head)...

I know a B6 carb can be had for about R9k (including R500 delivery because of the lockdown, that importer is in another province), which is just under the estimated cost for a total rebuild with gasflow (EDIT: Just to clarify, that R9k does not include the cost/hassle of having to re-register). But I don't know if it'll be compatible with my gearbox...