Just picked up this 245 brick for 450 bucks. 250,000 miles, everything works. Wouldn't start so the guy was letting it go. Got it towed to my place after fighting it for two days trying to get it to diagnose and start.

Pulled a starter off one of my 240s in the yard and she cranked right up. Drove it down the street for a few minutes and she was burning up hot the whole time. I immediately decided to jump start the engine rebuild project and away I went. I have had the car for about two weeks.

The lazy idiot before who had the car let the system run without some clamps on the entire air intake housing from filter to throttle body. The flame trap was also clogged so plenty of air mixed with oil caked the entire engine bay through the loose air plumbing areas putting this horrible gunky build up inside connectors and everywhere! My main concern was the amount of heavy cleaning that would have to be done. I am about halfway through this project and everything is going well with no major problems. Take note of the old head gasket pictured and the multiple clogged coolant ports. I see this commonly on high mileage abused 240s.

Anyway, to the main issue at hand I wanted to address. So I hit the entire engine a few times with a pressure washer (maybe not best idea) also securing electrical connections before hand. I noticed as I was taking the engine apart water got settled in certain areas. I noticed water inside the intake ports on the head, exhaust, etc. So it is possible some water got further inside.

As I removed the head I looked down one of the round oil ports and saw some water sitting on top of the oil (as it doesn't mix very well). The engine had not been turned on or overturned since the water has been sprayed on the engine. I was going to try to stick a screwdriver with a paper towel around it down there to catch the water. I plan on draining and replacing the oil after rebuild is complete and before starting. Could this water be an issue?

Lastly, I will place some pictures of the car. Please take note to my viewings of pistons 2 and 3 and the paint and rust coming up on the pistons. My question is can I lightly sand the looseness away to clean up the piston surface? Also the piston and piston walls as you can see in the photo is acquiring rust from being exposed to the air. What can I do about getting that rust away and lubricating it? Should I rub some oil in there?

Thanks all!

https://postimg.org/gallery/25we7c4y2/

 

I am a little confused so maybe you can clear us up. You say you are rebuilding the engine yet it is still in the car. You also speak of some rust and water in the oil ports. Where I am confused is about the part of rebuilding the engine. I usually remove it and disassemble the complete engine. Boil out the block and check all components . Check if cylinders just need to be honed and replace all bearings , rings along with redoing the heads. There is more but just a few of the major parts then need to be replaced. So I assume you are in the early stages unless I am mis-understanding what you mean by rebuild.

 

Sorry I should have clarified by saying a top end rebuild of the engine. The blocks usually last a while although im sure it wouldn't hurt to really do a thorough rebuild.

What are your thoughts on the paint and rust coming off on the pistons? I would like to clean it up and get that rust and paint to stop chipping away.

 

there's no paint on pistons, and they are aluminum, which doesn't rust, it can corrode, but thats highly unlikey in an engine where they are coated in oil and carbon (from combustion byproducts)

this is a typical B230F(T) engine with around 250k miles, with its head removed after a head gasket failure, those pistons are fine.