Ok so this is my first engine that I will rebuild and I finally got the headers off by welding nuts on the studs (ORO!) Now that I see the engine sleeves have some rust on them I will try to post some pics later, but is this like a dont bother thing or it depends. To me it looks like some surfice rust and not too bad. What do you think?

 

Hi Kenshin

It would greatly help us if you told us what engine you are dismantling to rebuild.

 

its a 77 xj12.

 

Hi Kenshin

OK, so it's a 33 year old, (and magnificent), engine ! Trouble getting the heads off is fairly normal for these engines, especially ones so old, and I would certainly expect some rust on the outside of the cylinders where they are in contact with the coolant, because so many people never changed their coolant at the recommended 2 year intervals. Provided the bores are OK they should be alright, but they may be fairly worn, so need reboring and new pistons. If the bores are rusted, try using a DIY honing tool to see if you can bring them back up to a decent surface.

The V12 is an open deck block, and the cylinders are a light push fit into the block and can be removed and replaced, but each one must go back where it came from. Normal factory sealing at the securing lip was stuff called Hylomar, developed by Rolls-Royce for their aeroengines. Normal practice when the heads are lifted for top end jobs is to secure the cylinders from moving when rotating the engine, or they can pop up and ruin the seal. Clearly if you are doing a full strip down you don't have to worry about this.

 

Thanks that makes it seam like I can fix this engin up. Yeah.