So I went out to the garage tonight with the intention of completely pulling apart the short block.
I took off the oil pan and oil pump and turned the motor over on the stand (right side up). I heard something fall in to the drip pan on the floor and found three items. Can you guess what they are/where they came from? Keep in mind, short of swapping intakes a few times over the years, this long block has NEVER been apart!
Next I took off the crank pulley and water pump. Then I tried to find the puller for the balancer. I searched allover the place before I realized that I do not own a puller!! Doh!! At that point, I lost my motivation and decided to call it a night. Better make another trip to the store to get one of those.
So here's where I left it:
I've got a parts washer ordered and on the way so once I get that balancer off I can take off the timing cover, yank the timing gear/chain and cam, and then pull apart the rotating assembly and clean it up. Typing that reminds me that I still also need to remove the spider and lifters. I will be very interested to see how much wear and tear I find in this 120k mile engine.
Assuming the crank, rods, and pistons are reusable and the block looks OK I'll hone the block (ball hone - no machine shop for me unless absolutely necessary!) and clean/paint the block. Then I'll order up some ARP bolts, new bearings, new rings, new oil pan/pan gasket, rear main seal, and a new high volume oil pump. I've already got all the gaskets, new balancer, and a meziere water pump "in stock" and we'll start putting her back together. Oh yeah, the radiator has seen better days so I'll need to replace that too - which reminds me I'll need to go in the basement and dig out that electric fan.
All that sure was easy to type, we'll see if it actually goes that easy. In my experience, it usually never does.....