951 Resurrection - after 7 years of storage

[jeyjey]

Might the melting be from someone using a torch to heat up some recalcitrant bolts? (An old-school shop might not yet have learned the joys of inductance heaters.)

[Meine44]

Might the melting be from someone using a torch to heat up some recalcitrant bolts? (An old-school shop might not yet have learned the joys of inductance heaters.)

That is possible. However, the shop was only tasked with diagnosing a fuel stumbling issue when the car was at operating temperature. They resolved this issue by cleaning some wire harness connections (speed and reference sensors were the worst).
After fixing the issue they took the car on a test drive and feedback was "cleaning the harness connections seems to have worked. We took the car out and it runs great. That thing is FAST!!!"

[Meine44]

Here is a list of the damage from the thermal event:

- Charge pipe (label burnt)
- Ignition wire clamp at the rear of the distributor - this shows the worst damage of all parts
- Spark plug wires (due to rubbing / lack of wires clamp)
- Distributor cap melted
- Steering fluid cap
- Injector No. 1 harness connector
- Injector No. 1 harness (wire branch is electrical taped)
- Top front belt cover - worst nearest the distributor cap
- Bottom front belt cover - worst nearest the lower balance shaft tensioner
- Rear belt cover - melted near the distributor cap and lower balance shaft tensioner
- Oil pressure sender harness - visible damage to the protective cover - nasty electrical tape job
- Water pump coolant expansion tank fitting - melted only on the underside


Based on the damage it looks like a flash fire was ignited at the #1 injector causing damage to items on the top and front of the engine. A spark probably lit something flammable near the fuel rail and started a secondary fire under the car leading to the damage on the bottom of the belt covers and the underside of the water pump fitting. Maybe the shop was checking for injector pulse to diagnose the rough running condition by priming the fuel pump with the injectors unseated in the cylinders and caught a spark.

Any other theories on this one?

[Meine44]

.

[jeyjey]

Dang, that's fairly wide-spread damage (though not very "deep"). Definitely makes you suspect something (fuel, cleaner, etc.) got atomised and then flashed, causing the oil on some things (such as the PAS cap) to continue burning for a bit.

Any damage to the bottom side of the hood?

[Meine44]

Dang, that's fairly wide-spread damage (though not very "deep"). Definitely makes you suspect something (fuel, cleaner, etc.) got atomised and then flashed, causing the oil on some things (such as the PAS cap) to continue burning for a bit.

Any damage to the bottom side of the hood?

The bottom of the hood was charred but did not get hot enough to mess up the paint at all. Hood must have been open during this thermal event. You can see some of the black soot still in one of the photos posted above.
Hood pads have been missing since I bought the car, so luckily there was no material on the bottom of the hood to catch fire.

[Meine44]

A few weeks without any update, but not for lack of working on the car in between other obligations.

I am *nearly* complete with front engine seal disassembly tasks for inspection. Still need to determine if the seal collars for the balance shafts and crankshaft need to be replaced.


Now for the frustration part of this update: the crankshaft feather key.
I spent a good amount of time trying to free this feather key from the end of the crankshaft in to remove the oil pump shaft seal. I probably have 3.5 hours into working this key out of its slot. In the picture below you can see the tools that I required in order to get the job done. My best pair of vise grips, v-jaw pliers, end cutting nippers, hammer and pry bar, torch (also used to make smoked old fashioneds after each disassembly session), and a Dremel cut-off. I also used a pair of diagonal pliers that I could not get a good grip on the key with.

Here are a few tips for this process:
1) Soak the feather key with penetrant several times throughout the day and let it sit overnight. PB Blaster works well.

2) Heat is your friend. Heat the key to loosen it up between rounds of PB Blaster. It seems multiple heat cycles are helpful here. I also used CRC Brakleen (brake parts cleaner, non-flammable formula) to cool the key between heat cycles based on other tips I've seen on this subject. Unsure if that had any benefits.

3) If the key is persistently stuck, make a relief cut down the length of the key. BE CAREFUL not to cut into the crankshaft. Small knicks that can be cleaned up with emery cloth are okay but try not to touch the crankshaft. It may be difficult to get aligned with the key exactly. In the photo below, you can see that my relief cut was at a slight angle with respect to the key. The relief cut will allow the key to collapse a little bit and free itself from the keyway, compressing with whichever set of pliers works the best (end cutting nippers in my case).

4) Order of operations that worked for me was:
Penetrating oil / heat / WAIT.
Penetrating oil / heat / WAIT.
*Relief cut/ Penetrating oil / heat / WAIT.
Penetrating oil / heat / KEY OUT.

As I mentioned, I spent several 1+ hour sessions at this. Each time I let penetrating oil sit overnight, the next time I tried to remove the feather key I would get heat smoke from beneath it. I.e. I could see a puff of smoke created from the heat when trying to pry the key out. Adding more penetrant and letting it sit overnight yielded the same results the next day. I only saw movement of the key itself after performing the relief cut. When I did get the key out finally it was after over a week not touching the car and it came out on the first try.
If I had to do it all over again, I would skip to performing the relief cut in the feather key right from the start.

Patience is *key*.

[Tom]

Glad you got it out! They can be an epic pain (despite endless internet posts about special techniques that get them out in 1 minute, etc.).

[Meine44]

Glad you got it out! They can be an epic pain (despite endless internet posts about special techniques that get them out in 1 minute, etc.).

The posts about which techniques to use were helpful, but many under reported the level of effort this took. Of course, YMMV, all cars and feather keys will be different. In my case (and in some others) the method that seems to work is to set the tools down for the day if you get stuck and return at a later date. The mechanical equivalent of the old IT trick of "unplug it and plug it back in."