Every shred of evidence I have been able to gather during the teardown and inspection phase of my rebuild on my 98 crossflow 115 points to the exhaust cover gaskets as being the most likely entry point of water into my crankcase. I never pinpointed the exact location but considering the lower starboard was the piston that was rusted in it's bore and the lower port was the next worse, and considering the top two had little more than surface rust, I think it is a good guess water was getting in mostly around that lower starbord piston. Then the fact that most all the rust was behind the pistons and the majority by far was in the area of the exhaust ports added to my suspecions. I have closely inspected every inch of the block and have found no cracks or any evidence of water getting in anywhere, I realize there could always be something I am missing but as a whole the block looks pretty good. There was a little rust around the lower main bearing but I would think that being the low point of the engine that might be expected. Finally, and I think this is the most telling evidence, when I removed the filler blocks under the inner exhaust cover the port side was dirty as heck, all kinds of carbon and crud under there, the starboard side was pretty clean which would lead me to believe that watter may have been washing that side out.
All this leading up to my question. I would suspect it was a gasket, however there is some pitting in the exhaust cover itself, not enough that I would expect it to cause a problem and that is such an expensive part my gameplan is to put it back together useing the old one. Then I plan on keeping a close eye on things for the next few months and at any sign of trouble replacing the inner cover. My question is and I think it is possible, but there is no problem pulling that cover off and replacing it without removing the powerhead is there? It looks as if it could be done pretty easily as long as the bolts are in good shape. Since I know there is a possibility I may be doing this in the future I plan retaping the bolt holes and putting in new bolts, at least the bottom 4 or 5 anyway.
All this leading up to my question. I would suspect it was a gasket, however there is some pitting in the exhaust cover itself, not enough that I would expect it to cause a problem and that is such an expensive part my gameplan is to put it back together useing the old one. Then I plan on keeping a close eye on things for the next few months and at any sign of trouble replacing the inner cover. My question is and I think it is possible, but there is no problem pulling that cover off and replacing it without removing the powerhead is there? It looks as if it could be done pretty easily as long as the bolts are in good shape. Since I know there is a possibility I may be doing this in the future I plan retaping the bolt holes and putting in new bolts, at least the bottom 4 or 5 anyway.
