I used to have a little side business, years and years ago now, rebuilding Honda B-Series engines for people. I always used ATF as a rust inhibitor, and I never had anyone complain of flash rust issues. It also comes right off with brake clean. If it's not broken, don't mess with it - that's my philosophy here. Plus, I was able to buy a quart of ATF at the deli (
) right down the street from me. They even gave me a stack of giant tablecloth sized coffee filters for free. I'd love to use something purpose made for the application, but I'm also being cheap with this build
I'll have more pictures up later today. I've got most of the parts oiled up, and I'm planning on grabbing the last two mains and getting them done too. I also brought the crankshaft inside to get it ready for it's deep cleaning. You'll see it when I post up the pictures, but it honestly might not need to get professionally polished. In the better lighting in here, it honestly doesn't look too bad. The casting on the counterweights is terrible, I won't lie, but the journals all look pretty damn good to me. I'm not going to fix the casting, either. I really don't want to have to deal with getting everything re-balanced. Like I said, I'm trying to be cheap with this build. I'm not shooting for the moon, I'll be happy if I hit 250 horsepower. I shouldn't have to go nuts with the modifications to achieve that.
Question on oil pumps. Is it worth it to replace the factory one with a Melling unit, even if the original one is within spec? There are two for sale on Rock Auto. There's a no-name one that is a little under $40, and then there is the Melling one for around $120. I'm curious if you guys think it's worth the extra insurance for the engine to splurge a bit on the better oil pump. I've used their stuff on much higher power builds, and I've never had any issues with them.
UPDATE:
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I promised pictures, and I took quite a few. So, here we go. The first 2 are of the oil pump that I have from this engine, which has about 150k miles on it. It's been precleaned with engine degreaser. I haven't taken it apart yet to check the clearances, but that's on the list of stuff to do. I'm still debating the merits of just replacing it with a Melling.
The next are the new parts that came in. I've got the part numbers there for you as well. My camera isn't great, and the connecting rod bearings picture came out blurry. The part number is 4-4175CP, and those are from Sealed Power.