Has my engine been apart before? Looks like it going by the paint?

[79MKII]

Well, this is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. I'm in the middle of a bottom end rebuild on the 657x engine and I decided to double check that I had marked the cylinders correctly (PTO/MAG). I thought it would be easy enough to reconstruct the case and cylinders based on the white paint patterns, but now I'm really confused. Each cylinder has one side that is barely painted. I figured that has to be the inside, where the cylinders meet, right? Well, going by the pictures I took before I pulled it apart, the sides with very little paint were on the outsides. Is this normal or has this engine been apart before?

There are also other paint queues that seem to show that the barely painted sides are the insides, but again, they weren't that way when I took it apart. Were these cylinders switched at some point? I'm guessing the engines are partially assembled when painted based on what I see. What do you think?

 

[mikidymac]

They are painted at the factory already assembled so the insides between the cylinders are never completely painted. IF yours had the sides without complete paint on the outside it has been apart before.

 

[79MKII]

I thought so....sure looked that way. I'm not sure what he did but I don't think the PO took very good care of this ski. Nothing but problems so far but I'll get 'er in shape. I'll probably spray the engine with some white paint before installing it.

Is it normal that the metal edge of the crank seal would be rusty? I've noticed heavy dirt in almost every electrical connection and it makes me wonder if it was underwater at one time. I was able to get the fuel gauge and speedo working from cleaning connections and have completely redone the entire fuel system, including a new RV and RV cover. I had to fix a couple of water leaks and lot of other small stuff. I guess I'll tackle the jet pump next to make sure everything is OK there. Hard to tell what I'll find!

 

[mikidymac]

No, the seals shouldn’t be rusty.

 

[79MKII]

At the very least it seems this ski sat for a long time without being properly prepped for storage.