Is my wagon a wagon?

It'll depend on if line boring it and getting a good used valvetrain will be wörth it, against finding a good used entire head. On these, I prefer to stay away from milling as much as possible, in order to avoid retarding valve timing. If it was a pushrod engine, it wouldn't matter.
What I really need to do is to get an oil pressure guage, perferably of First Wörld quality. If all of that crud, of which was dumped into this engine, happened to erode the pump, doing further wörk would be pointless.
Japanese fallability detected where least expected, given that they otherwise are pretty good with elektronic quality: The clocks on these Suzukis are known to dim out. Mine had a chip-styled resistor fall out. These are bath-dipped in solder. Therefore, attempts to solder it back on would be futile. I will simply measure this resistor's value and then solder-in one of traditional manufacture

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Right, so you would find an unwarped, clean head? I could see that. What gets me, though, is Honda never offered thicker head gaskets (neither did aftermarket) to take up the slack. I've done too many Honda heads, every one of them had to go to the .004" max, block and/or heads, because no one could be bothered to maintain the cooling system.

 

You could have them milled down furter despite, if adjustable timing gears were available for those engines which don't use variable intake camshaft timing.
For OHC engines having both cast-iron block and head, you could simply cut a gasket from thgicker copper sheet, in order to adjust for excessive milling. But, I've never heard of any engine having both iron block and heads. I even doubt that Crosleys used these. On them, it wouldn't matter anyway, because crown gear systems were used.
Since my digital camera prefers brighter spots, I’ve given it a go at nighttime filming.
Early this spring, the automatic gearbox was cleansed and remained that way, until the head gasket started to leak.
Given that this bellhousing’s entire bolt pattern isn’t being used by this engine, this hints on this gearbox’s alterior application on other engine types. Perhaps, used on other automobile brands. Does anybody, therefore, recognize this bolt patter to coincide with a different engine type?



The yellow arrow points to a definitely available mounting hole.
The hole pointed at by the lavender-colored arrow appears to be a lining-up provision, intended to house a dowel pin, given that its outter surface doesen’t provide enough area for accomodating a 17 mm hexagon bolt. It’s doubtfull that an allen bolt would be used. But, there’s always that possibility, if another automobile manufacturer were to mount this gearbox, solely using allen bolts.
The bolts pointed at by the blue-colored arrows hints on the possibility that changing the removable bellhousing would make the rest of this gearbox available to even more applications



I filmed that one burnt head bolt, early this morning, taking advantage of my camera's flash. It's probably better to determine this bolt's diameter reduction, this way.
It's one of those bolts of which can be re-used. If I have difficulty finding an original, I could get a longer one and simply cut the threads down to size.
This one shown probably has its heat treating out of whack, due to taking exhaust heat

 

Yeah, that could be erosion, but IMHO, it's bolt overstretch. If the batch of bolts are all exactly the same length, then I'm wrong, but whatever caused that thinness, that one requires replacement, of course.

 

I didn't think to measure this bolt's length against that of the others. You have a point there, given that it took an unusual amount of torque to release it, assuming exhaust gas deposits were clogging its threads.
I started it up yesterday with the old head gasket and with only a minimum amount of plumbing and wiring, just to hear it run and to rule out any other unusual mechanical noises. It now takes high revs, without sounding like it'll blow apart.
So, it's all about keeping the block intact and fetching a head. I may end up with only entire engine availability. If so, I'll simply use the head and then keep the block aside somewhere for a rainy day.
Annoyingly, Youtube also has gotten smart, by prohibitting ad-blockers, starting today Friday the 13th, slowing down video selection.
The following shop claims camshaft regrinds to cost somewhere between 20 to 30% of a new one. If the shop doing the previously-planned line-boring and head shave doesen't do regrids, I'll have to first let the head get measured for warpage. My trusty machinist retired a while ago. So, now I'm left hanging as to who to trust for further work



Here's a shop doing line-boring

 

I slapped the borrowed head onto the old gasket and started it up with a minimum of hook-ups possible:



I ran it just long enough to not overheat the borrowed head. No unusual noises were detected. So, off to either get the head done or to find a good used.
Filming the cylinders from behind was a disappointment. I'll have to break out the endoscope, to get better shots. Nevertheless, scoring is seen. But, probably no big deal, given that no horsepower loss was noticable and it burned no oil

 

Everyone assumes an engine bore with any wear is bad; with how much of a reciprocated beating every bore takes, you'll see some wall wear, some ridge. It's just how much there is, as to whether it seals well, or burns oil. With the head off, and all four pistons below the deck, put a few ounces of penetrating oil or even diesel in, to allow for dissolving deposits in the lands, and allow the rings a better ability to seal once the engine is back together.

 

A little factoid for you Kevin, and anyone else looking at the Ford Freestyle (2005-2007) / Ford Taurus X (2008-2009) twins........
- While the Freestyle did have a CVT, The Taurus X got a traditional automatic transmission. So if you like them, find a Taurus X.

Now, I will say that OrthmannJ has a Ford Freestyle in the family, and it's been a good vehicle for them, without any hint of transmission issues, so there's that.

 

Is this a wagon

 

Yeah, Knock on Wood! *raps knuckles on noggin*

 

My Suzuki has had intermittend cut-outs on its dash bulbs, mostly behind the lower speeds increments on my speedometer where I need reliability most, assuming that its printed circuit board has lost consequential contact. Therefore, I Frankensteined-in a couple Japanese motorcycle harnesses equipped with rubber plugging of which fit exactly snug. Anyone with a Japanese wagon having similar problems could eliminate such nuissances, this way

 

And if you can get ones that fit, LED lighting is much better.

 

I've got a bunch of LEDs that I can get to fit. What's missing, however, is a step-down transformer, getting voltage down to the 3 some required.
I've been having problems with the speedometer of which has gradually worsened. Its needle wouldn’t move, before reaching 20 kilometers per hour, at first. Thereafter, it wouldn’t move for awhile, before hitting 30. Lastly, it would take a few kilometers of travel, before it would move at all. Having wished for my Daihatsu’s mechanical revolving cable system, I went to take a look at what appeared to be the sending unit on this Suzuki, as I made room to look, while replacing the thermostat. I then instictively ruled out the problem at the gearbox’s end and then once again removed the instrument pod, suspecting a faulty electrical connection there. Measuring the printed circuit’s connection to the harness connector, there was continuity at each of the four ends. So, I brought out my fiberglass brush pen and started cleaning off each connection point, before applying lithium grease. To my utter surprise, the speedometer began functioning like new

 

Well, the speedometer started getting lazy, wunce again. Befoar throwing in the towel, defiling my Japanese vehicle with a Chinese digital speedoh, I took a last swing at these connections, after witnessing the odometer chalking up kilometers, while the speedometer was taking a nap.
I then disassembled the unit, debating on whether connections were at fault or not



I wanted to pull the motor out from behind the unit. But wasn't sure about how it was supposed to line back up with the needle, given that they didn't leave enuff room for accessing the back of the needle for paint-marking



I was wondering as to how they thought they were saving money, through replacing a simple speedometer cable with electronic complexity. Especially, given that a soldering bath was required for attaching those rectangular resistors onto all of those printed circuit boards, not to mention thousands of those programmable controller chips needed to get produced (if I'm lucky, my programmable controller may be storing actual kilometers, if anyone has manipulated the odometer beforehand).
In any event, my solution to this vulnerable biological forces glitch was to approach it with Old School medicine, through soldering wires at each of the connections found in the above-most image and then sandwiching their ends directly under three of their attaching screws. The fourth wuzz a direct soldered connection, choosing a terminal bridged behing the printed circuit.
All that was needed to make it all happen was a 2 millimeter drill bit for perforating the pod's housing



Of course, all connections were cleansed, using my abrasive fiberglass-tipped pen, and lithium grease was applied to each wunn.
After having mounted the unit back in, it began functioning again. The question is, for how long will it hold