Ron Hill is right, a leaking water pump will rust your oil pan off.......

[Kirk Garner]

Was getting ready to degrease/repaint the lower half of the engine and discovered enough rust to open an ore mine! The culprit appears to be a water leak from the water pump (which I will address under a seperate topic) due to the PO doing very little preventative maintenance which I am trying to make amends for now. My question regards getting rid of the rust that I cannot reach with wire brush and sandpaper without pulling the motor. I don't want to just spray paint over it and hope it goes away. Are there any reliable chemical products that can be sprayed into the hard to reach area's that might work or is this just wishful thinking?

Thanks as always,
Kirk

[lazybone]

I like POR 15 paint and a  rust chemical converters .  If you can't get a brush under there, a rag soaked in the stuff and rubbed on will probably work.   You might want to jab at the pan with something sharp to check the integrity of the pan first.  Good luck.

[scotty]

Many years ago (like about 40) I was on the engine room crew on a tuna boat out of San Pedro.  I was a wiper and oiler.  A wiper wipes and an oiler oils.  Yep, all day (and night) just wiping the engines with a rag, and checking the fluid levels.  The point is, that yes, you are doing the right thing to deal with all the rust now.  Use a paint scraper and an awl.  Don't worry about scraping off good paint - if it scrapes off, it isn't good.  Obviously be careful around electrical and plumbing.  Give it a good scrub with degreaser then with soap.  Paint it up with several layers of spray paint (universal gold/bronze) and you're back in business.  A clean engine will often (sometimes) tell you if there's a problem developing.

[pablosgirl]

Kirk,

I found the same condition when we purchased our boat.  The raw water pump was leaking out its weep hole and running down the front of the engine and oil pan.  I scraped mine with a gasket scraper and a wire brush to get most of it.  For the really tight areas I glued a piece of sand paper to a paint stir-er stick.  I then wiped down the surface with paint thinner to remove the dust and using a foam brush applied Klean-Strip Rust Converter.  I then spry painted it with the Universal bronze paint.  The Klean-Strip  is great stuff!  I have been using it on metal down here on the gulf coast for years.  I have an ongoing test experiment with a steel jack stand that supports the tung of my small sailboat.  I painted it with just this rust converter four years ago and it is still rust free.  I have found it at AutoZone and Ace Hardware stores.

Paul