Well, I stripped it down today. It's not all
bad news.
First of all, this job gave me a real chance to see
what a labour saving device an air tool collection is. I
bought the compressor to paint this car, but the air
tools are a great fringe benefit.
Last time I pulled this head, it took me hours. With air
power I had it off within an hour.
The head looks good, but #3 intake valve is toast. That would
explain the REALLY low compression, and was probably the
event that caused this all come to my attention this week.
Now for the fun part.
#3 piston had about 30 ring fragments. There were only
three pieces that were more than 90 degrees, the rest
was a handful of quarter inch segments. Nifty.
The bores look like glass, I can't find any flaws other
than a barely-perceptable ridge at the top where the
piston travel ends.
The bearing shells look decent. There are some very
tiny mini-scores, but they are not worn to copper.
At this moment, I feel like I could slap a used head
on it and new rings and cross my fingers. Considering it's
almost the end of the season and I still have plans for
a V6/V8, would be nice if it worked.
Anybody care to tell me I am crazy? Are my new rings
going to smash as soon as they hit the ridge at the top
of the bores? I'm not expecting to make a new engine
with a few rings, but I am thinking I might have a
chance of getting it back to where it was last week.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
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