[Mgs] Piston Broke (was Picking a head)

[Phil Bates]

> Warning - related but not MG content.
>
> YOu think this is bad.  About 3 years ago, I was driving my '69 porsche
> 911T across the country.  South of Pueblo, CO about 25 miles, my engine
> died and wouldn't turn - at all.  I hitched a ride 30 miles to the nearest
> small  town and got a U-haul and towed it home.  It was 8 months later I
> felt I had the money to fix it, so I tore down the engine.  What I found
> was a broken valve head had fallen in the combustion chamber, and the
> piston had been pounded into oblivion. So there I looked at the left hand
> bank of the engine to see - two pistons, and one wrist pin.  The head was
> pretty mangled too.  I know I had adjusted those valves to their insane
> clearance of 0.004" just about a month before that - so my valve seat must
> have been receding (sp?) fast.  I can't complain too much though, that
> engine had over 200,000 miles on it.  I'm still trying to straighten it
> out - but it has given me the opportunity to put a bigger more powerful
> engine in as well.
>
> Phil Bates
>> Wow - today was not good news day.
>>
>> I guess you never quite know what you will find when you pull an
>> engine apart but what was meant to be replacing rings and tidying up
>> the bottom end of the thing turned into a horror story.
>>
>> One of my lovely, flat-top JE pistons has suffered a fatal injury,
>> presumably from its broken top ring.  I guess the thing did not like
>> being over-revved and now has a hole in its side.
>>
>> My problem, being in Australia, is that replacing a custom JE (.040
>> over) piston is not a simple operation - with one quote being a 3
>> months turn around time from them receiving my sample (a surviving
>> piston).  This leaves me hunting a set of similar flat-tops for an
>> engine that needs to be back together for its first competition event
>> on March 2nd.
>>
>> I have a few leads here but if anyone has any ideas or thoughts I
>> would grateful.  Compression below 10:1 / 11:1 is not an option.
>>
>> This was not the sort of news I needed today.  My budget is already
>> hurting.
>>
>> Thanks for "listening".
>>
>>
>>
>> Eric
>> '68MGB MkII
>> Adelaide, South Australia
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