Sam,
how long since you took your driving test?

http://www.drivingtesttips.biz/nearside-offside.html

Nothing to do with whether a car is RHD or LHD, but simply to do with which
kerb ( not curb, as that's US speak ) is closest to the vehicle when driving
in the UK, or anywhere else where vehicles are driven on the left side of the road.
( Although I'm guessing that you don't look behind you when driving forwards. )

ken

M28/1 Smiffy - it has an oil filter

Ken - I wondered why I took my test 3 times

You didn't try to pass port to port on your test did you Sam?! That only works abroad...
You might be happier if Hetty steered from aft...? Like the Hamster's VW canal camper...

Just managed to get the cylinders off the pistons. First time I've done this sort of thing. It was a bit of a struggle - one of the pistons was seized. Can you tell which one?

Here's what I found. This piston looks OK, I think. (The oily looking stuff at the top is WD40)


This one's not so good.

Further investigations...

You can see the extent of the piston damage here:


I removed the piston and cleaned it up, but the rings were stuck solid on the one side. Managed to get the oil ring off OK, but the other two just snapped:


A look round the other side of this piston revealed this:


Question is: is this piston knackered, or is it saveable? I've never delved so deep inside an engine before, so I'm not sure.

Smiffy,
is there any sign of scuffing on the piston skirt or in the bore of the barrel?
If there is, it's probably not worth trying to remove the broken rings and cleaning up the ring grooves.

That rust staining suggests that the engine wasn't laid up correctly and/or that water has got into the combustion chamber whilst it was laid up.

ken

given that a set of pistons an barrels are relativley cheap id bin the top end and fingers crossed the crank is OK

Didn't notice much scuffing on the piston skirt, apart from that strange dent, as shown in my last post, and this pic:

The barrels have very slight scuffing, like dead-straight scratches about the size of a pin head, which you can just about see on this rather poor picture:

There was a fair amount of oily gunge at the top end of the barrel, which cleaned off pretty easily with a bit of 520 wet and dry and a bit of WD. I was mildly surprised by the cleanness of the barrels - although I have nothing to measure them against, since I've never done the job before - but they were a devil to separate from the pistons in the first place.


Did wonder about this. With a set of rings costing £40 approx, plus a cylinder hone at £37, for only another £40 I can get a new cylinder & piston set. My instinct is always to repair and save old things, but in this case I'm really not sure...

How do I check that the crank is OK? Should I crack open the crank case and have a look? If so, what do I look for to assess its condition?

The second piston shot looks like someone or something has dinked that edge of the piston it does look liked erosion as you can almost see the deformation in the machining lines below the mark.You might well get away with new rings and a hone of the bores, as long as there's no gouges in the barrel or piston skirts. However as Sean say's the cost of barrels and pistons is not that expensive around £190 which for peace of mind is money well spent.

Mind a set of rings at about £25 and a honing tool for about the same is a big saving if there's no damage as mentioned

given the scores on the barrel -BIN