With two spare engines in store, one is a queen of an engine. Still in the pipeline, it'll have to wait.

Meantime my 'daily' gets hammered and I put off the day. Gets mistreated, burns oil, leaks oil - yet everything seems to run well enough.

Before I do a complete swap, it occurred to me I've a full recon cyl.head gathering dust. Engine-in, I thought I'd swap it on the current tired lump and do the rings as well. Only bores won't get honed in the tired bores.

Fancied putting Flex-hone down the bores, or one of those cheapo tri-arm hones, hence do this whilst I'm on? Dodgy though, crud gettignwhere it shouldn't et al.

Yes, yes I know. I'm best to do the job right and be done, only where's the fun in that? I reckon I'm asking for trouble honing as well, someone must have been down this road before me.

How, if at all did you get on?

If you want fun followed by trouble and subsequent self flagellation crack on

If it were me I'd do things differently

I'm sure you know the best way to proceed

Yes, likely will just throw rings in 'as is'.

Sorted 

You'd have to get rid of the ridge, if there is one, or the new top ring will break.
.W.

Quote from: NoBeardNoTopKnot on Jan 10, 2024, 08:39 PMYes, likely will just throw rings in 'as is'.

If there's a bit of glaze on them it might be a bit of a struggle to get them to bed. Maybe a very light hone to  knock the glaze off. May as well do the bodge properly

I did the same thing on my own mini 12 years ago so as I could throw it back together in a hurry when we lived in Lincolnshire and were moving up to Scotland and I figured it would be cheaper to drive it than ship it in boxes....

It's still running 12k and 12 years later smoothly and quietly and fairly cleanly but I'm sure it's a little bit thirstier for oil than it ought to be.
Have a whole machined block, crank, head and pistons sat waiting for it but no time!

Quote from: haveyoubooked on Jan 10, 2024, 11:44 PMI did the same thing on my own mini 12 years ago so as I could throw it back together in a hurry when we lived in Lincolnshire and were moving up to Scotland and I figured it would be cheaper to drive it than ship it in boxes....

It's still running 12k and 12 years later smoothly and quietly and fairly cleanly but I'm sure it's a little bit thirstier for oil than it ought to be.
Have a whole machined block, crank, head and pistons sat waiting for it but no time!

That's about what I'm hoping for, and for much the same reason. I'll get rid of some of the glaze, and the ridge, and bang it in. I do a heap of miles, it's a day's work, a set of rings, gaskets and oil. What is there to lose? If I see it limp another 10K miles I'm  happy.

Hi,

You are probably already aware that cast iron "work hardens". If you do not "bust the glaze", it will never "run in". Me? I usually just rub coarse emery cloth round the bore until I can see fresh metal all over. I also smear fresh oil over all rubbing/rubbed surfaces during assembly, including bearings.  I'ts always worked for me.

Your cylinder bores will usually have a "step" at the top, where they haven't worn. Piston rings intended to be fitted to tired engines (AKA "Gut Busters") have ... er ... "half a groove" machined into the top of the top ring, to avoid that ridge.

I always top up the oil level, remove the spark plugs, and add a thimble-full of oil into each plug-hole. Then, before replacing the plugs, I hand-crank the engine 50 revolutions, to get the oil in the sump circulated.

NOW is the time to think about "blue smoke", if you have diesel ... its a sure sign that your timing chain is knackered, with sprockets to match. Now is the time to fit new, which also means acquiring a DTI ... although I have successfully changed chain and sprockets, by dubious means, and successfully got rid of the blue smoke.

If you do need to change the timing chain, think about acquiring a thimble full of Engineers Blue, and sharp scriber.

Er ... you will have to acquire a spanner to undo the starter dog, to remove front pulley. It will be malevolenty tight and might involve various spanners flying around your workshop. Your Workshop Manual should have a picture of a special LR tool, for undoing the crank nut, It doesn't look expensive, but who knows. I'd be interested to learn the cost of this tool from Land Rover. Kinetics (hammers) are much more efficient than hernias.

OT ... but I had a mate with a prewar Austin 7, that ran a big-end bearing (cast in place, in those days). The Austin oil pump gave a steady squirt, at about 3psi if in good condition. The squirts hit holes in the con rods, as they passed the squirts. It seemed to work.

My mate dropped the sump, and split the big end. Then he cut a strip of felt (?) from his hat, soaked it in oil, the wrapped it around the crank journal, and rebuilt the con rod, refitted the sump, and continued his journey.

The car was still running well, when he sold it, several months later.


602

When I rebuilt the 2286 petrol in my IIA I stripped it all down, bought new bearing shells, new rings and reassembled it all as it was on standard sizes.
I ran a three legged honing thing down up and down the bores a good few times with some engine oil as lube, cleaned it well afterwards to remove any grit then oiled and reassembled. I didn't worry too much about a lip at the top, standard rings went in and it turned over just fine by hand without any tight spots.

I didn't change any of the timing gear either, nothing horribly worn so it all went back in.

It's still running now, happy as anything. No point spending loads on a rebore if it doesn't need it.

Craig.

Hi,

Of course, you can always ask your engine shop to grind your crank to give a shorter stroke, so the piston rings don't reach the step. 

"Blue printing" is machining the bore and stroke to the maximum dimensions specified on the "blueprint", and similar with other components.

602

My first land rover, an 80" in the late 1960s (reminiscing again) ran with an absolute basket case of an engine because I was a teenager just left school with no cash.  It was a ground up rebuild and I was very fortunate because it was only the engine that was past it.  We rebuilt the engine, steel shim behind the big end shells to close them up(the ends of the shells were reduced to allow), the camshaft had the lobes built up with stellite in the toolroom where dad worked and then ground back to form on an open grindstone to a template made from the good end of the best lobe before it was built up.  It had an oil pressure gauge and it only ever had 15 psi oil pressure.  A crack in the block meant that it never had the rad cap tightened down otherwise it leaked.  I drained it every night.  The battery was a reject from my dads mini that wouldnt start it in winter but it was a good starter on the handle.  I eventually found a rover 60 car engine and in 1971 this land rover took us ro Romania and back

Peter

Can you still buy Holt's Piston Seal? Squirt a bit down each plug hole, then sell it as quickly as you can.

Dreadful useless stuff it was. I tried it on my 1955 Morris Oxford. The stuff landed in the dished piston and just disappeared without doing anything.

Quote from: haveyoubooked on Jan 10, 2024, 11:37 PM....may as well do the bodge properly

I like the sentiment, and 602, I knew about glazing, it hadn't occurred to me to grasp why, I'd thought it was a polish. Just googled this, not so. I'll find a way to knock-down any lip, and to keep the crud from honing, away from the mains and big-ends and bash away.

I'm no 'enthusiast', mine's more like the your old family kitchen-table, I'm happy to do what works 'well-enough' for it and carry on.

No Beard, no Top-knot.