clubstylus

After covering most people following me in Oil smoke at one time or another I finally got round to taking the engine to bits to see if I could figure out why it was burning a bit of oil.

Took the head off and the bores looked a little shiney but no nasty scrapes in there. It also started to look a little lost in the engine bay...
Well nothing was visible from the top so I went underneath to remove the sump. Started to undo the bolts only to find 2 bolts are blocked by the bellhousing metal crap cover so no other choice but to remove the bonnet then 3 of us lifted the block out (without an engine crane just muscle) suprisingly heavy these Xflows! I only whimpered once as it came very close to sitting on the front of the bodywork. There will be a crane used to get it back in, wasnt expecting to have to remove it today!

So with the block out and leaking oil and water all over garage floor we popped the sump off, then popped number one piston out. All looked ok

We then popped number 4 piston out. Hmmm, that gap in the top ring looks a bit large.... oh looks like theres 10mm of the end of the ring missing.......

So where is the missing bit? No where to be found, not in the piston, not anywhere. So we can only assume the engine was rebuilt by the professional engineering company with a dodgy ring with the bit missing from it as there is no way it could have escaped the engine once in there...
So just off to batter the credit card at Burton Power for some new rings and gaskets.

Any pointers on what I should do when fitting new rings? Just hone the bores and pop the rings in the pistons and put it all back together? Or do I need to do anything with the rings?

And while the engine was out, I couldn't resist trying out the engine bay for size, 1 Rob power isn't as good (or as good looking) as 135 Xflow horses. But if I can get in there then there must be enough room for a V12 at least!

Firstly, after honing check the ring gaps. Push each ring down the bore with the top of a piston and check the gap between the ends of the ring with a feeler gauge. A Haynes manual should give you the size of the gap. Rings expand when hot!

Second, orient the ring gaps on the piston with the gaps 120 degrees apart.

Xflow cast pistons used to be really cheap. If they are still reasonable, consider a 1300 cc piston in a 1600 engine, a little heavier but the smaller dish gives a useful increase in compression.

Hope the above helps
Mike