We got the driver side head off. Look at the values. Nothing looked glaringly wrong. the camshaft measures, at #2 cyclinder, about .002 thinner than the min. spec.

Cylinder #2 has wear left and right, perpendicular to the crankshaft. When the piston is up it touches the inner side of the wall, when it is down, it touches the outer side of the wall. (see attached image)

I take it this is what you guys thought was possible 'piston slap' and the reason for the knock. No scoring in the cylinder walls of #2, #4 and#6.

We still need to remove passenger side head and take a look.

So, if i were cheap and wanted a quick easy fix, could i just replace the piston if the cylinder is still within spec?

Is a rebuilt a cheaper better option than doing a rebuild yourself?

Thanks,

Badbob

 

The two most difficult parts of the tear down?

1) pulling the cam shaft pullies

2) removing the exhaust manifold.

I found my old flat bar fit in the pullie perfectly. I wedged it under the alternator and used my breaker bar to break the cam shaft pully nut free. Piece of cake!

see attached.

badbob

 

You get it torn down enough to get the piston out you might as well rebuild the whole thing. Its likely that the cylinder is out of round and you will need to hone it out before replacing a piston. As far as rebuilding yourself vs. putting in a rebuilt motor, you are 6s

 

I haven't really moved forward this week. I'm pricing local machine shops and still assessing what caused the #2 piston to slap.

The good news is that we've done some exhaustive cylinder bore measurements and found that #2, #4, and #6 are well within specs. So one option is to do a light honing on the cylinder and put in new pistons and rings. I still need to pull the head of #1, #3, n #5.

Today, we'll pull the passenger side head off, oil pan, oil pump and see if we can get to the #2 cylinder rod, disconnect it and examine the piston, rod, wrist bearing, etc. to see if we can find the culprit for the piston slap.

Ya batman i'm leaning toward honing the cylinders and putting in new pistons, rings, etc and having the heads done.


Stay tuned. Badbob

 

Had a similar issue with my 3.0. Had a bad knocking in the lower end. Ran okay but had limited power. My compression check was similar to yours as they were low. Wound up taking engine out. Took to machine shop ... One rod was shot. I am also looking to change my crossover - so both exhausts will exit out of a Y pipe on the drivers side. Trying to save a little ca$h. I will post my retro fit for others. Good luck my friend.

 

Quick update--took of passenger side head and everything looks ok. All cylinders measure well within specs, including the bad #2.

So here is my course of action:

1) send heads in to local machine shop for rebuilding. One shop does them for $140 a head.

2) get master rebuild kit and hone cylinders and put new pistons/rings. I'm assuming I got a bad rod, write pin, or piston that is causing the #2 slap. but thankfully the cylinders are not worn.

One quick question: Can I replace the oil pump and all six pistons without removing the lower end? Can I drop the frt. differential and work from below or do I need to pull the whole frick'in block out?

Thx bigbob

I'm assuming I got a bad wrist pin or bad rod that is causing the

 

Whats the updates?