My buddy bought an 88 4runner with a blown headgasket. We both thought it was a bitchin deal, we removed the pass side head and before we bothered taking off the drivers side we noticed a chunk taken out of the side of the number 1 piston (towards the cylinder wall) and that cylinder looked all washed down and clean.

Heres the question, Since the chunk was taken out of the piston i am assuming that there is metal in the engine somewhere so should we just try to find a longblock somewhere? The engine was rebuilt 160k ago, and we did notice some wear on the caps holding the camshafts in. Thanks in advance.

-J

 

A picture would be nice. There are many reasons chuncks can come off of a piston. The piston can melt just under the spark plug, the ring can have excessive friction and crack and eventually break off a chunk on top, a foreign object can enter the cylinder, etc, etc.

What you describe is generally not good, but also may be isolated to the one cylinder. If you are thinking about a long block anyway, why not tear down the whole motor and see what you've got? Spec everything out and consider quick swap cost vs. rebuild. My 2 cents.

 

i concur