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AUII_Forte · 01-04-2003, 03:17

I am in the process of putting the second hand motor in my MPFI EA Ghia at the moment. Today I pulled the head off my old engine and was very surprised at the condition it was in! Very good really.

The problem I had was low compression in 3 cylinders, especially cyl 6. Looking at the bores cyl 6 still has the pattern from honing visible, meaning the engine had already been rebuilt at some stage (unless its been there since new which I doubt), but that also means the rings must have been leaking ever since it was rebuilt because the rings were not tight against the bores, well that my guess anyway.

The old motor was also playing up when it got hot. It was missing badly under load and severely under powered (at one stage I couldn't pass a B-Double truck loaded with cattle!! lol). It also sounded like it was sucking more air than normal, sounded like the air box lid was removed. I put all this down to the rings (do they normally cause those type of problems??), but when I got the motor out and pulled the intake gear off and had a look at the dizzy, I was shocked! The cap was corroded to the crapper, the rotor was almost non existant and the coil lead was split in several places. So me thinks that was a lot of the problem! But the problem occured suddenly, not over time.

Anyway, the head off the old engine is just about immaculate! Theres no oil goo anywhere!! Compression chambers have a bit of carbon, but thats normal. The bores have a tiny lip at the top, but can hardly be felt.

How long do you guys reckon it'd take to change the rings in the old engine and whats the cheapest way out of it (doing it myself)? It seems as if my old motor is in A LOT better condition than the one I just bought. New one has 3 month warranty on so I plan on getting the old motor back in action before the 3 months is up.

jamesk · 01-04-2003, 04:32

the cheapest way i can think of would be to use the acl repower(?) ring set which dont require the bores being honed.

AUII_Forte · 01-04-2003, 21:06

Because the honing pattern is still visible, would this mean that the rings were never seated against the bore? Meaning the car has never performed to its full potential whilst in my ownership. Would I be better to get oversized rings? I'm not to sure how long the second hand motor is going to last it seems in worse condtion than the original, but the rings are ok.

jamesk · 01-07-2003, 03:31

hmm i dont know to be honest. im in the process of rebuilding an engine and from what ive been reading the honing marks go within the first 20 miles of driving so i dont know why they would still be there. is it possible the bores are badly scored is it it definately the honing pattern ?
someone here must be able to enlighten us

TopGhia · 01-07-2003, 10:36

The honing pattern is usually a "crosshatch" pattern, which would be hard to duplicate by scoring.

AUII_Forte · 01-09-2003, 02:15

It's deffinately honing pattern.

cs123 · 01-09-2003, 02:20

Is it possible that the rings are undersized for the bore.

SiX_iN_a_RoW · 01-09-2003, 02:22

did it use much oil? seems odd that the honing pattern is still there, the ring must've been very tight on the piston which would destroy compression and oil control.

AUII_Forte · 01-09-2003, 02:39

Compression in cyl 6 was down to 80psi (standard 145psi), which is the one with the honing pattern. Oil consumption was fine really, I think it leaked more than in used!