Buy a case of brake clean, you will need it anyway.
Spray the brake clean in the exh port of the dead hole with the port up, chamber facing you. You will know immediatley if it leaks. Do the same for the intake.

On the rods, the bolts come out with the cap......there are no rod studs to nick the crank. When you get the cap off, you can either carefully push the rod and piston out with your fingers, or rotate the engine back until 7 is at TDC and rotate some more so the crank is out of the way and you can push the piston out with a round piece of dowell or something soft. A friend up top to pull it out would be helpful.

Good luck!

Ron

 

I didn't realize that the oil pan assembly is such a PITA to get off. Lifting engines and taking apart suspension..ugh..

Just for fun I did another compression test of that side. Got 55 psi in #7 instead of the first day's 5. It's not leaking the air either. The others are 165-180. No other signs of anything wrong. I'm guessing it's the ring lands.

 

curious if it winds up looking like that picture i posted a few replies back

the one ringland failure i had looked just like it. that cylinder was down about 80lbs from the others

 

Without taking it out, is there any way to tell if it's a seized ring or broken/ringland problem? If it's seized then may e some seafoam could help? Wonder why it read 5psi the other day and 55 today? I don't think it was the head gasket..

 

did you add any oil or fluid sense then? also how did you get a compression reading with the heads off?

you posted pics of the heads just the other day

 

I put them back on just to do another reading. I've been second guessing my initial reading when I was finding nothing wrong during the teardown. I drained the oil and refilled since then. No particles in oil, or gas or coolant.

 

would not be surprised to see it look just like that pic i posted a link to on honda tech. see how the piston face is fine but the ringlands lit up? that's common with oil burning. the oil packed in the rings lights up and melts the area. sometimes you can see it from top, sometimes not

 

Any updates?

 

I'm waiting to get a hoist from a friend so that I can lift/support the engine while I drop the K member in order to remove that stupid oil pan. Then I'll try to get that piston out. Doubt I'll get it all done today.

 

Put COMPRESSED air in that cylinder. If it has LOW COMPRESSION, the air will leak out where ever the damaged is.

If it’s a VALVE, you will hear it in the intake manifold OR in the tail pipe depending on what valve is bad.. If you have a ring land failure, you will hear and be able to feel it and hear it from the oil filler cap!

Clean up the head and combustion chamber. Set the head so the combustion chamber and valves can contain a fluid. Pour some mineral spirits in the combustion chamber and if one of the valves are leaking,, the liquid will leak out of the intake or exhaust port or both! Could be nothing more than a dirty valve seat!

SIMPLE AS THAT!

Recommendation... Order a set of ARP HEAD STUDS and install them. You will really appreciate how much easier it is to install and remove the heads. You also decrease the chance of stripping out the bolt holes in the block! YES SIR!

I also recommend replacing the plastic LIFTER BUCKETS and the aluminum valve rocker trunion supports. Its also a good time to change the valve springs and upgrade the rocker trunions.

Bill

 

How do I remove that THIRD oil pan/baffle thing?!? I can't believe there's THREE levels to this ****! I miss my '68 Vette at this point.. The oil pickup tube is in the way and pretty rigid...what do I do?

 

Nevermind. I found where the oil pickup tube is bolted at the front of the block and disconnected it. I'm on the home stretch for pulling this piston out now.

 

 

Got it out!

 

I know it's a LONG shot, but does anyone have a piston and rings ('01-'04) that I could buy and get shipped here FAST??? I'll be visiting the local parts stores...but don't want to spend out the *** for a SET of stuff.

 

Try some of the vendors that do rebuilds or forged motors. They may have used parts available. Not sure how this will impact the existing motor balance though.

 

FYI - here is a nice picture and parts list

http://parts.nalleygmc.com/showAssem...ring=oil%20pan

http://parts.nalleygmc.com/showAssem...ssembly=403789

Thanks,Matt

 

I would be leery about putting in used parts. At this point, I would just pull the motor and disassemble it completely. There are chunks of metal that need to be found and cleaned up. If you wanted to do some mods, this is the time since you will have it apart.

 

problem you will have with a used slap is the hone and potentially rod bearing clearance. i suppose you could get new rod bearings and plastigauge to check the fit and use a ball hone on a drill to deglaze the cylinder.

i don't see anyway around new rings though. you shouldn't use used rings on a break in. they wear to a specific cylinder. isn't there a GM part number for single pistons and single ring packs?

last thing you want to do is risk low compression in this hole by using used rings

imo you would be better off pulling the motor and installing all new rings in the engine after a proper deglaze and check for out of round. you have the old low tension rings and the oil burning problem isn't going to go away until you change the rings. what lit this piston up is a big potential in the others as well unless you change out the rings

using a ball hone also gets crap flying everywhere and you don't want specs of grit in the engine and all over the crank with no way to clean it off well


edit: actually i just thought of something. if you could get a new OEM ringset and a single used piston, hang the piston on your existing rod, hone cyl 7 with a ball hone in a drill and install you could then drop the other 7 pistons and change the oil rings and second ring and NOT have to rehone the other 7 cylinders. you could also clean the crap out of the ringlands to prevent any other cylinders from lighting up

 

I'm intrigued, could you elaborate?

I've got a used '04 piston complete with rod and bearings. I'll use my existing bearings. I've got new rings coming from NAPA tomorrow sometime.

1) So don't use the rod that is already attached to used piston, but reuse mine? How about bearings?

2) I might be able to borrow a ball hone from someone tomorrow morning..the walls look pretty smooth but why not. I'd try to cover up the crank the best I can or something..

3) What do you mean by dropping the other pistons and installing rings? They all showed fine compression..