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Pulled head on my ls3 after hearing a tapping noise from cylinder 7. It was a piece of ceramic from detonation destroying the spark plug. Found out the piston ring has a small crack and piston has a chunk missing. What is the worst that could happen if I install a new piston and new head? My plans are to build a LS3 416 forged engine but would like to put it off if this might be a good band aid for a year. The car will maybe be driven about 2000 miles till them. The car ran fine and did not smoke with the bad piston. There was also no extra crank case pressure. Opinions from the pros or others who have experienced this would be awesome. PS Dealers owner that took the car in trade and put 300 miles on it in 6 months. He installed windshield washer fluid in the tanke for meth. Full throttle = Detonation and destuction of cylender 7. Found 3 spark plug straps before the cats on drivers side.
Post 2 Timid has a point. You had no drivability issues and intent to drive only further 2000 miles until engine replacement.
Worse case, with the piston missing a chuck it will explode into many pieces.
Since the engine is already apart (most of the way yes?) I'd put one piston and its rings in until motor replace time.
Not sure about what replacing the head means. No description of damage yet speculate that the combustion chamber is roughed up from the ceramic debris so it seems possible to reuse with no repair costs since you have no drivability issues.
I'd think hard about moving up my time table for the new motor. So far the damage is manageable. At the least with a piston that looks like that, I would replace the piston and rings if you've already done a leak down test and found it acceptable. You have no idea what condition the piston is in by just looking at it. If the piston were to go you'll be looking at a new block for your rebuild. Haven't looked at the wrist pins or bearings yet either.
I'm not a pro, but not a newbie either. I rebuilt my small block in my '67 for less damage than this.
Wow, water in the meth bottle? What people do to their cars.
Thanks for all the info. Going ahaed with the new engine build now. Just ordered a fully forged LS3 416 Short block spec for blower. Sould be around 650 to 700 rwhp with the new build on a conservative tune.
Thanks for all the info. Going ahaed with the new engine build now. Just ordered a fully forged LS3 416 Short block spec for blower. Sould be around 650 to 700 rwhp with the new build on a conservative tune.
Replace Piston with scratched cylinder walls?
