My Engine saga III: the unbelievable truth!!

OK - today I finally got to the bottom of my engines woes and pulled the piston from the bore that had less than half normal compression.

Initial signs were not good - as I was putting the oil pan on the floor I noticed a largish chuck of metal in the bottom along with a thin, stretched looking piece.
Oh christ - this doesn't look good.

So we merrily unbolt the con rod and tap the piston up and out and this is what we find....





Urgh!!! It's at this point that I realise I was VERY lucky not to be walking home from The Dick Turpin last month! You can easily move the remaining pieces of the piston - rod through the block anyone? (Hey GWAK, it wasn't going bad considering the state of the piston, eh? )

Amazingly the bore isn't badly damaged although there is some scoring at the bottom it shouldn't affect compression as it's so low down. I have got off lightly.

So now with that out of the way I decide to try and nail my engines identity once and for all - it's always been a matter of contention. Sovereign sold it as a 289 hi-po. to the last owner. Well, I know the heads are stock '65 289 jobs - let's have a look at the bottom end. Hmmm - no sign of the big main caps fabled to the hi-po, it's all looking ttally stock and the con rod bolts are not the larger hi-po variety.

Pah, stock 289 then? Er, actually, no!!!

Those con rod numbers don't look right to me - then a bit of googling on the block number reveals it to be....a 1968 302!!! Blimey! Well there's a thing - I have a reconstituted carrot block!!

So it's a complete mongrel - 302 block, aggresive solid lifter cam, and 289 heads.

As far as I can tell, the 289 heads have the same valve size as the 302 but crucially have a much smaller chamber size = MORE COMPRESSION = more poke = happier to rev = me over reving and destroying the piston in the first place!!

And yes, I can pinpoint exactly when this happened - somewhere between here and kent whilst both keeping ahead of splitpin and trying (in vain) to stay anywhere near Gumball.

You bastards!!! it's all your fault!! :angry:

PS Anyone wanna buy some shelby 289 badges?!

[LRdriver]

Holy crap.. pretty impressive.

Goes to show how difficult these dinosaurs are to kill; apart from putting a bullet thru one (cue elvis and his Pantera) it makes wonder about these piss-ant modern engines that die at the slightest parameter exceedance.

Can you work out what CR you have been (unknowingly) using?

Whens the new engine showing up??

My brother reckoned something like mid to high 10's:1 after a rough calculation.

New lump due week of 31st Oct. - mixed feelings about it, the guy has had some bad feedback. Long story - will wait til it shows up for final decision!

[simon]

got a set of new 302 pistons if you're interested?

[gwak76]

Christ, that is well and truly knackered, thats the last time I trust your car , still pulled like a train with 7 cylinders.

Fingers crossed the new one will arrive shortly :thumb:

Just for info I have a spare engine in my shed, nice MoPar lump , you just cant trust FoMoCo these days.

[Purple AK]

Any sign of the top two rings?

[gwak76]

Originally Posted by Purple AK

Any sign of the top two rings?

I can confirm that they were last seen exiting the N/S side pipe at about 6000rpm on the A127

Originally Posted by simon

got a set of new 302 pistons if you're interested?

Er, I only need one! Go on - how much for the set? (including pins?)

Purple AK

Top ring was broken - retreived in full. I removed the second ring.

I did it good didn't I?!!

[simon]

£50. The piston pins have slight surface rust on the. They'd probably clean up ok, but you could probably get ne ones machined up quite cheaply. They come with a complete set of rings as well.
I'm in Upminster if you want to come along and have a look.
Simon 07802 463848

[simon]

Oh yes, they are +30's