There is blow by past the first piston ring, and it is really loose, so that is definitely bad. There are also some scoring on the piston, and I'm pretty sure it was from overheating. The engine actually only seized once, and there is a fairly lage (dime-sized) scrape on one side. Other than that there are scrapes near the hole where the pin that holds the piston to the connecting rod goes on. So I don't think the piston is re-usable. I'm just going back to stock right now. I may purchase a new head and rings for the stock piston (as preventative maintencance). The head is $60 from the dealer, and the rings are $21. Quite a rip off to me. The head doesn't look warped to me. There was some leakage of hot gases, but I hope that was due to high compression or other things. I used several objects layed across the face, and they all seemed to show the same shape from any direction on the head. I'll toss the head on as-is, test compression, then drive to the shop to get some carb cleaner, then remove the head again and clean it.
One more thing. The head gasket is not flat, it has ripples at the inner-edges. Is it possible to put it on upside down?
Thanks
Posted on Apr 6, 2004, 7:07 PM from IP address 128.253.199.115
