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Head/Piston Damage


Jdddrigot

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After having only 20 pounds of compression in cylinder #2 Lou from Lou’s Autobahn tore the engine apart. Cylinder two head and piston have visible damage. Lou thought either the previous repair shop left something in the cylinder or the valve seat came off. Has anyone had something similar happen?  Any other guesses to what could have caused this?

0D5B7179-48FE-41F6-9745-ACD3962FACC3.jpeg

BA8D2211-0759-49FF-8B9F-3A7A89C8ABA3.jpeg

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Face it, what ever went through the engine got into all 4 cylinders, as Hans said most likely went down the intake. #3 cylinder looks like it might have had a bit of a washer in it or maybe the electrode from a spark plug, but at this point it irrelevant it's done it's damage and moved on.  

If everybody in the room is thinking the same thing, then someone is not thinking.

 

George S Patton 

Planning the Normandy Break out 1944

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Wow- whatever it was, it spent a while working on #2, didn't it?

They don't usually get that thoroughly hammered.

 

The marks in the other cylinders I always associate with ring parts or similar,

but that can't be it in all 4.  I say you pissed someone off and they poured

a box of washers down the intake.

Because that's not natural.

 

t

 

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"I learn best through painful, expensive experience, so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth." MattL

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Check the insides of your carb for missing screws--like in the choke or throttle butterflys, the screw that retains the accelerator pump nozzle on a Solex, etc.  

 

I have a piston that came from my '73 with something embedded in the face--it's not magnetic so I suspect it's a piece of spark plug insulator, although I never remember pulling a plug with a missing piece.  It didn't do any damage to the combustion chamber, just stuck in the piston.  No telling how long it was there and the head hadn't previously been off (204k miles) and the engine ran fine.  Nice souvenir, though.

 

mike

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'73 Sahara sunroof-Ludwig-since '78
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It is strange how similar all the little dents are.  Like pieces of the same "something" went into all of the cylinders, with most of it finding number two.

 

I'd suspect sabotage as well... unfortunately.  It'd be tempted to remove the muffler and give it a shake, to see if anything's rattling around inside.  Seems like you might find a cup full of tumbling media, or something.

 

Amazon.com: lieomo Stainless Steel 1Lb Tumbling Media Shot Jeweler Crude  Cylinder Tumbler Finishing

 

Tom

     DISCLAIMER 

I now disagree with some of the timing advice I have given in the past.  I misinterpreted the distributor curves in the Blue Book. 

I've switched from using ported-vacuum to manifold, with better results. 

I apologize for spreading misinformation.  

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What's REALLY odd, Tom, is that I have seen several heads with very similar markings-

it looks like someone took a flatblade narrow screwdriver and just went at it.

 

On the one I blew up, the ring had bound in the upper groove, broken, and then

extruded its way through the top land.  That cylinder had those marks from chunks

of ring, and it made sense.  Others, I had kinda guessed that similar things had happened,

and the engine had been 'fixed' and put back together with the ring marks on the head.

 

But I'm starting to wonder...

 

t

 

"I learn best through painful, expensive experience, so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth." MattL

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5 hours ago, Dudeland said:

if it wasn't sabotage, it could have been a nest that got digested.  It had to be something sucked into the intake.  It must have been something hefty, once it got in, it didn't want to get out. 

You have tough birds where you live!

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mice with a penchant for collecting small, shiny metal objects?

 

I'd really love to hear more backstory about the car/motor. Was this a recent project acquisition? Or have you a fair bit of ownership miles with it?

 

I will say, the damage on #2 was definitely what killed it. But most of the damage on 1-3-4 all look to have some time on them due to the buildup of oil/carbon in the ol' nook-and-crannies. There's little of the fresh metal dinging exposed. 

 

Maybe this car lived a life with a butter-fingered mechanic who finished every job a few pieces of hardware short of where he started. 

 

Or perhaps the car was part of a bitter divorce, and whoever lost custody of the car wasn't happy about it?

 

Or MAYBE, it lived a life in an underground recycling yard racing scene, Mad-Maxing with reckless abandon open-carb amongst the wreckage of fallen competitors, devouring their shiny remains. 

 

Sooo many possible plots. 

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