Ol' Skippy is going under the knife for the next few months. My suspicion is that I'll be pulling and re-sleeving the #3 cylinder, but as of right now all I know is that the compression is low on that cylinder, and that's just second hand.

Background: I took Skippy in for his first recall appointment in all of his 17 years of living. It took them two weeks to find all the parts, but now he's back and up to snuff. I had been having problems with him pulling my 18" bass boat up small hills lately or even keeping speed. This shouldn't be a problem for my huge bus pulling motor. I asked them to do all the recalls at the dealership then see if he was pulling any better. They said sure, but once they were all done he was still a lame duck. A compression test showed low compression on cyl #3.

So now Skippy is parked in the front of my garage. Suggestions for the bad compression include a bent rod, a stuck valve, a blown piston, a chewed up ring, and several others.

I've never pulled an engine before, but I'm not skeerd. I've learned a ton of stuff just getting Skippy up to this point. I can get my hands dirty, but I just don't know what to do.

And that's where this fantastic forum comes in

To check the valves, what do I need to do? If the valves are OK, is pulling the head next? If so, I'll probably pull the engine and do the up-pipes at the same time (and anything else that needs doing) so I have another reliable 360k miles out of him.

 

Can't help ya but Imma watching. Is there any chance that you could pull the injector cup and get a scope in that hole?

 

Pressurize the the cylinder at TDC and hear for leaks on the exhaust or intake side. Reseal the whole engine with Motorcraft sealant or IH sealant ONLY!
For some reason its always the passenger side bank giving way, the engine that I'm rebuilding for my obs had broken rings on cyl 5 and 7, sleeved cyl 5 , cyl7 passed but I had to go .030 over.

 

Speaking of 'resleeving'...that would imply that you might be sleeving again. These motors do not have sleeves when they are manufactured.

 

If its a broken ring most likely the cyl wall will be damage to the point of sleaving, plus if he plans on staying on stock cyl specs he will have to resleave, and boy is it $$$.

 

No need to pull a cup to borescope a cylinder - you don't even need to pull an injector. The glow plug hole is the same size as the injector nozzle hole, and pulling a cup does not increase the size of the injector nozzle hole - that hole is in the head.









Speaking of glow plug holes, you might find the leak with nothing more than the valve covers off and the glow plugs out. I have an OTC 5609 cylinder leak-down tester (which works for testing leaks on other stuff up to 100 PSI), an OTC 6076 glow plug adapter for compression and leak-down tests, and an OTC 5021 diesel compression tester.

When I used the cylinder leak-down tester, I adapted the fittings to an air gun with a rubber tip. I pressed the gun against the GP hole and made sure there were no leaks from the fittings or the seal between the rubber tip and the GP hole.

 

I've enjoyed the education from your previous threads immensely so Subscribing. . .

 

Mine was a cracked piston, cylinder survived, there are no sleeves on these engines you will be boring it.

 

If its bad enough a sleave is going to be needed if he plans on staying with the stock piston, unless he plans on going with bigger pistons then yes he will have to punch all 8 cylinders.

 

If your going to go that far with it why not bore and do all 8 and do it right?

 

I had a cracked piston and decided to go with a .20 over rebuilt kit. So far so good.

Re-sleeving is going to cost a pretty penny....

 

How much of a pretty penny? I just had an outboard resleeved and it was $200 for one cylinder. I figured about the same for this one since it's basically the same process.

 

I am not sure exactly of how much (i'm guessing in the $1500 range). I just know that it is substantial compared to just boring out the block. I paid $560 bucks in machine shop fees just to get my block set for .020 over pistons.

If you really want to stay on Std size pistons and you feel it justifies the added expense, the you will have to do some homework on prices. To me Std vs .020 over didn't really make that much of a difference to justify sleeving.

 

I got charged $230 for one Cylinder.

 

Thats about what I figured.

Do you happen to have a "How to pull your engine" thread?