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Piston deformity seen on borescope

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Old Sep 2, 2018 | 08:44 AM
  #1  
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Piston deformity seen on borescope

Hey everyone
this is a 2005 e250 with 220,000 miles. It’s actually a 4.6 but we all know these engines are the same- and I’ve found the best engine knowldge-guys I. The V10 forum. It recently started throwing misfire codes. Intermittently the CEL would flash and the van was low on power. Looks like the piston is melted or deformed or something.
I couldn’t decipher up/down/left/right, but all the pistons on this van had this same thing. To me it appears like the lowest point (gravity-wise).

Anyway I’ve never seen anything like this.

What do you think?



Some fishy about the the dish “rim”
 
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Old Sep 2, 2018 | 08:45 AM
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Im50fast
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Posting on iPhone makes weird issues on this forum. Sorry for errors.

”best engine knowledge guys in the V10 forum”


so i changed all the spark plugs and boots and used plenty of dilectric grease. Cleared the codes and test drove it. It seems a bit low on power but I haven’t been familiar with this van because my employee usually drives it 99% of the time. I’m familiar with V10 grunt and obviously this van lacked that. So I don’t know if it’s fixed.

Weeks ago it was misfire cylinder 4 so I installed a new (cheap) Autolite. No complaints for a few days but then came back worse- misfire cylinder 2.

Upon removal of all all the plugs, #2 was dramatically worse than the others, so I am hopeful. (I’ll post pics of the old plugs soon).

Looking forward to everyones replies!

 
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Old Sep 2, 2018 | 09:54 PM
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I just looked at a 100 or so pictures of 4.6l pistons. I didn't find any with the same shape on it. It does look to me like it was manufactured with that dish in the edge. The nicks on the piston are a little concerning, but nothing I would worry about.
 
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Old Sep 3, 2018 | 06:11 AM
  #4  
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Originally Posted by billybobofkf
I just looked at a 100 or so pictures of 4.6l pistons. I didn't find any with the same shape on it. It does look to me like it was manufactured with that dish in the edge. The nicks on the piston are a little concerning, but nothing I would worry about.
I just spent ten min searching and all I can find is NEW pistons, and at that; only aftermarket brands. What did you find?
 
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Old Sep 3, 2018 | 09:28 AM
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Need a better picture, regular 2-valve 4.6L pistons should be uniform, but the 3-valve piston looks like this:

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjY1WDEwMDA=/z/o7kAAOSwmLlX2H~J/$_32.JPG?set_id=89040003C1

I wonder if Ford used 3-valve pistons in the 2-valve motors? I'm assuming your 4.6 is a 2-valve.
 
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Old Sep 3, 2018 | 02:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Krewat
Need a better picture, regular 2-valve 4.6L pistons should be uniform, but the 3-valve piston looks like this:

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjY1WDEwMDA=/z/o7kAAOSwmLlX2H~J/$_32.JPG?set_id=89040003C1

I wonder if Ford used 3-valve pistons in the 2-valve motors? I'm assuming your 4.6 is a 2-valve.
yes sir it’s a two valve.
Im concerned that the “shoulder” of the dish isn’t uniform. It has a rather “sharp” edge except that section. And it was every piston in the engine.
 
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Old Sep 3, 2018 | 03:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Im50fast


I just spent ten min searching and all I can find is NEW pistons, and at that; only aftermarket brands. What did you find?
I went into google and typed in "4.6l piston pictures". By far new pistons outnumbered the used pistons, but every once in a while there was a picture of a stock piston that had been removed during a rebuild. Only 1 or 2 looked anything like the shape of your piston. yes...kinda wierd
 
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Old Sep 3, 2018 | 05:47 PM
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The real question is, is there a deformity at all? Or is that deposits formed by intake/exhaust swirl? I need more pictures
 
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Old Sep 4, 2018 | 03:46 PM
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I ALWAYS recommend new coils.
Swapping plugs and boots gets you into these kind of issues.

Once the trouble cylinders have new coils, plugs, and maybe refurbished injectors than other issues can be addressed with more certainty.

I just got 2 misfire codes on one of my V10s. Put in two new Denso cois and boom, fixed. Could it have been boots? I guess but now I know it's fixed and don't have to worry.

FYI these motors will run fairly well with 1 cyl down. V10. Once 2 go it's noticable. I had a hard misfire on cyl 1 and a pending misfire code on cyl 6. No check engine light.
 
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Old Sep 4, 2018 | 05:05 PM
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Originally Posted by rock2610d
I ALWAYS recommend new coils.
Because a new set of coils will overcome melted piston tops or one that came into contact with the valves...

Let's see what the real situation is first.
 
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Old Sep 4, 2018 | 05:54 PM
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Never said that.

please do not attribute things I did not say to me. Those are your words....not mine.

I have seen much worse piston tops that still preform well. As long as there is good compression these pistons can still work.

I suspect since all cylinders look almost the same that this is a result of some type of carbon removal and little pieces of carbon detached and created hot spots and little dings......just my suspicion.

could also be a result of leaking injectors, though it's really is hard to tell.
 
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