I've had the dizzy out, and the gear seemed okay; but I guess I'll have to take a closer look. Obviously something is slipping somewhere. So now I've gotta take the timing cover off? Happy days...

 

If you're going to have the engine rebuilt, that's one of the many things you'll be doing.

Here's my engine after it returned from the shop.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...Zycm5RNTZTeWZB

I've been slowly assembling it. It is so nice to be able to assemble the pieces outside of my van, with no obstructions from the van parts.

 

A thing of beauty...

 

Those valves clearly show marks from contacting the pistons.

But otherwise, that engine actually looks in pretty good shape to me. The ones I had apart for overhaul (gasp) in years past generally had a lot more carbon and wear than this.
You probably will need to get hardened exhaust valve seats installed though.

 

Hi, Beanscoot.

I've been told it's not possible for valves to contact pistons in the Windsor. Is that not right...and if so, what would make that happen? Also, how do you tell if hardened valve seats aren't already installed?

Thanks, mate.

 

The bottom 3/8" or so of the intake valves show marks of contact with the pistons.
What would cause it is over revving, or the camshaft timing being out of order, due to incorrect assembly or timing chain skipping a few teeth.

 

The valves are bent and it does not matter who said what. Things get damaged when two items are in the same space at the same time. Not everything you hear/read is factual.

 

Got it.Thanks, mate.

 

No chance that the valves might not be bent? They can't be cheap to replace.

 

Did you see the pictures of the signs of impact?

Need more proof? Chuck the valve in a drill and see how bad it wobbles.

I get that you might be on a budget, but when an engine is this far apart AND the amount of time on that engine, everything is worn out. At least that is how I would look at it. Put it together on the cheap might be the worst decision you make.

Tough call to make, but measure everything and you will find out what can be reused.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to junk the whole thing and get another engine. Could you have a look at these last photos and tell me what you think? To my untrained (extremely) eye there's a gouge in one bore and a hole in the casting (two now) which could write the block off, plus the camshaft looks shot.

 

I believe I mentioned this before and the pictures keep coming to support my belief. This engine needs a complete rebuild. Bored, valve job, etc. Anything less is a complete waste of money. Are there other used engines that may need less work? Maybe, I do not know what the market is. I do know, many of these engines are 30+ years old and if they are still running, they have done a good job doing that. When one part wears/fails, I believe it is warranted to access what you got, what you want, and what the future looks like. Sometime people choose a new truck. Some want to fix what they got.

If the water pump fails, sure, replace that and keep the engine running. What you got is bent valves, scored block, scored pistons, worn cam, etc. Time for a wake on that engine or a complete resurrection. Whatever you decide, what about your transmission? They need some love too and usually get jealous when all the love is spent on it's partner. You may find that it will be sending you some information that it wants some of that love too.

Just an opinion.

 

This is very interesting. It looks like someone didn't know basic engine repair or rebuilding when putting the oil ring assembly on. The ends should not be aligned, they should be well apart. One can only assume other stuff was also done wrong.
The piston shows serious scuffing damage, and the cylinders bad gouging as well.

I agree with Butcher that the engine needs a rebuild. I'm currently doing that with an off-topic engine since there aren't many good low mileage ones of the type nearby, and the one or two used ones I did find seemed to be owned by "boy racer" types and quite expensive to boot.


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Rings rotate by design. Just because they are aligned does not mean they were installed wrong. That said, if I ever gut an engine and I see several rings that are aligned, I would check the cylinder bore. If the bore is oval, rings will come out aligned.

 

I've never seen oil rings so well aligned taken out of an engine, but I've taken apart only a dozen or so engines that I actually looked closely at. But yes, I suppose one would have to look at all the rings to make a conclusion with statistical significance.

I did spend a summer dismantling core engines, but it was a production operation so I didn't forensically examine the things.