Take a look at this and tell me what you think

dO i HAVE TO RIDGE REAM BEFORE i REMOVE THE PISTON?

 

Yeah, rings would be the most probable source of a lot of smoke. As Billy wrote, you can ream the ridge and the pistons will come out. Then you can replace the rod bearings and the rings. The cylinder wears tapered (ie more wear at the top), and if the wear is excessive, the rings will wear out right away. After you get the pistons out, you can get a ballpark feeling for the taper by measuring the gap in a compression ring placed at the top and at the bottom of the bore. <edit>The change in gap is about 3 times the taper from top to bottom.<end edit> The manual will have a spec for taper. If you go much past that spec, your re-ring will have a very short lifetime.

IMO you would be totally wasting your money by spending it on this engine. It's the wrong engine for the Jeep, and its being there only decreases the value of the vehicle. If this engine is worn out, look around for an F-head engine that's either in good shape or that you can rebuild. You'll be many dollars ahead. Either that or go for an engine swap to one of the V6s, an Iron Duke, Pinto, whatever - either path will increase the value of your Jeep.

 

Yes, you must ream the ridge or you'll damage the rings and/or pistons when you remove the piston.

 

Yeah I hear ya Tim. I am just trying to put a bandaid on it for now. It is all I have to plow with at the time. I do have two 4.3l chevys now but I dont want to go that route.

 

Do you care if it smokes? Have you checked the compression? If you only need to run it at slow speed and don't care about the performance, I'd say let it smoke. With that much oil, you'll have a problem with oil fouling the spark plugs. You need to be sure you have a good, hot spark (new coil?), and run a plug a couple of steps hotter than normal. If you still have problems with fouling, your FLAPS should have or can get anti-foulers. These screw into the plug holes and move the spark plug electrodes away from the oily combustion chamber.

When I worked at a FLAPS in Santa Ana, CA, we had lots of customers that drove cars with worn-out engines. They'd run anti-foulers and 70WT single grade, and keep 'em going. They'd baby their cars along for many miles.

I'd guess with that much oil, your problem was fouled plugs.

 

Smoked bad. Started hard. Got tired of getting light headed when plowing. Question. Will the old rings have the size stamped on them? I am going to see if I can rent or borrow a reamer, and then pull the pistons and have a look.I have a manual for an f head and it is similar in some ways. I won't use it for specs but it should give me enough to be dangerous.I think there is enough info here to get me started.We'll seeeeeeeeee


Dave

 

No, the piston should be marked with a size somewhere. You may have to remove all the carbon to see it. You also need to hone the bores so the new rings will seat - another special tool to rent or borrow.