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Piston Rings Worn Out, Time for a Rebuild

mark salanco

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greenville sc
I did check all my fuel lines. I got a big chunk of green paint out of the line coming from the water separator filter to the injector pump. I also loosened all my injector lines, one at a time. Number 6 injector isn't working well. The rest are marginal, I have a new injector in number 1 cylinder and I by far had the biggest response when I cracked that line open. Guess my cleaning and resetting the old injectors wasn't the way to go.
I'll take it for a test drive tomorrow and see how it runs with the paint chip removed, then order 5 more injectors.
 

rustystud

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Woodinville, Washington
I did check all my fuel lines. I got a big chunk of green paint out of the line coming from the water separator filter to the injector pump. I also loosened all my injector lines, one at a time. Number 6 injector isn't working well. The rest are marginal, I have a new injector in number 1 cylinder and I by far had the biggest response when I cracked that line open. Guess my cleaning and resetting the old injectors wasn't the way to go.
I'll take it for a test drive tomorrow and see how it runs with the paint chip removed, then order 5 more injectors.
What pressure did you set your injectors at ? Sometimes you need to go higher then what the TM says due to spring wear.
 

74M35A2

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Livonia, MI
We changed the engine in WC's ride yesterday (Sunday). He bought a runner from GR here and then put new rings with a hone job and head gaskets on it. We had it out on the floor with the trans in 2 hours, and then it went slooooooowwwwww. 7 hours to swap all the external engine parts over (embarrassed about that). Then more hours to rethread the trans back on because the new pilot bushing had a little tighter ID than it probably should have. It still drags a bit in gear now. Hopefully that will loosen. WC had the injection pump timing out by 180 degrees, so we had to re-pull the radiator to access the pump gear and rotate the pump shaft 360 degrees with its 3 adjustment bolts out of the gear. After that, then the red toothed gear became visible in the shutdown window and she took right off. Lesson here was just because both rocker arms are closed at TDC on the damper doesn't mean it is up on the compression stroke. You could still be 180 out. You have to rotate the engine in its normal direction, and watch for #1 intake valve to be closing, then next damper TDC mark is TDC for the power stroke. This was all WC's doing, not mine. Wish he would have read the manual! Anyway, it is done, he drove it home, and was a 17 hour continuous work day minus 30 minutes for dinner. He drove home @ 5am Monday morning, and I am pounding this out at work right now on 3 hours of sleep. There is no smoke out the exhaust pipe, and he said there is a little vapor out the draft tube so far. We'll see what that does once he puts some miles on it. The rear main seal he just redid as new on his previous engine was leaking like crazy, and the existing one on the engine he purchased looked relatively dry, so I advised not to touch it. Actually the entire engine looked good, I would have ran it as is, but he was hard up for new rings and head gaskets. Stay tuned, he'll probably post an update and maybe a pic or so.
 

mark salanco

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greenville sc
So after verifying that all of my fuel lines are clean, I pulled 2 injectors today and pop tested them. I tested the brand new injector that was in number 1 cylinder and then tested one that I cleaned and reset. Their is a huge difference between them, night and day. I'm convinced that my old injectors need new nozzles. This is why I had such a big difference in engine response when I cracked the injector line on the new injector, then the other 5 old injectors. I can't seem to locate new nozzles, so I'm going to have to buy 5 more new injectors. I bet all that rust from the old fuel tank and collapsed filters finally took its toll on the injectors.
 

74M35A2

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Livonia, MI
Well, WC just cold started his new/used engine we installed last night once he woke up today, and he said it started same as if he just shut it off 30 seconds ago. He was really excited. That's a good sign that his compression is back, as it took him over 45 seconds of cranking to build enough heat in the previous engine for it to light off, at 70F ambient temp! Thanks for everybody's support here. Now he is putting rings in his SeaDoo XP......OH NO! DON'T TOUCH IT !!!!! One used 1972 Hercules LDT-465 long block engine for sale. Steam engine conversion complete. Includes leaking rear main oil seal and 72 pages of stories for grandkids.
 
Last edited:
277
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Location
Belton, SC
So after verifying that all of my fuel lines are clean, I pulled 2 injectors today and pop tested them. I tested the brand new injector that was in number 1 cylinder and then tested one that I cleaned and reset. Their is a huge difference between them, night and day. I'm convinced that my old injectors need new nozzles. This is why I had such a big difference in engine response when I cracked the injector line on the new injector, then the other 5 old injectors. I can't seem to locate new nozzles, so I'm going to have to buy 5 more new injectors. I bet all that rust from the old fuel tank and collapsed filters finally took its toll on the injectors.
If you want to prove it to yourself, maybe you could install the nozzle from the new one on to the old one. See if it improves.
 

Wildchild467

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Location
Milford / Michigan
Just a couple pictures of the engine swap. Glad its done. So if anybody needs engine parts, let me know. 3-ring LDS pistons/rings/liners with only 2000 miles going cheap!

So everything in a nut shell... I didn't change anything on how I did the builds. Honed the cylinders the same, oiled the cylinders the same... all of it. The only thing different is the 4 ring LDT pistons and the truck starts up cold just like it does when its hot. With the 3 ring LDS pistons I had to crank the snot out of it to get it to fire even when it was 60 degrees out. I am a lot happier ditching those 3 ring pistons.

20160424_134203.jpg20160424_133732.jpg20160424_133215.jpg
 

74M35A2

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Location
Livonia, MI
That was a lot of work in one day, drove it in and out. He's fortunate to find friends with forklifts at their work that can be used for personal benefit at 3am. There is at least one difference so far on the break-in, and that is he is doing this break in on diesel fuel, not waste motor oil. There was some diesel in the fuel used before, but it was still black in color.
 

Wildchild467

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,052
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Location
Milford / Michigan
That was a lot of work in one day, drove it in and out. He's fortunate to find friends with forklifts at their work that can be used for personal benefit at 3am. There is at least one difference so far on the break-in, and that is he is doing this break in on diesel fuel, not waste motor oil. There was some diesel in the fuel used before, but it was still black in color.
You were a big help and I couldn't have done it without you. I would be taking the engine out in pieces and putting it in in pieces if i had to do it myself. Or rented a backhoe for a weekend... it would have been dangerous and horrible. I'm thankful to have a friend like you. Thanks bud!

How I need to get the dent out of my toolbox where the old engine slid forward because I was too dumb to tie it down. great.

Ill run it a while on straight diesel then ween it over on the motor oil. Not letting it idle is key I believe. I need to hook it to my M105 and make it grunt. That will help.
 
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