Just a follow-up to a post from last week. (In the process of learning a lesson) I chickened out on the "Comet in the intake" trick. I did tear the engine down again and I'm glad I did, I had broken a chip out of one of the bottom (4th) rings. It stayed with the ring and didn't do any damage to the cylinder so I feel lucky to have found it. I bought a new set of rings (still have appx .024" end gap) and a ball hone and went at it.Here are a few things I learned out of this ordeal; - The crosshatch that came on the new liners was almost polished off, not very deep at all. - The cylinders had a lot of fine vertical scratches, I assume from the dirt introduced into the cylinders when I put the head gasket on. The stamped holes did not fit around the studs and when I forced them over, they filed their way through. This time I opened the holes up with a drill first. Went right over. - After 1.5 to 2 hrs of break-in the top ring was shiny the full ring width near the end-gap but only the middle 1/2 was shiny around the rest of the ring. - The second rings were all shiny near the bottom of the ring for about .020", the top of the ring didn't look like it had touched the cylinder yet. - The fourth rings were only making contact with the cylinders in certain areas, not all the way around yet. - I beveled the cylinder at the top slightly to help the rings go in. Made things much easier. I'm used to bikes, the cylinders get installed over the pistons and there is a big bevel at the bottom of the cylinder to help the rings slide in. With the compression/vacuum that it had before, it idled like "bang-bang-putt-bang", now it's much smoother and it starts much easier also. I am able to get a much lower idle without stalling, and I have seen no smoke at all yet. All the strange things I noticed with the first set of rings, probably would not have happened if I'd have honed the cylinders first time through, they may have eventually sealed but I feel better now. Thanks for the advice guys, hope I get to ride this thing a bit when it gets back home.
|