The V8 Owners Forum -

Needing to take the poor old engine out of the capri as we seem to of got a few issues to now sort out,
Im needing some help to get the engine out, bit much on your own lol,
cheers guys.

Hi Tony
when do you have in mind?
Mike

Why Coops

It does not take to long to do it single handed
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e5MZcxZdZdw

Ian

Bugger engines partly dismantled now Ian so cant do it that way
Its venting quite heavy out the catch tank breather, never done it before,
And compression right down on two cylinders when hot or cold,
plus while on strip down noticed the lifters are showing signs of wear starting to dish, (cam and lifters were fitted 6yrs ago)

Trying to get an engine crane sorted Mike, so maybe one evening next week or next weekend, gives me time to get the other exhaust manifold off and try and remove the supercharger and brackets and plug the oil lines to it,

Not sounding too good there. What did the plugs look like on those cylinders ?

Symptoms sound like slightly melted pistons, or if lucky maybe rings just got hurt. Depends how low compression really was though.

plugs all look the same,
heads look fine
piston crowns look good too, all 4 crowns on O/S oily, (not taken N/S off yet going to wait until out of the car,

Hot Engine: (psi)
cyl 1- 238----(221 cold)
cyl 2- 182----(160 cold)
cyl 3- 219----(213 cold)
cyl 4- 220----(202 cold)
cyl 5- 218----(225 cold)
cyl 6- 182----(162 cold)
cyl 7- 232----(230 cold)
cyl 8- 210----(215 cold)

A little odd that one bank would be lower, and that all 4 would be oily unless the breather system somehow feeds those cylinders ?

And odd the pistons would be oily without the pistons also having simialr appearance

The reduced compression and heavy breathing just shout piston damage though. They'll need to be removed as often from above they will look fine.
If they look fine from above, the ring lands may have cracked from detonation or similar as opposed to the piston melting.

They'll need a good examination though, dont assume they're ok because the crowns look fine.

nah I know mate, engine will be out this week hopefully
took the other head off tonight and those pistons too are oily on the crowns,

Little update
Looks to be more wrong than we first thought.
On closer inspection last night after removing the engine. It looks like all 8 top hat liners have sunk into the block. You can feel a ridge worse on 2 and 6 the two that were down on comp. MnI'm not sure if this has caused the problems as I think the gaskets were still sealing. But what does worry us is the play in the bores now with the pistons.
Hope to get the crank out tonight so I can check the piston skirt clearance in the bores.

It's really hard to get a picture from above of how the pistons fit in the bores.

From above and at TDC it wouldnt be that unusual for there to be quite a bit of rock and pistons taper towards the top, so it looks like they are too small.

You'll get a better picture when they're out though.

As for liners, that sucks. A block skim may resolve it...but for how long ?

Linered blocks do seem to be hit or miss, a friend had bad experience with some on a different engine, from that I'd always be paranoid.

Will have a look once crank is out mate.
I'm Pretty pissed off at the moment

We've all been there many times. At least I have ! And I'll admit it is why I don't use the car just as often as I used to.

Must admit to wondering how all 8 could have sunk? If correctly made in the first place?

pass mate but you can feel a lip with your finger nail on all 8, not flush like when the block first came back to me,

and to add insult to injury number 2 piston has blown the ring lands out between the oil ring and second compress ring and the second compress ring and the first compress ring

Coops wrote:pass mate but you can feel a lip with your finger nail on all 8, not flush like when the block first came back to me,

and to add insult to injury number 2 piston has blown the ring lands out between the oil ring and second compress ring and the second compress ring and the first compress ring

Block...dont know cause or solution.

But I'd struggle to trust it even after decking the surface. There is always the risk of the liners dropping again IMO.
I guess it isnt all bad if the gaskets were still sealing ok though but eventually they would have let go.

Unless whoever fitted the liners have some sort of solution or thoughts on the matter as surely there has to be some responsibility there ?

The piston damage will be almost certainly be detonation, you'd need to thoroughly inspect all pistons, especially the low compression ones. Sometimes cracks in the ringlands can be very hard to spot, other they're obvious.