New piston rings

[Kinarfi]

I was driving home after Thanksgiving dinner and contemplating how to disassemble my motor to check my piston rings, first pull engine, seal up all the holes and haul it down to the car wash and remove every speck of dirt and oil, sterilize a bed sheet and the table and then lay the motor down and start tearing it all apart. Then it occurred to me, do I even need to pull the head off, can't I just pull the pan, undo the connecting rod and pull the piston out the bottom past the crank shaft? Do you know Lenny? being as you have already been inside your motor.

Another question, while looking at the owner's manual about how to take the engine apart and put it back together, is showed some mark and referred to them as forward on the piston and connecting rod. On most vehicles, forward is the radiator end of the motor, but our radiator is at the back, sooooo is forward forward of backward?

Thanks,

Kinarfi

P. S. No charge to anyone that wants to come help and learn how to do this so you'll know when it's your turn

[Jarrad]

Forward is always to the accessory side of the crankshaft. Also it would be impossible to get the pistons past the crankshaft. Even with the crank pin down the counterweights go up so there is always something in your way.

[rocmoc]

Going to all that work you want to pull the head. You need to hone the cylinder walls so the rings seat better. Also check for scratches in the walls. AND most ring compressors are made to sit on top of the block as the piston is pushed / hammered into the cylinder. I normally use the wooden handle of a hammer to push / tap the piston in. Be careful!

Power wash the engine while it is still in your Trooper then you will have min cleaning later.

Anyone know if a short block is available and how much $ ?

Also take the time to have the cam ground to a torque grind. I differently would do this if you are tearing the engine apart. Hard part would be finding a cam shop that still remembers how to Hot Rod.

rocmoc n AZ

[plumber]

Going to all that work you want to pull the head. You need to hone the cylinder walls so the rings seat better. Also check for scratches in the walls. AND most ring compressors are made to sit on top of the block as the piston is pushed / hammered into the cylinder. I normally use the wooden handle of a hammer to push / tap the piston in. Be careful!

Power wash the engine while it is still in your Trooper then you will have min cleaning later.

Anyone know if a short block is available and how much $ ?

Also take the time to have the cam ground to a torque grind. I differently would do this if you are tearing the engine apart. Hard part would be finding a cam shop that still remembers how to Hot Rod.

rocmoc n AZ

I don't know about available but JMC has this Engine Block Trooper CYLINDER BLOCK ASSY 1,413.44

[Guest Lenny]

I was driving home after Thanksgiving dinner and contemplating how to disassemble my motor to check my piston rings, first pull engine, seal up all the holes and haul it down to the car wash and remove every speck of dirt and oil, sterilize a bed sheet and the table and then lay the motor down and start tearing it all apart. Then it occurred to me, do I even need to pull the head off, can't I just pull the pan, undo the connecting rod and pull the piston out the bottom past the crank shaft? Do you know Lenny? being as you have already been inside your motor.

Another question, while looking at the owner's manual about how to take the engine apart and put it back together, is showed some mark and referred to them as forward on the piston and connecting rod. On most vehicles, forward is the radiator end of the motor, but our radiator is at the back, sooooo is forward forward of backward?

Thanks,

Kinarfi

P. S. No charge to anyone that wants to come help and learn how to do this so you'll know when it's your turn

Jarrad is right about getting the pistons out, have to come out the top. As Rocmoc said, be careful when inserting the pistons using the ring compressor. Just very light taping with the wood side of a hammer should do it, if not recheck things, something is wrong. Also have the crank throw for that cylinder down for this, it keeps the rod cap bolts from hitting the throw. once in, you can align things from the bottom side. Put oil on the rod bearings, cylinder walls and pistons before inserting the pistons and bolting on the rod caps. Be sure to check the ring gap for correct clearance and turn the gaps 120 degrees apart. If the rings move around then this won't matter but it will if they don't. Upon installation of the head and cam shafts, be sure to check for proper tappet clearance. This is probably the toughest part of the whole project and time consuming, it's a pain. Type each of these pocesses into Google and you will find good information with pics. When I pulled my engine, I replaced the frame member under it that prevents you from pulling the oil pan off with a bolt in member. Now I can totally rebuild, except for reboring, the engine without it's removal.

Rocmoc, how much will having the cam ground effect torque. like a percentage increase? Maybe if we find someone who can do it we can all send our cams to them at once and get a discount, or not. Redoing the tappet clearance will be a problem because finding the shims may be complicated. I understand Hondas CDR (I think) uses the same shims but they are expensive to buy and may not provide the thicknesses required. Any ideas Jarrad? It would be nice if we could find a manufacture of that size so we can get the thicknesses we need. This sounds like a SilverBullet project. When I did mine, fortunately I was able to switch them around and precision grind the ones that were too thick. Didn't need any that needed to be thicker.

Lenny

[Jarrad]

The Honda cbr motorcycle shims correct size? No sure would need someone tomeasure the outside diameter with calipers or micrometers. The Honda ones are 7.5mm and there are 9.5mm ones they run around 4 or 5 bucks each. But I know my local metric shop does it for free on a exchange basis. They also make 13 and 25 and 29 and 29.5 mm sizes all sorts. If someone can come up with a size I can get them.

Jarrad

[rocmoc]

Lenny

I had a truck engine rebuilt and they did not put the same cam in. The new cam wasn't a truck cam which was suppose to make more torque. The engine was never the same. Ran great but did not have the same pulling power. I know that some of the after-market cam manufactures for Hot Rods advertise torquer cams. We need to find a grind shop with a old hot rodder that knows the OLD WAYS! I have too much on my plate currently to do mine at this time. Next on my plate is putting your shim kit in my diffs. After my LH to Yuma adventure in a couple of weeks.

rocmoc n AZ