Had anyone replaced their rings/positions rather than doing a full engine replacement?

 

Way back when, it was a regular thing with older cars. I remember watching my dad and oldest brother doing it on our 48 Chevy (inline 6) in our driveway. I remember my dad sitting up in the engine compartment reaming the ridge so he could get the pistons out, and explaining to me what he was doing. I was probably about 7 or 8.

I'm not a fan of it. If your rings and pistons are shot, how far behind are your bearings?

By the time you pop the head, drop the pan, pull the piston caps off, pull the pistons out, then put it all back together, you've done about half of a rebuild anyway.

But,.... sometimes it's what you need to do to get you by.

 

You can , but why do you want to do that and not rebuild it ,

 

I recognize that the right thing to do is to completely replace the motor but I think the bottom end is good and it would save me a lot of time, frustration, and money by going this route. At least that's what I'm thinking.

 

Why do you think that?


Why do you think that?


Not being a smart alek here, but just to point out that you really, really need to think hard about those two points.

If the rings are shot, it's either because the engine is badly worn, or because it got badly overheated at some point.

If it's because your engine is badly worn, so are the bearings. If it's because it got overheated, it may have had a head or head gasket failure, which can introduce coolant into the oil. That will trash the bearings pretty quickly.


Is it really that much less work? Watch some videos on how hard it is to get the oil pan off an XJ when the engine is still in the vehicle. Then think about getting in there to pull the rod caps off so you can pull the pistons. Then think about getting in there to put them back on and torque them properly. You can't use a universal joint when torquing because it messes up the torque readings.

You still have to pull the head, too.

And when you are all done, and you find you have to pull the engine in another 5 thousand miles bedcause the bottom end really was shot after all, how much work did you save?

Anyway, some things to think about.

 

'bout the only thing you don't have to do is pull the crank/cam & timing chain/cover.....

No way I'd do just a re-ring.......