healeys
[Top] [All Lists]

[Healeys] Strange Engine Situation

To: <healeys@autox.team.net>
Subject: [Healeys] Strange Engine Situation
From: "Ray Carbone" <racarbon@verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:06:37 -0500
A while back I was visiting a friend who was beginning a BJ8 engine rebuild.
It seems he had owned the car since 1983 and always had problems setting the
idle, however, driving above 1200 RPMs and the car pull strong.  After pulling
the head and delivering it to the machine shop, he began to clean the pistons
when he noticed some gaps around the edges.  After pulling the pistons, he
found 4 with missing top rings, broken top edge sections and no debris or
cylinder scoring.



My first thought was that the PO had discovered the problem, pulled the rings,
and buttoned up the engine for a quick sale.  But now I am wondering.



Since the car was not registered with the BJ8 Registry and having recently
discovered that this was an original '67 metallic golden beige model, I
decided to collect the info and transmit to Steve Byers.  During our
subsequent communication, I mentioned the engine was being rebuilt and the
missing rings.  Steve indicated that 10-years prior, during his engine
rebuild, he experienced the same situation..missing top rings on a number of
cylinders, no debris, and broken top piston edges.  In Steve's instance, one
cylinder was badly scored.



In both cases, little or no engine power seemed lost and if any noise at all,
it lasted only seconds.  Additionally, because of the more aggressive cam,
having difficulty adjusting the idle of a BJ8 is also not an uncommon symptom
with many BJ8s idling at 1,000 RPM.



So, has anyone else had this experience?  Any ideas as to the cause?  What is
the possibility of other Healey's unknowingly running with this condition?



All the best,

Ray Carbone

64 BJ8 Phase 1 (original owner
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html

Healeys@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys


http://www.team.net/archive

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>