If the damage truly appears to you to be superficial, and the cylinder is
readily available or could be sleeved if the piston does indeed break, I'd
go for it. From your description there may not be that much potential for a
total piston failure anyway.
If it's a valuable engine or an irreplaceable and unsleevable cylinder, then
maybe you need to ante up the big bucks. But if it's strictly a utility
bike to you, what's the worst that could happen ?
Karl
>
> I inadvertently dropped a small brass nipple down the intake tract of
> my motorcycle while doing a carb re-jet. Upon cranking the engine there
> was a loud bang as the piston tried to send the nipple into the head.
> The damage is apparently mostly superficial, with the exception of a
> compressed ring groove at the point of impact. A few folks have said I
> can file the top half of the ring groove to open it up to the proper
> clearance. There doesn't appear to be any cracking or other signs of
> fatigue. Can I go ahead and file it? It's an old-tech air cooled motor.
> Money is tight so I'm not worried about whatever performance I may lose
> to a less than optimal squish band, etc. I just need to get the 50 mpg
> machine back on the road and stop using the 26 mpg one :-)
>
> thanks,
> jim
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