Date:         Tue, 5 Apr 2005 17:31:49 -0500
Reply-To:     Brian Keese <brian.keese@STILTMART.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Brian Keese <brian.keese@STILTMART.COM>
Subject:      Heads off, piston ring broken
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Well, now I've gone and done it.  I'm working on resealing the heads on The
Ark (84 Westy, 1.9). I tried to get the heads off without bringing the
cylinders with them to no avail.  In fact, I'm glad I didn't spend too much
time trying because it took major tapping (more like banging), prying,
heating, and cursing to get the cylinder sleeves off, even with the heads
out of the van.  And so in hopes of finding a way to finish the job without
dropping the whole engine I searched the archives.  I found a couple of
members who succeeded in using a wrench-type ring compressor to get the
cylinders back on the pistons without removing them and I thought, 'Aha!
That's good news. I'll give that a try.'  Well, I tried and on the first one
(out of three to do) I ended up breaking one of the rings - the fat one with
the spring inside.  Now, I'm not sure how I should proceed and so I am
availing myself of the wisdom of the list.

 

Is it OK to just replace one of the rings in one of the cylinders?  Should I
replace all the rings on that cylinder? Should I replace all the rings on
all the cylinders?  Are different size rings available?  How do I know which
to get?

 

Many thanks,

Brian Keese

84 Westy Wolfsburg 'The Ark'

81 Isuzu P'up Diesel 4x4

Bloomington, Indiana