Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 06:19:25 EDT
Reply-To: RAlanen@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Frank Condelli <RAlanen@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Piston Ring Replacement
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
In a message dated 13/05/2007 10:04:23 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:
I need a few opinions on this one. I checked my piston rigns yesterday =
and the top rings were past their wear limits, even though the =
compression and leakdown test were pretty good. The engine has 150 000 =
miles and seems to run strong. The crankshaft endplay is just a little =
shy of .006" which is the wear limit. I'm thinking of just putting in =
new rings. I dont have the tools to check the cylinders and pistons but =
the cylinders have a very slight ridge at the top. Am I asking for =
trouble by just replacing the rings? Do I need to get the cylinder =
ridge honed out? Thanks.
Pascal, you cannot replace the rings without honeing the cylinders. They
will not seat properly and cause you undue oil consumption. Buy, borrow, rent
a cylinder hone that can be run with your electric drill or take the
cylinders to a machine shop that will hone them for you. Honeing is needed to break
the glaze on the cylinder walls and to make new oil holding scratches. After
honeing then you need to check the ring end gap to be sure the cylinders are
not oversized. One other problem is that these cylinders tend to go oval
and honeing them will NOT make them round. Have a machine shop measure them if
you do not have a set of cylinder inside measuring tools. Only reboring
on a machine that can keep the cylinders from moving while being bored will
get them round and oversized. Then you will need oversized rings which are
available BUT hard to find. I have some here !
Cheers,
Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy, '90 Carat, '87 Wolfsburg (Forsale) & Lionel Trains (_Collection
for sale_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/trainsal.htm) )_ Frank Condelli &
Associates_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html) - Vanagon/Vanagon
Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley_ Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm) _ BusFusion_
(http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm) a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, June 07 ~ 10,
2007
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