Thread: S1 Holden 186 smoke issues

Joe , Just buy some decarbonizing brushes from auto shop ( Supercheap, Repo, ect) As for the studs you may have to carefully drill out to larger size & re tap the thread. Some one else may have another suggestion on the studs . If you have broken the stud a drill won't have enough torque to reverse it out . One other thing you could try is Freeze Off which you spray on the stud & hopefully it will shrink the stud enough for you to be able to screw it out with an easy out .s-l1600 (3).jpgThese are the best type of broken stud remover they don't expand the stud making it tighter to screw out like the tapered ones do. You could also try using a punch a little smaller than the stud & giving it a hit with a hammer to crack the rust on the thread & loosen the stud.

what a crappy day whenever under any car...

so took the sump off, when ever i get under any car these days I get light headed, slight dizziness and then nausea so felt like crap but managed to get the two nuts off the piston no1. but the carrier that holds the bearing would not completely remove (is there a trick here i am missing) its loose but wont come off completely then i gently pushed the piston upwards but it wont come over thinking there is the lip on the top of the bore where the piston does not touch on its stroke upwards could this be causing it to get stuck...

i was really struggling with this one god knows how i will get the remaining ones off and replaced - taking them off is easier then replacing them back inside the engine...

someone mentioned a lip somewhere on the block is this top of the bore the lip which needs to be ground down

Yes, was me about the lip - I had a lip cutter I would use before trying this - or you can smite them hard to remove them and replace the rings but you risk damaging the pistons but I have done it.

If you have not got bearing caps off the piston won't come out , The caps will only be tight on the bolts, Could be that the cap has stretched , If you can knock one of the bolts out the cap should come off. If the piston has come up that far it should come out . All the years I worked in the motor trade I never had to remove the lip to get pistons out , the rings should compress in past the lip. You should be able to once the cap is off knock the conrod up with a hammer handle. Note which is the front of the piston it will need to go back in the same way in same bore , also bearing caps have to go back on same conrods & same way they came off.

Just a comment on ease of working - the mudguards come off pretty easily (barring seized bolts), and make working on the engine a lot easier.

1. noticed all the pistons have this marking (in yellow) and they all point to the front of the engine so assume this is to tell me when i reinstall they must all face to the front. Learnt today piston heads for the oil rings have holes to drain/supply oil.

2. these are the markings on top of the piston - says STD (standard i pressume), do these help when i need to order the rings or not. Also after honing do you need to purchase oversize rings and would i order the same size as is on her at the moment and how do i tell which size is on it? Do rings have markings on them to tell me the size fitted?

cleaned all the 6 piston tops nicely, popped piston one back in so i could rotate the engine to clean the piston tops.

Thinking to get a mobile mechanic to come to just pull out the pistons for me and try to remove the broken bolts if i cant remove myself. Also to call them back to reinstall the piston and place the sump guard on to eliminate my need to get under the car. not sure they will come but can only ask.

Originally Posted by shamirj

1. noticed all the pistons have this marking (in yellow) and they all point to the front of the engine so assume this is to tell me when i reinstall they must all face to the front. Learnt today piston heads for the oil rings have holes to drain/supply oil.

2. these are the markings on top of the piston - says STD (standard i pressume), do these help when i need to order the rings or not. Also after honing do you need to purchase oversize rings and would i order the same size as is on her at the moment and how do i tell which size is on it? Do rings have markings on them to tell me the size fitted?

cleaned all the 6 piston tops nicely, popped piston one back in so i could rotate the engine to clean the piston tops.

Thinking to get a mobile mechanic to come to just pull out the pistons for me and try to remove the broken bolts if i cant remove myself. Also to call them back to reinstall the piston and place the sump guard on to eliminate my need to get under the car. not sure they will come but can only ask.

Yes the mark shows front & yes standard size, providing the bore is not oversize & needs machining & you only give a light hone you should be able to buy STD rings . The mechanic should be able to tell you if there is any lip in the bore. Good Idea to get mechanic that way you won't need to buy a ring compressor & he should know how to fit the rings. If they are fitted wrong they will not work.

1. my new soft brush from sca - they are only about $5 and seem to work ok, did a quick test and works fine

2. inside the yellow ring is the experiment i did with this brush and its cleaning up ok - lots more cleaning to do but slowly will get there

3. sca also had this ezy out, tapping in reverse direction but i think its not working because it has gone down far enough to but hard to the side of the snapped bolt - may need to drill deeper into the snapped bolt for this to work

4. you can see i am just tapping into the tip which will have less strength so will play around with this and see if i can drill deeper and whether this works or not. not having much luck yet, did carefully try hitting with a screw driver and then a chisel but the chisel just wants to cut it up and not rotate it, did hammer down into the hole but that didn't help either

5. another soft brush from sca - again seems to work ok

6. here this time this brush used to test the head, and again happy with the results - effective way of cleaning the head and the block

my honing tool is max 89mm which is about the same size as the bore - so should i buy a larger honing tool or will this do (it would be at its extent though) me thinks i will need to replace with a larger honing tool.

I'm expecting to see the oil rings build up with carbon and not rotating freely, possible broken ring or its just lost its compression causing my smoking engine, can't wait to get at least one out to see