Thread: Piston top markings

Originally Posted by drifter

I am tempted to have the valve seats replaced so I can run unleaded without problems - just have to find out how much that will cost as it will mean new valves, too.

I don't think you will have a problem running unleaded petrol with the valve seats as they are. Anecdotal evidence from S2 owners, seems to indicate that valve seat recession is not an issue with these engines, probably because they were designed to run on the worst possible petrol to be found in the World.

Your valves won't need replacing unless they are badly worn on the stems and/or the seat face. A grind at the reconditioners might be all they need and get the valve guides sleeved and the seats recut as well,

Cheers Charlie

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

pesonally I stay clear of punches and scribes when marking, I rely on paint pens, pencils, chalk, numbered containers, racks and experience.

when you see a rod thrown because the bigend shell has fractured and part of the fracture runs neatly along the diagonal edge of the #4 stamp.

When you see that the crack in the piston starts at the tip of the 1 thats been hand punched in and radiates out to the edge of the crown.

Or the crack in the housing that's right through the pock mark in the metal from the outside edge to the adjoining bolt hole in line with the mark on the housing it bolts to.

That said... I dont think any of my series engine rebuilds came back with any of those faults before I was shown a collection of stuffed engines from things like the above. (and none of those engines were series engines, the cracked piston was from a TDI)

I did think of paint - but then I also realised that I was going to be washing, scrubbing and generally blasting all the bits I took off to get them clean - and thought the paint would come off.

I do have a heap of zip-locked bags all marked up with what the bits inside came off or from. There are some duplicates as, where possible, I have been buying new bolts, nuts, studs...

I have a lot of Chinese food containers, too, that are all marked up and contain various bits. In fact, I am off to the local in a few minutes to get some new containers - only we will have to eat the contents first - love it!

Something I remembered from about 50 to 55 years ago when Dad was rebuilding the family cars (big family + small Defense income = you do the mechanical work yourself) is that he built a rack to hold the pushrods and valves in the order they sat in the engine in - so they went back into the same place. I have done that.

Originally Posted by chazza

I don't think you will have a problem running unleaded petrol with the valve seats as they are. Anecdotal evidence from S2 owners, seems to indicate that valve seat recession is not an issue with these engines, probably because they were designed to run on the worst possible petrol to be found in the World.

Your valves won't need replacing unless they are badly worn on the stems and/or the seat face. A grind at the reconditioners might be all they need and get the valve guides sleeved and the seats recut as well,

Cheers Charlie

Thanks Chazza. If I wasn't going to be sending the head out for new seats, I was going to do the valve grind myself. I have done it a few times in the past on older vehicles (1938 Standard 12 and 1955 Vauxhall Velox).

Are you recommending that having a machine shop do it would be a better option?

At least on the series one engines the exhaust valve seats are very very hard and you do not have a problem with unleaded. I think that machine shops don't like cutting these seats as they stuff up their cutting tool and they probably have to change the feed rate to cut the hard seat. I suspect that the series 2 heads have similarly hard valve seats.

unless you have (or have access to)a proper valve facing and seat cutting tools have the valves done at a shop dont cock about and have the thing Klined at the get go.

if your just going to give the old valves a lap in then go for it.

as to the match markings coming off, write down the match markings on the part on a piece of paper, wash the part then return the markings. a zip tie through a bolt hole or a long bolt inserted through a gallery/drilling will allow you to redo orientation markings correctly.

OOC

how come your pulling it down?

Hi Dave

I first got the 88". It was a complete vehicle but, sadly, had too much rust through the chassis and firewall to be considered for restoration. It had sat in the open and then under a tree down the South Coast for 10 years when the owner bought a new 4WD

I am also a fat bugger and the 88" doesn't have much space between me and the steering wheel - so I started looking for a 109"

I found one but it didn't have an engine in it.

So.... I figured I would swap the engine from the 88" into the 109.

Because I want a measure of reliability and because I really don't trust anything that has been left lying around for 10 years, I figured I would strip it down and rebuild it, checking things as I went.

I really wanted to replace things like frost plugs because I didn't fancy swapping the engine over only to have to pull it out again when/if something failed early on in the piece.

Having heard some of the horror stories about main seals going, too, I reckoned it was best to go through and change them, too.

good drills...

didnt anyone tell you...

the seating is the same in an 88 as it is in a 109.

Nah - the drivers seat in this 109 slides back a bit further and the steering wheel doesn't (quite) rub my stomach