servion

Are they unusable? They're CP pistons that I pulled out of my b18c. The pictures are crappy, but they're the best I could get. I tried to align the pistons with my light source so that you can see the damage. On the last picture, I circled the things I'm worried about, but they all pretty much have similar markings.

The main concern I have is the damage in the big cirecl on the right of the last picture (2 or 3 of the pistons have this damage on both sides of the skirt). They look like they've been 'rubbing' against the sleeve. In person, those spots look like they've been slightly worn down. I don't think I can see a "flat spot" there visibly, but it might be there. It's like someone took a liece of sandpaper and then sanded one spot down repeatedly on the sideskirts.

The other tings circled are vertical scratches. I cannot catch them with my fingernal, but they're definitely visible by inspection. Since they're below the rings, by guess is that I had some dirt/filings/some sort of bad particles in the motor when I reassembled it last time.

I want to throw these back into my soon-to-be benson sleeved block, but I don't want ot reuse them if its not a good idea. Any input is appreciated.

Kataku2K3

That's perfectly normal and doesn't look bad at all... You'll just about always get grooves on your thrust surfaces along with a little wear... Take that into consideration and look over your pistons again, if there isn't any "deep chunks", etc. cut out I would probably just reuse them... Good Luck

servion

The 'flat spots' are the ones where the light isn't reflecting like it should. I tried to align the light source witht eh revlection os that you can visibly see the reflection where its not 'flat' and see the lack of reflection on the spots in question.

Kataku2K3

The second pic down is the clearest atleast for me and in it I can't really gauge the dull spots... I've never seen a flat spot worn in random areas onto the thrust surfaces so I really don't know what to tell you... Do you have a micrometer or even a caliper handy? If so measure across the piston (into the flat spot) and then again at a slightly different angle (to get the std. diameter at that height on the skirt)... I'm just curious how deep these flat spots are... Sorry I can't be more of a help, like I said I've never run into this before...

earl

Hard to tell from the pix. Pull off the rods and send the pistons to me. I will bring them to CP. Looks ok but not sure about that scratch?

5thgencivic

OT, but has anybody ever pulled pistons out after 5 minutes of idleing? We did, and saw the skirts no longer "looked" polished. No marks at all, but it was pretty interesting seeing them right after startup...

-iLLuZioN-B18C1

from the pic they look good. but just to make sure, listen to earl. you dont want to mess up a fuly built block.

servion

Earl will get my pistons along with my block for some bensons