Holden

Cylinders 2 and 3 starting burning mucho oil, long after engine startup.

Compression after this was perfect. Suspect rings and/or cylinder wall problems.

Head is removed now. Pistons and cylinder walls look fine.

Should I pull the block and take it to a machine shop to diagnose? Or should I drop the oil pan, remove pistons 2 and 3 and take a look at their rings?

Can a home mechanic without special tools do a ring job?

TIA.

boostaholic

Just drop the oil pan and pull those two pistons. If your pistons are damaged, it'll probably be cracked ringlands and or rings and you'll know it by looking at them. If the cylinder walls are still smooth and not out of round you can do a quick hone and just use new rings. Of course this is only if you're looking to put it back together quickly. If you can pull the head then this isn't much harder.

Holden

I wonder which would be cheaper, taking the block to a shop or buying the tools to do it myself.

I'll pull the pistons myself either way.

Thanks.

BTW: Removing the head was waaaaaaay easier than I had imagined. I'd never cracked one open before, but have spent plenty of years wrenching. and thought it would be more difficult or exacting.

Jared

Just looking at the rings or cylinder walls won't tell you if the rings never seated or not. If you don't find any cracks, I would pull 2 and 3, rehone the cylinders and start with a fresh set of rings.

btw, did you bother to seat the rings before you pulled the head?


[Modified by Jared, 12:56 AM 2/22/2003]