[Supras] HELP: Weired piston height

[berniek at technicaldevelop.com]

Joe:

    It appears as if there is a bent connecting rod for #1 cylinder.  At 
some time in its past, the engine must have had hydraulic lock due to a 
leaky head gasket.  This was first suggested as a possibility by Bob 
Shapton, and makes sense.  I know from some buggering up of the head 
bolts that the head has been off before.  #1 piston does come up to the 
block deck.  No matter what the crankshaft position is, #1 is always 
lower in the block than #6 by about .100" (measured with the depth end 
of a vernier caliper). 

    This was a real heartbreaker, as it appears that the bores are in 
very good condition.  I cannot detect a wear ridge, and the bore 
diameters are all just about 3.270", .007" less than the upper stock 
bore wear limit.

    The idea occurred to me to take off the pan and install one new 
connecting rod and new rings for #1 cylinder.  But that appears to be 
more troublesome than installing a JDM engine I was rebuilding for a '90 
Turbo I have which has a BHG.  The car now under consideration is a '91 
with far less miles and no rust (My '90 has always lived in the north 
and has rust bubbles, but the '91 is from Houston). 

       Bernie

joe at wilmcd.com wrote:
> Bernie, I haven't kept up with the conversation, but I thought I
> remembered you were going to lap the block and machine the head? Since you
> are now removing the block I would just bring it and the head to an engine
> shop (ask local race shops who they use) and tell them what smoothness you
> need and let them do the work. I'm not sure if you were thinking of
> stripping the whole block or not, but it was just a thought.
>
> -Joe Rushlow
>
>
>   
>>     Looks like the short block removal will be relatively easy with
>> everything else removed.  Any comments would be appreciated.
>>
>>     Thanks.
>>
>>        Bernie
>>     
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