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Topic: Teach me -0- wise ones (Read 1400 times) previous topic - next topic

Teach me -0- wise ones

i'm kinda a moron when it come to factory 2.3 stuff, what came O.E, blah blah blah

I pulled the head off of my 2.3 that i blew up, and it had a metal ringed Fel-pro head gasket, ( not something i've ever touched in this car)

The pistons don't say ford on the top, just a number (more on that in a sec,) and a little, indent on the side (front/timing cover side ) looks like half a diamond.

the numbers are as follows      5    4    4    4   

What's with the odd ball piston number ?

To top it all off, it's got 131K on the odo, so naturaly i think 131K on the motor. it's got a decent cross hatch to the walls, all pistons and walls, and not forgeting the head, are all AWSOMELY (is that a word ? ) cleaned, nearly like a blown head gasket in EACH cylinder. ( coulda been a swell reason it ran like  )

BUT there's about a .30" gap/ lip what ever, on the top of the piston wall. AND about .50" play in EACH piston side to side, not all around, just drivers side to pass. side, have video and pics. but can't host them tonight due to gaming ( suckin up all the bandwith makes them mad :evilgrin: )

All in all, what should i care about, what should i look for in my next used TURBO motor, and what did ford use stock for pistons, headgaskets ?

sorry for the babble

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #1 –
the unavoidable rod angle could have caused that pass-driver wear.  you really wont know how out of round the cylinder holes are until the pistons are out.

Pistons do have play but gezz, thats a lot man.

Its possible that ford tossed in an odd piston, odd things like that happen.  My old 3.8 had two number 1 connecting rod caps and two number two number 4 caps.

you need to take it apart if its washed like you say.

as for what to look for,, nothing special , just typical engine stuff from that point of view.  I would be more interested in ring end gap and such on your next engine / rebuild as well as correct/best size pistons.

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #2 –
sorry, i porbably should have said i'm getting a used turbo motor from a wrecked t-bird,

i'm not planning on puling this motor apart fully, just seal and shine,

Want to take a look at the pistons, and put a clean head on, (not rebuilt, just cleaned and decked)

and checking the wall hash marks,

the blown up motor i will sure take apart and take pics,

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #3 –
Quote from: 460 turbo truck;173559


BUT there's about a .30" gap/ lip what ever, on the top of the piston wall. AND about .50" play in EACH piston side to side, not all around, just drivers side to pass. side, have video and pics.


I seriously doubt that there's a 1/2" of play between the pistons and the cylinder walls. 

Try again.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo - '85 Marquis LTS - '86 LTD Wagon-  '81 Granada GL 2dr

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #4 –
no no, 50 thosands', upload video's now, might take a while, kinda big files

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #5 –
for some reason, youtube compressed my video weird, but what ever,

crank up the sound and listen to this !!

2.3 motor badd?

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #6 –
Quote from: 460 turbo truck;173659
no no, 50 thosands', upload video's now, might take a while, kinda big files



there's an old saying

"say what you mean,  And mean what you say"

move your decimal to the left three places next time. Learn to use a micrometer, caliper or dial indicater and you'll break yourself of this type of stuff.  An dont panzy out with the digital types either that do all the work for you.

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #7 –
sorry for the typo, didn't relise it was gonna cause so much hype,

i just rember seeing .30 gap for plugs, and most people understood, 30 thosands gap, either way, it's pretty bad,

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #8 –
The pistons in my 2.3 have strange numbers on them. I think they went 2-1-3-3 or something like that. I didn't give it too much thought.
Like your engine, though, my walls had nice clean cross-hatching after 140k miles. I think the strongest part of the turbo 2.3 is the bottom end.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
 

Teach me -0- wise ones

Reply #9 –
i know it's not the weakest link, but it's not a turbo 2.3, N/A converted.