Pistons from the engine that I'm rebuilding

[turnsouth]

This is what happens when a sixteen-year-old gets a Hemi with 180,000 miles on it:

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

That's seen better days

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'm no mechanic but I think that's a bad thing!

Def

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

[Mr. Whippy]

What happened?  Broken exhaust valve?  Oil pump failure?

Looks like the piston froze up in the cylinder and tore up the rings, but why?

[turnsouth]

What happened?  Broken exhaust valve?  Oil pump failure?

Looks like the piston froze up in the cylinder and tore up the rings, but why?

When the engine overheated, the "cast in place" valve seats drop out of the aluminum heads and keep the valves form closing all the way. Quite a common issue with Chrysler aluminum heads, and under "normal" overheat conditions (that is shutting it off as soon as it starts missing) they usually only mark up the top of pistons. But if you are a young kid and keep driving it until it quits, the valve seats will move to the edge of the cylinder walls and crush the edge of the pistons. They are incredibly brittle at the edges.

[Essexman]

That's nothing a bit of duck tape, a cable tie and some hard work won't fix eh?

[Neil]

That's nothing a bit of duck tape, a cable tie and some hard work won't fix eh?

  And a hammer

[Mr. Whippy]

What happened?  Broken exhaust valve?  Oil pump failure?

Looks like the piston froze up in the cylinder and tore up the rings, but why?

When the engine overheated, the "cast in place" valve seats drop out of the aluminum heads and keep the valves form closing all the way. Quite a common issue with Chrysler aluminum heads, and under "normal" overheat conditions (that is shutting it off as soon as it starts missing) they usually only mark up the top of pistons. But if you are a young kid and keep driving it until it quits, the valve seats will move to the edge of the cylinder walls and crush the edge of the pistons. They are incredibly brittle at the edges.

Yea, I wondered.

I rebuilt a Land Rover engine where the exhaust valve dropped, holing the piston.  It caused similar results in the piston (which I drove out with a sledge hammer and short piece of wooden shovel handle).   Sleeved the cylinder, skimmed the head flat, put it all back together and ran it for another decade before I sold it.

[turnsouth]

Yea, I wondered.

I rebuilt a Land Rover engine where the exhaust valve dropped, holing the piston.  It caused similar results in the piston (which I drove out with a sledge hammer and short piece of wooden shovel handle).   Sleeved the cylinder, skimmed the head flat, put it all back together and ran it for another decade before I sold it.

The cast iron of the cylinder block on the Hemi is made very well. After I removed the damaged pistons, there were no signs of any damage to the cylinder walls at all. And with the Teflon rings, there is so little wear on the cylinders, that even after 180,000 miles, you couldn't even catch your fingernail on any ridge.

A couple of heads, a couple of pistons, a lot of time, and she be back on the road for the kid to destroy again. (although, I think his father may have take some instructional preemptive action on this )

[ryan1835]

i wish i understood the mechanics of a car. maybe one day, i suppose driving helps and i have my first lesson next week

[captain spaulding]

This is what happens when a sixteen-year-old gets a Hemi with 180,000 miles on it:

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I hope that wasn't your kid. 

[ryan1835]

i WOULD not want this happening on the monstrous engine i was examining today at work!

[turnsouth]

I hope that wasn't your kid. 

No, no. I know better than to give my son something like that. If he wants something he can be stupid in, he'll have to buy it him self.

That being said, I'm not entirely pragmatic. I did get him a Mitsubishi with a Dodge label on it, so if he wants to put a few grand into that, he could definitely have some fun...

[turnsouth]

i WOULD not want this happening on the monstrous engine i was examining today at work!

Hey, I've seen those before, my friend use to work on them. They would use them to start the "Big" engines at the power plant on base.

[Mercury]

That's nothing a bit of duck tape, a cable tie and some hard work won't fix eh?

  And a hammer

Mjolnirman to the rescue!! 

[J-sews]

Yea, I wondered.

I rebuilt a Land Rover engine where the exhaust valve dropped, holing the piston.  It caused similar results in the piston (which I drove out with a sledge hammer and short piece of wooden shovel handle).   Sleeved the cylinder, skimmed the head flat, put it all back together and ran it for another decade before I sold it.

The cast iron of the cylinder block on the Hemi is made very well. After I removed the damaged pistons, there were no signs of any damage to the cylinder walls at all. And with the Teflon rings, there is so little wear on the cylinders, that even after 180,000 miles, you couldn't even catch your fingernail on any ridge.

A couple of heads, a couple of pistons, a lot of time, and she be back on the road for the kid to destroy again. (although, I think his father may have take some instructional preemptive action on this )

Sounds like an expensive fix, for a car with 180,000 miles on it.

[turnsouth]

Sounds like an expensive fix, for a car with 180,000 miles on it.

Relative to today's auto repair prices, it's not really that bad. They are good customers of ours, and they bought the car from us, so the owner is helping them with the repair. But even at retail, the whole thing will be around the same price as putting a good used engine in the car. (which we normally would have done with a high mileage car like this, but since the owner is working with them, he has a lot more flexibility when he is supplying more labor versus parts)

[thebullfrog]

I hope that wasn't your kid. 

No, no. I know better than to give my son something like that. If he wants something he can be stupid in, he'll have to buy it him self.

That being said, I'm not entirely pragmatic. I did get him a Mitsubishi with a Dodge label on it, so if he wants to put a few grand into that, he could definitely have some fun...

Stealth? Talon? Raider? lol

[turnsouth]

That being said, I'm not entirely pragmatic. I did get him a Mitsubishi with a Dodge label on it, so if he wants to put a few grand into that, he could definitely have some fun...

Stealth? Talon? Raider? lol

'99 Avenger 

[thebullfrog]

ugh, poor kid lol. Worst implementation of the mitsu 6g72 ever. i had to work on my ex'es Avenger. ill be happy never seing one again. On the other hand the interior always brought back fond memories of my 2g Talon. i suppose you're a more responsible parent than mine making him drive that though, i went out and started buying turbo dsms as soon as i got my license. Learned how to fix cars in a HURRY lol.


Whats the hemi out of anyway?

[turnsouth]

ugh, poor kid lol. Worst implementation of the mitsu 6g72 ever.

I like working on them, and my V-6 racing buddies love the cylinder blocks. That being said, they could take that *@#%&@ ignition system and put it where the sun doesn't shine. They do have the best auto transmission I've ever seen come out of Japan though...

Whats the hemi out of anyway?

'05 300

[thebullfrog]

the block is solid as hell, but id much rather take the variant from the 300gt/ stealth.

180,000 since '05? Wow thats a lot of driving. im actually considering a magnum for my next ride, but any i can afford have scary milage for a chrysler product.

[ryan1835]

i WOULD not want this happening on the monstrous engine i was examining today at work!

Hey, I've seen those before, my friend use to work on them. They would use them to start the "Big" engines at the power plant on base.

this beast is a CHP it powers the building and the heat generated from it is used to heat the building too

[turnsouth]

i WOULD not want this happening on the monstrous engine i was examining today at work!

Hey, I've seen those before, my friend use to work on them. They would use them to start the "Big" engines at the power plant on base.

this beast is a CHP it powers the building and the heat generated from it is used to heat the building too

They had two of these in the power plant on the base, to start the four main generator engines. They would start automatically when there were power fluctuations, and then an alarm would go off if the power got too unstable, or went out all together. At that point the guys would pull these long levers that would engage the generator engines, and when the RPM's got up to speed they would turn on the fuel and big ones would start.

It was a really neat thing to see, they could do the whole thing in 15 to 30 seconds. The main engines were huge, around 12 inch pistons, and turbochargers you could almost walk through. Not unlike the big engines on a diesel powered Naval Ship.

As I was thinking about it I remembered something. There were 4 underground, fuel tanks behind the power plant, 5000 gallons each. I wonder if the government ever removed them when they closed the base...

[turnsouth]

180,000 since '05? Wow thats a lot of driving.

Yea, we see a lot of that. Being a rural area we get customers driving 100 miles a day (or more) back and forth to work in the city.

im actually considering a magnum for my next ride, but any i can afford have scary milage for a chrysler product.

That Hemi is an excellent engine. They don't take being overheated well, but like I said, this one with even 180,000 miles on it really shows no perceivable signs of wear.

[Grant Lamontagne]

180,000 in an '05 is heavy- I have just over 140,000 on my Jeep and it's a 2000.  Plus it's my work truck. 

Def

[thebullfrog]

Yeah I know the Hemi itself is very stout, and I dont generally make a habit of overheating my smurf- I know how to read a gauge. It's all the other crap bolted onto it I'm worried about. Its one of several options so it all boils down to what I find at the time.

[ducktapehero]

I have respect for the Hemi but if that was an old Slant-Six or Ford 300 I-6 it'd still be running with 5 good cylinders. 

[turnsouth]

I have respect for the Hemi but if that was an old Slant-Six or Ford 300 I-6 it'd still be running with 5 good cylinders. 

No doubt

I worked with a guy who drove back and forth to work for a month with a piston rod sticking out of the side of his slant six block. His words:
 "It runs OK, and as long as I don't make sharp turns, I don't spill any oil..."

[ducktapehero]

Another tough engine is the Chevy 250 I-6. I had one in an old Chevy truck. Top speed was about 70-75 MPH(maybe 80 downhill) but it'd run without a hiccup for hours on the interstate with the gas pedal shoved to the floor. It had AT LEAST 180,000 miles on it.