A long story short i had a bigish overheat, removed the cylinder to find this-
If you look closley at the foto you can see in the top of the piston head indentations from where its been hitting the valves. This is the case with every piston. Theres probably no end of damage to the existing valves-the head is cracked in 4 places and the No.1 injector seat has a gaping hole in it causing it to smoke so i'm gonna put a new complete cylinder head with new camshaft and valves, when i get the head it will already be built by AMC and ready to go.
There must have been an issue with the timing during the previous owners time with the van to cause this to happen, is it common?
I've decided that while the head is off i may as well service the engine, i'm gonna remove the block and completly rebuild it, could anyone give any pointers as to what i should DEFINATLY replace and things that could possibly need replacing?
I think i'm looking at new pistonheaads, what kind of BP figure am i looking at?
Also if the cylinders need reboring do i need to get slightly bigger piston heads, or use the same size as i have now but with bigger rings?
Cracked between the valves on every cylinder!
Last question! I'm buying a new already assembled head from AMC will it be set up and ready to go straight on to the block?
Many thanks,
Rob.
I'm not sure if the correct gasket was used i'll have to check it out, though it wouldn't surprise me if the wrong one was used . I think theres been a few bodged repairs in its life with previous owners. I'm gonna rebuild the engine and replace the cylinder head as its also damaged down one of the injector seats. I just hope theres no damage down the bottom end of the engine as its been hitting the valves, fingers crossed....