Club 80-90 Forums

As well as a badly corroded head, my DG engine has snapped a piston ring. This has scratched the liner very slightly, but I also noticed a wear lip on all 4 liners. It's not a huge lip, but I imagine it would give me trouble when trying to get the pistons back in...Haynes also says either remove it or get a set of "stepped" rings, but I've never seen any.

So, can anyone recommend a place to get this lip removed and the liners re-honed etc? Or am I better off just biting the bullet and putting the money towards a brand new set?

Ideally somewhere around Glasgow, or a place that I can send the liners off to.

Thanks

David

If it is slight you can use some wet and dry to remove it and then have the liners honed but if it is pronounced then probably a new set would be a good idea. Go for a 2.0 litre set while you are at it!! Mine only had a slight feel of a step and the honing removed it. It is best to get them measured up by a machine shop as sometimes the bottom of the bore becomes slightly oval as well. I have rebuilt three of these now and have not yet seen a badly worn set of liners so you are unlucky. Search your local area for an engine reconditioners or engine machine shop. I find smaller ones usually more helpful!!!

The lip is very small, only just detectable with my finger but it's the same on all 4 both top and bottom. Did you just use standard piston rings after getting them honed?

I have used a set of grants rings that are cast iron so will bed in nice and quick but they are prone to break if there is any sign of a ridge. The rings from Brikwerks are Kolbenschmidt I think and have a chrome top ring. These are stronger and longer lasting but you need a reasonably coarse hone to help them bed in. I wasn't going to pay almost £80 for a set of DJ rings when I could get a full set for £40.00, and my present engine is running grants rings Nicely as well. If the ridge is only slight I suggest a bit of wet and dry to soften it off then a reasonably coarse hone as long as the bores measure up ok. Yes standard rings as the wear was only very slight. (Honing removes only a small amount as I have found out) Grants rings come with quite a tight ring gap as it is so make sure you pop all the rings into the liner they are going in and check the gaps. Between 0.3mm and 0.8mm for top and middle ring and 0.4mm to 0.8mm for the bottom one. Mine were very slightly under 0.3mm which is too tight so I had to file them slightly. Hopefully you would not have this trouble with a bit more wear in the bore. Ideally 0.4/5 is good. 0.8mm is getting a bit big but my present engine is running 0.7mm gaps.