Lined cylinders in a 2.25 Petrol Motor?

[bfrieck]

Years ago, I acquired an 88" IIA with a frozen motor (2.25 petrol) intending to restore it. Now I am. I took it all apart to find things in pretty good shape, probably lots of miles but little rust except in back of chassis, body good, etc. When I disassembled the motor I found all the pistons stuck so badly that I had to press them out of the bores which resulted in three of the four bringing what appear to be cylinder liners with them (the fourth liner stayed in the bore). One of the liners is split from top to bottom which I assume resulted from the trauma of trying to press out the piston. I can't find any indication in any of my manuals that these blocks were lined or that lining them was sometimes a part of a rebuild. What's the deal?

The truck is LHD but I don't know where it came from - there is some indication that it was at a US base in Germany so it may have been imported from there by a soldier - not sure why that would matter, though.

Is it possible that this motor was previously overhauled at which time it was found to be so worn as to not be suitable for oversize reboring resulting in the use of bore liners? Or, were some of these motors lined from new?

I just had a wild thought that perhaps the 2.25 petrol and diesel blocks are so similar as to allow either block to be built as the other with the installation of the proper head, ignition system, fuel system, and other parts. Can't imagine that would be the case and, even if it is, the assumption would be that the diesel blocks are lined and that my motor was built up from a diesel block. Is that even a possibility?

[Partsman]

I just had a wild thought that perhaps the 2.25 petrol and diesel blocks are so similar as to allow either block to be built as the other with the installation of the proper head, ignition system, fuel system, and other parts. Can't imagine that would be the case and, even if it is, the assumption would be that the diesel blocks are lined and that my motor was built up from a diesel block. Is that even a possibility?

I can't clear up your question about lining the cylinders, but over on the Series 2a Club forum, there has been mention of using the basic block from a petrol engine to build a diesel out of, they say that the basic stripped down block of the 2.25 liter engine is exactly the same for both.

Is it possible that this motor was previously overhauled at which time it was found to be so worn as to not be suitable for oversize reboring resulting in the use of bore liners? Or, were some of these motors lined from new?

I would suspect that this reasoning may be correct for why your cylinders were lined, but I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me if I'm wrong.

Harvey

[SafeAirOne]

Cylinders that are worn beyond the largest overbore pistons available can be bored out and have sleeves pressed in whereby the sleeved cylinder bores can be machined back to factory new specifications, allowing the use of standard size pistons and rings.

This is what happened to your engine block at some point during its life. Neither diesel nor petrol engines were ever factory sleeved, AFAIK.

[bfrieck]

Makes sense. Is there any reason not to put new liners in my block assuming it's otherwise okay? Since these are presumably "dry" liners, there is a thermal break between the liner and the block. Is a lined block harder to cool?
Bruce

[SafeAirOne]

You'd probably have to ask your local machine shop about re-re-lining cylinders and whether this is do-able.

[TedW]

bfrieck: It's possible (if unlikely) that your liners were there from the start. I say this because of my own experience with a brand new block I had built up a few years ago: My very alert mechanic called to inform me that one of my bores had a casting flaw and was unusable as it was. He said that the solution was to install a bore liner - things were swell after that.

I suppose that the folks in the engine shop at Solihull might have installed bore liners into flawed blocks rather than junking them.

Ted

[SafeAirOne]

I suppose that the folks in the engine shop at Solihull might have installed bore liners into flawed blocks rather than junking them.

All 4 though? IMHO, a flaw in ALL 4 CYLINDERS at the factory = junk the whole block, even in the Leyland years. Just my guess though...

[Les Parker]

Liners are shown in the Parts Book # ERC9188 (RNL284) Currently available from UK.
RN has sold some over the years. When I had my Ser III Airportable, some kind soul put ball bearings ine the spark plug holes and filled the bores with water, just to make sure the engine was no longer serviceable. After putting a new head on and 4 new liners/standard pistons, all was well again !

[bfrieck]

Les,

I didn't see a short block or a bare block as being available from RN? If they are, could you send me a PM with prices? Likewise, if you can provide the liners, please give me a price for those as well (all four). I'll have to see which is the best route to go pricewise. I'll take a closer look, but I don't think there was a ridge in my liners nor did there appear to be any significant rust in the rest of the engine notwithstanding that the pistons were so frozen in the liners as to bring the liners out with them when I pressed them out. I don't think the engine filled with water or anything like that. It may be that the overhaul that resulted in liners was not so many miles ago and the rest of the motor is largely okay.