engine woes

[chrismccarthy]

pulled the oilpan to repaint and put in new gasket, found a 1/2 inch piece of metal. it is curved and was broken off of something. what do you think is the possibility of the engine working without rebuilding? i looked at the bottom of the rods, nothing missing. so is it a chunk from a piston, at the bottom of one of those? should i rebuild or look for a 4cyl (for the lack of parts)? i think i feel sick...

[jp-]

What type of metal? Steel? Aluminum?

Post a photo, maybe we can identify the piece. I've seen piston skirts lose chunks before in older cars. Usually nothing happens, and when a rebuild is done, the piston is replaced.

Is the engine running ok now?

[chrismccarthy]

the metal is steel; i'll load a pic if i can. and the engine has not run since i've owned it. i bought a perverbial barn find that wasn't running. i did turn it over hitting the poles on the starter, but nothing else.

[Eric W S]

Does your 109 still have the orignal engine? The NADA 6 with the westlake head?

EwS

[graniterover]

If you found a chunk and you've never heard it run, it probably makes sense to replace it or rip it apart and fix it.

If you really want a NADA westlake 6, I think I'll have one at my house in a few weeks that is for sale. It's not mine, but it's attached to something that is. I think the fellow who owns it would like to sell it. It's in New England though....

pm me if you're interested and I'll ask him.

Mark

[chrismccarthy]

i do have the original 6cyl, the odometer reads 49K, so i was hoping to have some life. but upon further inspection i believe this piece to be off the piston itself, where the pin attaches, "Gudgeon pin" ?? the curvature of the piece is that of a quarter. the inside is faced as if to accept the pin, and the outer and inner sides are polished. (yes i tried to upload the pics but forum won't hear of it). i need to get breakfast for a six year old, and then i'll attach a photobucket link.

[chrismccarthy]

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f248/chrismccarthy_photos/Landy%20Pics/

this should be the pics of the sliver of metal i found

[chrismccarthy]

sorry looks like one of the pics is out of focus, perhaps the rough edges shows just enough.
thanks for the offer of the 6cyl, can't imagine the shipping to Texas though. but a spare would be nice.

i'm still wondering how tuff these engines are, could my engine still be drivable? and what about new parts? can they still be had?

[greenmeanie]

This thread might be of interest. A few engines available. Lots of 6 cyl bashing of course.

http://www.landroversonly.com/forums/f7/4-cyl-vs-6-cyl-11710/

Me, I would just go ahaed and either put a Mercruiser 3.0L in or a Chevy 250/292. Purists hate me.

Cheers
Gregor

[jp-]

It doesn't look terribly important. I'd take a flash light and have a look see up into the motor with the oil pan off.

[chrismccarthy]

JP. i do believe it is a piece off the piston where the pin seats, probably an end piece. it must be about 1/3 of the circular end. if that is the case what do you think of running the engine regardless?

[SafeAirOne]

JP. i do believe it is a piece off the piston where the pin seats, probably an end piece. it must be about 1/3 of the circular end. if that is the case what do you think of running the engine regardless?

If it IS part of the circumference of the wrist pin bore on a piston, I think you're in for more trouble. I think that some abnormal forces would have to come into play to cause this to crack in the first place. It doesn't look like a fatigue-type situation to me either, so I'd bet that the cracking extends to the part of the wrist pin bore that's still attached to the piston.

Out of curiosity, are you able to look up into the cylinder bottoms and see where exactly it came from?

If you don't really care about the engine, you could always run it until a complete failure occurs. Who knows, you might get 50,000 miles out of it before the rod/piston mangle the cylinder. Then again, it may never lead to a complete failure...

[chrismccarthy]

i now don't think is metal is from a piston. that metal has a unique textured surface that has a yellow tint to it. as i looked beneath the truck i did see that the bottom of the pistons were complete at the wrist pin. this piece has machined surfaces, one of which is faced at a 45 degree angle. i'm wondering if there is a support to close the wrist pin in the piston housing. as i said this piece is shaped in a curve almost equal to a quarter.
don't know...

[jp-]

If it is from a piston, it would be aluminum not steel. The thing is, it could have been in there from assembly. If the motor was going to blow due to that little piece it would have happened already. Unless you can see visible piston damage or connecting rod damage, I would proceed with a compression check and an oil pressure check. If those two check out, I would attempt to crank the engine.

If, upon startup, a horrible noise presents itself, then further inspection & dissaembly will be required.