Bad Piston Good Piston

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xirdneh
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Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:38 am
My tercel:: 87 tercel 4x4 wagon w/reringed engine, 83 tercel 4x4 wagon w/salvaged engine and 4.1 Diff's
Location: seabeck, washington, USA

Bad Piston Good Piston

Post by xirdneh »

I took this engine apart because it knocked when started after sitting for two years
it did not knock before that
piston #3 looked different from the others
i took it to the local machine shop and he mic'd it
he said that the skirt was collapsed as compared to the other three (the photos of the micrometer shows the difference between that piston and a brand new one)
i knew something was up due to the shiney wear patterns on #3
i had seen that before on other pistons removed from engines that knocked (one of the four pistons had cracked or lost its skirt)
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Love those Tercell 4x4 wagons but they sure suffer from road noise.
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splatterdog
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Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:26 am
Location: Minnesota, USA

Re: Bad Piston Good Piston

Post by splatterdog »

Seems like #3 is always the troublemaker.
xirdneh
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 2121
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:38 am
My tercel:: 87 tercel 4x4 wagon w/reringed engine, 83 tercel 4x4 wagon w/salvaged engine and 4.1 Diff's
Location: seabeck, washington, USA

Re: Bad Piston Good Piston

Post by xirdneh »

out of the four knocking engines that i have taken apart
it was # 3 piston that was the problem
1 cracked, 1 collapsed, 2 broken
Love those Tercell 4x4 wagons but they sure suffer from road noise.
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Bad Piston Good Piston

Post by Petros »

number three piston going bad has been my experience as well, I suspect it runs hotter than the others because of the way the coolant circulates, also seems to get slightly less lubrication as well. it is always the number three rod bearing that fails first when oil starved. the oil pumping up the crank galley from the main journal is what lubes connectring rod bearing and when it leaks out the sides of the rod bearing it sprays the inside of the cylinder to lubricate the piston. If that bearing gets slightly less lube, than that piston will also get less lubrication, run hotter, and so it will always be the first to fail.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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