It started with the rear end, while looking at how to adjust camber on the rear wheels I noticed that all four mounts were cracked. I disasembled the back half and found that one the frame is not strong enought for my mounts and two that some dill hole didn't tighten the mount bolts. Fixed all that and now the car drive great and I haven't even had it aligned yet. Next up is an engine miss/fouled plug. Fixed a float problem that I thought was the problem but wasn't. Did a compression check only to find one cylinder at 90 and one at 30 the rest 160s. I think the problem is that i stretched the rings to much when I put them on the pistons, All the cylinders have four groves from the ring ends. Looks like going east is out maybe next year when gas is at $6.00
Sorry to hear about the problems. I am sure you will get them worked out. Bummer about the trip, but I don't blame you, I would want everything right for that trip also.
well theres one good thing your in california! good weather! mostly year round! take your time have patience! itll get done
Well.....hate to hear that. Keep your head up. Just remember the only people who never have problems with stuff are pancake butt couch monkeys who live vicariously through other people and then die. The hard design and layout work is done. Crawl up under that thing with a fist full of tubing and fish plates and throw the arc to it. You got scratches deep enough in the cylinder walls to drop compression to 30 psi? Do you already have the heads off or did you scope the bore to find the scratches? I'll guess the ring gaps might have been tight and you got broken ring lands. Your cam OK? A munched lobe will give that sort of thing as well. Neither one is the end of the world. At least you don't have to make another custom set of headers. Cleaver
When I put the rings on the pistons they didn't snap in the groove they stayed stretch out. I have never seen that before but I wasn't really worried about I guess I should have. The cylinders look glazed but the pistons look great no galling on the skirts. The engine temp was always fine so it didn't overheat. Oil pressure was also good. I'm not sure what else could have caused it. I even drilled the steam holes to match up with the cleveland heads. The ring were summit brand plasma moly pre gaped.
So you obviously got everything torn down.....you're 1/3 the way there. Figuring out the problem is 1/3 and getting it all stuffed back together is the other 1/3. I don't know. I'm not sitting there looking at what you are. Could be rings, but it seems odd to have only 2 low holes. Might be time to get your machinist tools and calculator out to double check everything. Did you try pulling the rings back off and dropping them into the bore for a quick measurement? By the way, what holes were low compression. They weren't by chance side-by-side were they? Any signs of blown gasket? I mean 30 psi. WOW. A bore with a slap burned up exhaust valve will read that much. Might want to pull valves in those bores as well. Could be a bent one or bad seat. Cleaver
