Nerves. Had never done it before and was scared what it would require. In hindsight it was very easy (technically), but did require a bit of time.

Step 1: Wrapped a cylinder hone in scotch bright (green) and coated the walls with ATF. Used a drill and ran the hone for about 30-45 seconds in each cylinder. This step really cleans things up. Could still feel a step at the top of bore where the rings reversed direction (TDC)

Step 2: clean bores with brake clean to remove oils. look for a very light cross-hatch and dull appearance.

Step 3: Wrap hone with felt or get felt pads. Use the Sunnen paste for Alusil (AN-30 I think from Goodson). Apply to bore and felt pads. Run the drill up and down again for about 30 seconds to a minute per cylinder. Clean with mineral spirits and coat bore with a light coat of oil. After this, the bump at the top of the bore was almost completely eliminated. Things looked and felt uniform. Before the bore was slippery, after it had a slight "roughness" to it, kind of like copy paper vs. photo paper.

That's it. A little messy, but not hard. This will expose the silicon for bedding the new rings. I cannot say if you will feel the difference, but I believe the experts that this is the way to go if you're going to re-ring your motor.

 

Thanks. I read a 32 page post a while back on Pelican describing the same basic procedure (the results all seemed to be good). I just wanted to confirm that your process was the same. I'm at that point in my "refresh" where I need to make a decision to take this step or not, your success is promising.

 

Please note that the manual doesn't require any honing or paste use. That's reserved for going to oversized pistons. Also note that the tolerance groups are in increments of 0.010mm. That's 0.0004 inches. If scratches or any surface changes are seen then the fitment is being affected.

For my builds, I use a green Scotchbrite pad with engine oil to lightly clean the surface. I wipe that down and then oil it for installation. That's it.

 

Thanks for all the helpful info. I am quite sure that I will leave that up to Straycat. The rings have been received and progress continues on the engine. The 79 that will receive this engine is still at the body shop.

 

That escalated quickly. Glad I decided to just redo everything.... Pistons broken between first and second rings.

 

Someone re-ringed this engine already. And did it wrong. Notice something funny here? ( pulled it straight out, no twisting, this is how the rings were)

 

That's pretty ugly, for a bunch of reasons, but in terms of ring alignment, couldn't that be chance? Unpinned rings do rotate, I think.

 

That's pretty ugly, for a bunch of reasons, but in terms of ring alignment, couldn't that be chance? Unpinned rings do rotate, I think.

 

What is the size of the piston for the M28/11 engine??
Does anyone have any laying around??

EDIT: I do have a set of 32 valve pistons to put towards the correct size.......

 

97mm...and they vary by year/model for 4.7l engines.

 

So is it better to buy to replace only damaged ones (might be all), find a used block or just find a decent parts car and hope to break even after a year?

 

Just buy a good used engine. Ringland breakage is not common unless it was detonating badly for a long time.

 

This is a money question. You need to price actual alternatives and then decide. Be aware that other parts and engine may have other problems.

If it was my engine, and with my experience, I'd replace the broken pistons and get the stronger top rings.

 

Thanks Glen. The budget is certainly a concern.

 

I got a motor sitting at the shop Brian. Was TOLD it is good....just the small timing belt at distributor is broken.