Piston Slap - End of the story
#1
02-26-2012, 05:01 PM
Piston Slap - End of the story
Long post, grab a beer.
I had this case of piston slap, posted in the past about it. Tried valve adjustment, fixed an exhaust mani leak, no joy. Had 160K on the engine and liked the car. Choices at this point were to get an used engine for about $600-1000 or repair in my garage. Since repair sounds like fun, and never done an engine before I went for it.
Taking things apart: turned crank to line up timing marks. Unhook all vac and water hoses (drained system prior) to free up the head, removed valve cover and head. Removed TB and balancer, removed oil pan, crank bridge and lower caps, conn rod caps and pulled pistons. Pulled upper crank bearings, reinstalled the bridge with the center crank cap and bearing for support. Pulled crank thrust bearing.
Wear assessment: crank journals look new, cylinder bores still have 45 degree honing marks. Some wear/shine on the thrust line front and back (lack of lube at wrist pin) to be measured later. No cylinder top ridge. Piston scuffing on thrust lines front/back. Lots of wear on the crank and rod bearings. Crank bearing #5 (tranny side was worn to the copper) and one or two of the rod bearings were badly pitted. Most bearings worn to the nickel. Most wear on the top half, bottom halves still had the lead intact. To explain what I'm talking about, the crank/rod bearings have a steel shell and a copper, nickel and lead layer on top.
Measurements: I was lucky enough to get a bore gauge, and a pair of 3" micro and 1" micro and a set of small bore micrometers. Turns out that the worst cyl wear was 27 ten thousands, which is close to the repair limit in the book (I have a Honda factory repair manual). Conn rods small end measures in spec, some wear of course. Did not bother with the pistons which I was going to replace anyways. Numbered all the crank and rod bearings and marked top/bot since there was some half shelling (they used different size bearings for same journal) to get correct clearance. Numbered conn rods and pistons.
Part order and cost: I had 2 options - get block bored and honed to oversize and get oversize pistons (about $110 each) or get standard pistons and replace crank/rod bearings. Went with option 2 due to cost and the fact that the block still had some life left in it. Ordered parts from Honda Part Now on line, all OEM - total cost some $500.00. Ordered same code bearings as originals, based on color code on bearings.
Part preparation: got a high rez scale and weighed the conn rods. Polished the cast marks and equalized weights. Enlarged oil hole chamfer on small end. Weighed again the rod, piston, pin, rings and bearings for each cylinder and equalized weights within 0.5 gram. For the lower crank bearings enlarged oil hole to match hole in lower cap. Cleaned with water and detergent and air dried. Measured new pistons and assigned bigger one to cyl with largest wear, and so on.
Cleaning: cleaned top of block, used 600 grit wet sandpaper to remove some corrosion. Same treatment to mating surfaces of manifolds, EGR valve, and wherever I had o-rings on flat surfaces. Wiped cyl bores and coated with assembly lube. Wiped crank journals and smeared assembly lube. Wiped clean oil pan mating surface on bottom of block. Cleaned oil pan old gasket and oil pan. Cleaned corrosion on all water line ports of the intake mani. Removed carbon from EGR ports on the intake. Cleaned gunk on intake and throttle body. Cleaned combustion chamber. Cleaned oil galeries in the crank cap bridge.
Assembly: heated new pistons in oven, then assembled conn rods and wrist pins. Using a rented ring compressor (AutoZone thank you) pushed pistons in bores. Installed top crank bearings. Installed conn rod bearings and lower caps, torqued to spec. Installed crank thrust bearings. Installed lower crank bearings in their respective caps in the bridge. Installed the bridge and torqued to spec. Rotated crank by hand, no binding. Temporarily installed TB cover and pulley and turned crank to line up marks. Removed oil press switch and replaced with sender and gauge. Installed head and torqued. Completed installation with intake/exhaust manifolds, throttle body, all new gaskets and o-rings. Replaced TB and tensioners, cover, pulley, belts. Replaced valve cover and secured. Applied liquid gasket to oil pan lip, torqued to spec. Hooked up exhaust, gas line.
Prep to start: filled with oil, 5.5 quarts since dry, antifreeze. Started right up, no more slap - nice. Oil pressure up to 75psi cold - nice. Left to idle for 20 mins to break in the new bearings.
At this point I put 500 miles on the engine, it feels like new. That's it.
I had this case of piston slap, posted in the past about it. Tried valve adjustment, fixed an exhaust mani leak, no joy. Had 160K on the engine and liked the car. Choices at this point were to get an used engine for about $600-1000 or repair in my garage. Since repair sounds like fun, and never done an engine before I went for it.
Taking things apart: turned crank to line up timing marks. Unhook all vac and water hoses (drained system prior) to free up the head, removed valve cover and head. Removed TB and balancer, removed oil pan, crank bridge and lower caps, conn rod caps and pulled pistons. Pulled upper crank bearings, reinstalled the bridge with the center crank cap and bearing for support. Pulled crank thrust bearing.
Wear assessment: crank journals look new, cylinder bores still have 45 degree honing marks. Some wear/shine on the thrust line front and back (lack of lube at wrist pin) to be measured later. No cylinder top ridge. Piston scuffing on thrust lines front/back. Lots of wear on the crank and rod bearings. Crank bearing #5 (tranny side was worn to the copper) and one or two of the rod bearings were badly pitted. Most bearings worn to the nickel. Most wear on the top half, bottom halves still had the lead intact. To explain what I'm talking about, the crank/rod bearings have a steel shell and a copper, nickel and lead layer on top.
Measurements: I was lucky enough to get a bore gauge, and a pair of 3" micro and 1" micro and a set of small bore micrometers. Turns out that the worst cyl wear was 27 ten thousands, which is close to the repair limit in the book (I have a Honda factory repair manual). Conn rods small end measures in spec, some wear of course. Did not bother with the pistons which I was going to replace anyways. Numbered all the crank and rod bearings and marked top/bot since there was some half shelling (they used different size bearings for same journal) to get correct clearance. Numbered conn rods and pistons.
Part order and cost: I had 2 options - get block bored and honed to oversize and get oversize pistons (about $110 each) or get standard pistons and replace crank/rod bearings. Went with option 2 due to cost and the fact that the block still had some life left in it. Ordered parts from Honda Part Now on line, all OEM - total cost some $500.00. Ordered same code bearings as originals, based on color code on bearings.
Part preparation: got a high rez scale and weighed the conn rods. Polished the cast marks and equalized weights. Enlarged oil hole chamfer on small end. Weighed again the rod, piston, pin, rings and bearings for each cylinder and equalized weights within 0.5 gram. For the lower crank bearings enlarged oil hole to match hole in lower cap. Cleaned with water and detergent and air dried. Measured new pistons and assigned bigger one to cyl with largest wear, and so on.
Cleaning: cleaned top of block, used 600 grit wet sandpaper to remove some corrosion. Same treatment to mating surfaces of manifolds, EGR valve, and wherever I had o-rings on flat surfaces. Wiped cyl bores and coated with assembly lube. Wiped crank journals and smeared assembly lube. Wiped clean oil pan mating surface on bottom of block. Cleaned oil pan old gasket and oil pan. Cleaned corrosion on all water line ports of the intake mani. Removed carbon from EGR ports on the intake. Cleaned gunk on intake and throttle body. Cleaned combustion chamber. Cleaned oil galeries in the crank cap bridge.
Assembly: heated new pistons in oven, then assembled conn rods and wrist pins. Using a rented ring compressor (AutoZone thank you) pushed pistons in bores. Installed top crank bearings. Installed conn rod bearings and lower caps, torqued to spec. Installed crank thrust bearings. Installed lower crank bearings in their respective caps in the bridge. Installed the bridge and torqued to spec. Rotated crank by hand, no binding. Temporarily installed TB cover and pulley and turned crank to line up marks. Removed oil press switch and replaced with sender and gauge. Installed head and torqued. Completed installation with intake/exhaust manifolds, throttle body, all new gaskets and o-rings. Replaced TB and tensioners, cover, pulley, belts. Replaced valve cover and secured. Applied liquid gasket to oil pan lip, torqued to spec. Hooked up exhaust, gas line.
Prep to start: filled with oil, 5.5 quarts since dry, antifreeze. Started right up, no more slap - nice. Oil pressure up to 75psi cold - nice. Left to idle for 20 mins to break in the new bearings.
At this point I put 500 miles on the engine, it feels like new. That's it.
#3
02-26-2012, 06:33 PM
Administrator
^ Well Written Post^^
That was a good read and great information..we Thank You!
WheelBrokerAng
WheelBrokerAng
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