killervette666

Decided to pull the heads yesterday to port and polish them as well as make it easier to get the cam in, and it looks like somebody has tore down this engine before because the head gasket looked pretty new and in good condition, what i did find is that the pistons have a light coating of black deposited on them, equally on most of the cylinders, is this normal or does this indicate excessive oil burning, also could it be caused by running way rich? Also is there any way to check if my piston rings are okay without taking the piston out? I did notice that when some of the coolant got into the cylinder bores it stayed there and didnt seep through the rings. Overall it was a pretty painless procedure, cant wait to get it all back together

SanDiegoPaul

Hmmm sounds all normal to me! Is this the first engine you've disassembled? Not trying to be funny with that, just curious.

Black on pistons is normal, in the degree you described it. Coolant on top of them not draining past the rings is too! You would have to have rings-and cylinders- worn so badly it would have been smoking like a train, before you would see coolant leak down past the rings with the engine disassembled. In fact I've rebuilt engines that were just like that, and there still was no seeping past the rings without compression.

Now, as for a way to test the rings without pulling the pistons? No. You would need to pull all 8 pistons, measure the bore taper, and evaluate the carbon on the rings before you would have any more info than you have now.

Corey_68

The carbon buildup on the pistons is normal, no need to worry.

As far as your rings, if you're not burning oil and the car isn't smoking the rings are in good shape.

Avette4me

I recommend that you use new head bolts as well as new gaskets for reassemble, if you weren't already planning to....

killervette666

Thanks for the info , and yes this is the first engine we've disassembled, im certainly enjoing this much more than doing the suspension upgrades we've done so far, those turn into a nightmare real fast

We are using new headgaskets and head bolts, we've even gone ahead and ordered a thinner gasket to hopefully raise compression, im going to post about that later on.

Avette4me

one other thing that I've run into during reassemble...you may need to "burp" the cooling system. My engine wanted to run very hot during the first test run. I found that I had air trapped in the system. The fix I used was as follows.

• fill to the neck of the radiator and leave the cap off
• start the car and let it warm until the thermostat opens
• cut the bottom out of a clean plastic quart oil container and place the threaded end in the neck of the radiator - this will serve as a "reservoir"
• as the car warms, air and coolant will bubble up into the plastic oil can reservoir. When it goes back down, refill the radiator.

This process only took about 15 minutes and the radiator quit "bubbling over".

Hope this helps...

killervette666

Thanks for the tip, ive been wondering for a while about how to get the air out of my radiator and coolant system

My79Vette

Since you have your heads off, I'd be pulling the valves and at least lapping them all and putting in new seals. I hate smoke when I start up.