Skoda Rally Blog

…I wouldn’t have any at all!

This afternoon I was off work, so I got the sump off the engine (easy enough), and then set about removing the pistons – again, easy enough as it just involves undoing the big end caps, and then popping the pistons out of the top of the engine.  I decided to do No.1 first as it was where the problem apparently lay.  It came out easily enough, and it didn’t take too much looking at it to see what was wrong…

Oh dear.

The rings were fine.   The piston between them was cracked.  No idea how this had happened as I thought I was very careful when I fitted them (they fitted in really easily), plus it originally ran well for a good while before it all went wrong.  Very odd.  But undoubtedly not good news… Once the top ring was off, a big section of piston came out.

Bits missing...

And the same was true for the next ring too (the pic I’ve taken is really blurred, so i’ll do another one soon).  So, that looks like that’s it for that – the only spare piston I have is not the right ‘grade’ for the liner in the engine, and frankly given this I wouldn’t trust the rest of the engine, so it’s time for another!  Yes, it’s engine change time.  I have another good engine (ran very well) which has been in the shed for a while, so I will put that one in instead – the head is already fitted, so hopefully over the course of the weekend it will get fitted and be running.  That’s the plan anyway, as the weather is going to turn nasty here on Monday…