BennehBoy's D2 adventure

Yeah you're not the first to suggest re-ringing them all - I've just ordered a full set.

Sigh, bankruptcy here I come!

Popped all the valves out, most of the inlets are caked up. Will Mic them up later to see if they are in tolerance before spending hours cleaning them:


All the ports need some TLC:


Any suggestions for a good chemical carbon remover? Paraffin isn't working too great on the valves.

And the new Kolben Schmidt piston assembly arrived:

I always clean my valves by putting them in the pillar drill and using some emery cloth to get the cack off them.

You could also use a pistol drill held in a vice.

Or a lathe if you fancy becoming my besh fren at the very mention of owning one.

Don't tighten the chuck so much as to damage the stems of course.

I really am a drongo, didn't even think of putting them in a drill.

I'd love to own a lathe but simply have nowhere for one to go.

Valve, springs and collet Coke soak:

are you measuring pistons and gapping rings ,piston skirt is oval at cold, wire wheel is best for cleaning valves

jamesmartin said:

are you measuring pistons and gapping rings ,piston skirt is oval at cold, wire wheel is best for cleaning valves

Click to expand...

I can attempt to measure them with the crappy digital caliper I have, but tbh I hadn't really thought too hard about it - was going to check them for wear like the one I've replaced and take it from there.

Not sure what you mean by gapping the rings? Is that just to tell me if the bores are worn? I already slid the top ring from the duff cylinder into all the bores and they aren't oval - the ring gap was 0.5mm which is just over tolerance for that ring (0.3-0.4), but I suspect that's more because the ring is worn than the bores.

Will pop the new ones down and check at various heights.

Popped the old core plugs out:


And inserted the new ones with some thread lock, tapped them to just under the surface of the bore for the plugs:


Cheers for the tips on that James.

yes gapping rings is fitting each ring in bore and measuring gap , if a bore has wear it will be worse just below top of bore at the highest point rings reach and 90 degrees to crank ,bores dont wear at very top or bottom or fore and aft,so you check ring gap at very top or halfway down, to measure bores you either use bore comparator or upside down piston and feeler gauge again measure at 90 degrees to gudgeon pin as its widest part of skirt, its not unkown for rings to come to long and need filing to suit, pistons can vary by a good few thou in size,when you rebore engines you bore to piston size not nominal book size

Yeah I had the top ring sat at the top of where it would get to on all 5 and measured the gap, it was the same for all 5 cylinders. Also tried poking feeler gauge down side of ring all way around and couldn't - I used the piston to push the ring in to make sure it was sat same depth all round.

The replacement piston came with the rings already on, do I need to get them off and check gaps on them too - hadn't thought about it tbh.

Also, is there a foolproof way to fit/remove the rings without 1) marking the pistons, 2) snapping the rings? seem to be quite a fiddle unless someone has a clever technique to share?

you can get a sort of ring pliers which act on the ring ends and open the ring uniformly without twisting

no idea of the cost - sorry

great job by the way

Cheers, will be grabbing some of those.

Not sure how much you would pay for those either, or if Halfords do them. You could try Frost in Rochdale and order on-line from them.

Frost specialize in auto restoration products and have a very large range although bigger items can be rather pricey, but I don't think you'll be rolling sheet metal into sit up and beg style wheelarches.

What I do have somewhere is one of those gizmos for putting the piston c/rings back into the bore, although you will have to pick it up form my place if you want it this weekend as I am dead busy over the next few days and will probably need cloning.

Cheers for the link, will grab a set, don't want to break any of these rings....

Really enjoying this thread.you must be minted and have a very understanding mrs lol.been doing chassis and interior on mine for past 4+months.i had sold it a few weeks back. then when the buyer came back and tried to knock the price down i returned his deposit and said sorry cant sell.all that work makes it a forever vehicle.good luck, keep posting.

cambridgecockney said:

Really enjoying this thread.you must be minted and have a very understanding mrs lol.been doing chassis and interior on mine for past 4+months.i had sold it a few weeks back. then when the buyer came back and tried to knock the price down i returned his deposit and said sorry cant sell.all that work makes it a forever vehicle.good luck, keep posting.

Click to expand...

Broke now, and what she doesn't know won't hurt her

So, bombed over to a mates and borrowed some bits...

Ring pliers, bobble hone, piston ring compressor, and a very cool digital torque/angle bar. He also threw in some ATF to use with the hone, damned decent of him!


Cleaned the pump/stiffener assembly and removed the broken pickup screw. The pickup had loads of sealant beads in it, but no swarf.


Cleaned the deck, still needs some more attention - will get some 1200 grit paper on it with a block then scotchbrite it again:


Cleaned most of the gunk from the cylinder tops ready for the new rings, slow laborious and boring work - could probably do more yet, but how far do you go?:


Then pulled all the pistons, only to get a very bad feeling... almost all of them are badly warn, mainly on the thrust side. None are as bad as no 1 was but they are damned close. Gonna bite the bullet and get another 4 brand spanking Kolben Schmidts. This means I'll have 3 unopened sets of rings up for grabs, the 4th extra set I used to check the bores, good news is they are all in tolerance (these KS rings come pre-gapped to factory fit apparently).

Pistons 4 & 5:


Pistons 2 & 3 (no 2 is the least worn):


So, yet more cash to give to turners.

Bloody hell, This has turned into a proper engine rebuild hasn't it
To say it started with a head gasket.
Nevertheless still, Top work

Yeah it sure has, need any TD5 rings?