[wmsimpson]

Some of you may remember my saga over the last couple of years buying a cheap Disco II on eBay. Well, it has come to this: In addition to a broken rocker shaft and worn cam, which I had previously fixed, the engine also appears to have a slipped liner.

The engine is out and I completed dis-assembly yesterday. I see evidence of one slipped liner in #5 cylinder, which is where I expected it to be. The liner came to rest about .005" below the deck. All the others are flush. Is this enough to confirm the diagnosis?

The plan is to order a set of Turner "top hat" liners and have them installed by a local machine shop if they have the equipment and are willing to do the job. Otherwise, where do I go to have these installed? Are there shops out there that specialize in this repair?

As for the rest of the engine, the main bearings look pretty good, but the big ends are pretty bad, so the crank will need to be ground. I see evidence of a head gasket leak between #8 and the water jacket hole. There is a black track on the block and the gasket's composite material is eroded over the track.

I had parked the truck for several months while I attended to other things, but when I started it up last, I had zero oil pressure, but plenty of oil in the sump. This was unexpected as I just replaced the oil pump gears last year when I did the cam. I haven't opened the oil pump yet. Any ideas on this? Is it possible it simply lost it's prime, or the filter clogged from all the sediments in the oil?

In any case, wish me luck.

 

[helievacpilot]

I see evidence of a head gasket leak between #8 and the water jacket hole. There is a black track on the block and the gasket's composite material is eroded over the track.

This is what I would be looking at first. A lot of times this is actually a crack in the block, and not always visible. Only way to tell for sure is to get the block in for pressure testing. Sometimes repairable, sometimes not.

 

[wmsimpson]

Thanks for the reply. I this case, I don't think there is a crack and leak behind the suspect liner as there is no telltale "steam cleaning" in any of the piston crowns. #5 is the suspect liner, and we're pretty sure it's moving since we see evidence of it cutting into the head gasket from the underside. #8 is where the black track is. This engine supposedly had head gasket work shortly before I bought it, and I think they just did a poor job of installing the new ones. They didn't resurface the block deck and there is some pitting there. Once I clean it up I'll look more closely for a crack but again, I don't suspect problems with that particular liner (#8 )

I am working on getting a set of plates made to pressure test the block.