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Cylinder Help/Feedback


rangerOHV

New Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Messages
1
Vehicle Year
1996
Transmission
Automatic
Hello long time reader here,
I am looking for some feedback on the current situation of my Ranger. It’s a 96 4.0L OHV, auto with 236,000 miles.

Long story short, a while back the intake manifold gasket was replaced and just recently the motor would not turn over one morning. Replaced the started cause the motor to start and immediately a clacking/tapping sound was coming from the rear of the engine bay. Sound was not consistent with the engine; it would come and go as if something was dancing around.

Took the heads off and found the surface of the upper left cylinder pretty beat up as well as the sparkplug. Turned the engine over by hand to inspect the cylinder wall and it was in good shape. I believe the cause of this was a small washer/metal piece that slipped in there when the intake manifold was replaced, because I discovered small pieces of metal in the manifold and a few stuck on the surface of the cylinder. I cleaned the surface of the cylinder a bit with a wire brush to get off the few pieces of metal stuck on.

Got the heads re-manufactured and I am about ready to put them back on but I wanted to get some feedback on the cylinder. What am I looking at here? Can I proceed to install the heads back on? Or, is this something worse?:sad:

Thanks!

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Well I can say Ive seen pistons alot worse than that and still ran ok. If you dont have the time or money you will just have to get it as smooth as you can and run it but if the piston is cracked or rings are broken its all for nothing.
 
Only problem I could see is if the larger dents on the outer rim of the piston were big enough squish the ring grove of the piston. I had a similar thing happen on my 2.9, and ended up pulling the piston and found the ring was stuck in the groove.
 
Yea thats a gamble. I had a friend awhile back that thought he would be awsome and put new glow plugs in his diesel. They were autolites and melted and broke off in the cylinder in about 2 miles. I borescoped it and saw the damage inside and pulled the heads. What a mess, I used all sorts of my carbide burr bits and dremmel tips and after about 3 hours had them looking dam near new. I re assembled it this time with Motocraft glow plugs and its been running great for 20,000 miles almost all of it pulling a 20 foot toy hauler with 6 harley's and a full portable shops worth of tools and equipment. If the OP's rings are ok he should be able to re shape and smooth it out and be ok, that rough may disrupt his flame front a tad. Guess he has to decide based on time and money.
 
I would check out the intake valve and seat because it had to go through there
 
I'd replace it. There are so many areas that would have increased heat stress and prone to cracking....etc... The walls could have escaped damage---But the piston? It looks like it's been beat to hell and back.

S-
 
I had a Willys Wagoneer many years back when you could still find them. It had a flat head 6 in it. The original owner had pissed off some local kid a few years before and he poured BBs in the carb. Needless to say all the pistons looked sort of like that and one had a hole in it. I found a Kaiser piston same diameter but had a domed top. Had to grind the top off of it and kept matching the weight until it was the same as the piston next to it. Cleaned everything up and slapped the head back on and drove it for about a year until someone made me such a sweet offer I had to sell it. That Kaiser piston tapped on the head for about 6 months after I put it in but the motor ran like new money and never had an issue after that.
 
if you had metal stuck to the cylinder wall you could also have some ring damage, the dents are also more susceptible to detonation but smooth out the piston as some of the others said and you'll probably be okay. you could throw together and do a compression check before firing the engine
 

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