355 Engine Rebuild - Was supposed to only be a major

Interesting. Are the tensioner bearings Hill or Ferrari? What kind of shape are they in? And how common is it that the tensioner itself freezes up? Haven't heard much about that.

PS it's nice that you're giving Ron Jeremy something to do in retirement

 

awesome, thanks!

 

Good stuff. I'm a fan of your channel.

So what's the deal, is your friend going to make 355 manual conversion parts?

 

Have you made sure one of the spark plugs isnt cross-threaded?

 

Well, I can tell you guys are not 355 experts ... yet. It's a good thing you are waiting for the expert to strip it down.

 

By the way, it is entirely normal for one belt to be tight while the other slack. It all depends on where the cam is at the moment. Why is it on a stand? Are you changing the liners too? A valve job can be done with the engine in the subframe.

 

Deep pocket customers... it's not going to be cheap.

 

Looks like a 5.2 car.

Let me know if you need 5.2 wiring diagrams. You may need them when refitting the engine harness. It's not always clear what connectors go where, so you need to match the pins on the connectors to specific sockets on the Motronics ECU plug.

 

"washed out piston rings causing excessive compression"

 

There are a few counter-intuitive statements in part 1 of this YouTube series

 

Counter-intuitive does not mean wrong .. it just means unexpected

 

Let's not play gotcha games with guys who make no pretenses about being professional mechanics. I think Daniel was trying to convey something his mechanic said about valve guide wear that I will translate here, because it is a real thing:

There can be a phase early in valve guide wear when you get artificially high compression test results because oil seepage past worn guides enhances ring sealing without showing (yet) as leakage past the valve seats. That latter problem comes when guides are severely worn -- so badly they allow so much valve stem play in the guide that the valve head no longer seals against the valve seat, resulting in poor leakdown test results. But again, this was a comment about the early phase of guide wear, when they're leaking oil but not so worn there's excessive valve stem play.

 

So watching that a compression test alone does not convince me that the bottom end needs to be touched. But, it's not my car and I have no hands on it. So, my opinion is worthless. I do agree that the valve job is needed. Cyl 1 and 2 are almost always the bad ones. When the heads are off, you can see the liners and judge their conditions and decide.

 

I'm wondering if the engine was allowed to cool too much. During my car's PPI, all of my cylinders were in the 195 to 215 range and my tech said that was ok.

If you see the earlier episodes, there is a professional tech working with Daniel, but my earlier comment was the very opposite of a criticism.

However, I should comment on one safety issue in the earlier episodes where the tech says that the fuel pump doesn't prime on the 5.2 just by turning on the ignition. It does prime (according to the WSM), but it's a one shot affair and even if you cycle the ignition switch off and on it won't prime again. After that, the engine has to be cranked.

I've been told that there is no schrader port for testing fuel pressure on the 5.2 and I couldn't find one on my car. Seems there are variations.

 

The cylinders filled with oil due to wasted guides is not the same as washed out rings causing high compression.

Either way, clear the cylinders of oil and do a leakdown/compression test is what I would do before making assumptions based on tests you think are not accurate.

I mean sure, rebuild it if you want to but may not be at all necessary.

 

Good luck with everything! I needed a full rebuild in mine in 2020. Quite the endeavor.

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