That hole is pretty big. There was no compression in that cylinder. Excessive gas burning in the cat converter exceeding the upper limit of my laser thermometer. The cause is driving the car like a grandma on short trips causing excessive carbon build up and eventual failing to adequately transfer the heat from the valve to the head. The solution is a valve job to replace those valves. The liner was done too. Don't drive like grandmas.
Hence why "Italian tune-ups" work so well - Sometimes you need to just burn that s:censored:t off before it can do some damage!
We speculated that another member's 348 engine detonated when carbon build up loosened and exploded in the cylinder, thereby punching a hole in the piston. The cause was believed to be grandma driving on short trips. People, it is your duty and responsibility to redline your engine weekly!
I do my part I have a sticky transmission, when warmed up I literally have to hit 8000 rpms to get it out of 1 st or 2 nd gear.
I never drive my car without hitting 8k a couple of times after its warmed up. Why else would you own the car? I hope the owner of that valve learned his lesson. We got back from the lake today and my wife realized she left her phone. I volunteered to drive the 60 miles to go back and get it. What a great husband! Backroads, no traffic, how could you not get into the upper revs? It was about 90 degrees and the car ran great, I even found a gas station with 93 non ethanol fuel. Good day.
I'm going with that too. Question is, how were the other valves? Seems like really excessive for just driving slow. I wouldn't think that the car would pass federal emissions if you weren't able to drive it like a normal car, even considering the high compression ratio. Has anyone seen this before, even at a lower level? I'm just wondering if this is a 355 specific problem.
