Engine Disassembly and Inspection

When it's out, I removed the head. When doing this, my Dad has always told me to keep the push rods in order, so they all go back in the same holes. Here is one way to do this:

Cardboard with holes, marked with corresponding cylinders

Simple and effective. The engine shop guy said it didn't matter how they went back in, but I like to play it safe. Disassembly of the engine is pretty easy but it was unbelievably messy. Make sure you drain the oil very thoroughly and disassemble near basins for excess oil and rags/brooms/turps for clean ups. The garage was in a very dirty state when we finished, even though I thought we were very careful. Also, you will want to clean your engine and engine bay. In retrospect I should have done this prior to starting the job.

The various bits that were removed prior to the engine.

Engine, during disassembly

The aim was to remove the pistons. When this was done, we found that several rings were actually broken. Further good news was that the piston ring grooves were worn, so new ones were needed. An old piston was cleaned up and taken to our local engine shop (C.W. Engines in Beech Street, Vermont). New pistons and rings set me back around $300, which was much better than expected, and a new bottom end gasket set was another $65 (got this from Auto surplus in Mitcham). Obviously new oil and filter are necessary for this job. New pistons and rings mean this will be a "rebuilt" engine. Reconditioning, on the other hand, involves a rebore and doing up the head. I didn't want to rebore it, since the ridges were very small. This means the ridges at the top of the cylinder bore: If they're obvious, a rebore is necessary. The thing about a full recondition is that your engine then has to be treated very carefully as it's run in. This means a set of rules which, frankly, I wouldn't be very good at adhering to. Occasional hard acceleration, but mostly very slow and gentle. If you're old enough, you will recall when people used to do this and they hung a sign on the back of their car which usually said "running in". Ah, better go around them, you would think. I avoided reconditioning mostly for this reason, but also the additional expense, delay (you have to book it in) and that initially the compression is so great that you will nearly always have trouble starting the engine after assembly.