Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications 3.0L Duratec 3L bites the dust... Need to find one piston

Originally posted by SVTake2:

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Originally posted by fastcougar:

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You do realize that you must pull the pistons from the top right ... that would involve new head bolts since they are TTY and new head gaskets, timing cover gaskets & fluids ... pull the pan and do it that way.

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Done and done.. I have a bare block in my engine bay and all the parts including gaskets, head bolts and rod bolts ready to go. I even have a cylinder hone to put new criss cross patter n into the bad cyl. I just wasn't sure if you could remove a piston and reinstall it without disturbing the rings. Can you take them in and out no problem or do you need new rings every time? I do have a ring compressor tool to put the new piston in but I'm just not sure if its better to leave the other five in the cyl and try to clip the bearings in from the underside.

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Ok, if you have good cylinder walls then DO NOT rehone the cylinders by hand on this engine! You will not be able to get a better seal honing by hand and replacing the rings with aftermarket, as you can just by replacing that one piston and reusing the rings that were on the old one or using the new Ford rings that should have come with the piston.

Here is my advice.
Take the rings back that you bought. Take the new piston from Ford and if it came rings installed then leave them and install it as-is since in your previous post you said there was no damage to the cylinder wall. This and newere engines are designed with little to no break-in (Procyon taught me this and I learned it all the hard way lol) on the cylinders. The cylinders are crosshatched and polished then a ring of the correct alloy and tension is designed to ride in it with minimal friction. In short time the rings are seated to the cylinder. If you hone the cylinder you make it rougher and the roughness will wear away the surface coating on the compression rings and they will not seal anymore. Hand honing at this point would require the use of aftermarket rings such as sealed power probably.

While the head is off just make sure there are no high spots of mushroomed metal where the head was impacted by the solid object, do a light sanding job over it to reduce the roughness so it doesn't attract carbon build up or create hot spots of metal in the cylinder that can cause pre-ignition.
Put on new gaskets and reassemble it.
In the bottom end put in the new rod bearings and rod bolts and call it a day.