henryz28

I just removed my heads and my uncles are telling me my rings are bad. The way they tested it was they tried to move the pistons in the cylinders; they did move a little. They say that the pistons should not move side to side at all. Are they correct?

MachinistOne

Don't take offense, but your uncle is an idiot.

And whatever you do, don't listen to him anymore - stick to a chiltons manual when putting that thing back together.

henryz28

No offense at all, that is what I was hoping to hear. Just for extra insurance I am going to pull the pistons out and take a micrometer to the cylinders. I just don't want to have problems latter. I am going against my uncles request to take my heads to a local; I am sending the to LE for a port job.

MachinistOne

What exactly is the problem you are looking for?

I wouldn't pull the pistons unless you had a known ring problem, in which case measuring the parts does you little good as you will need a hone and new rings at a minimum anyways.

Inspect the cylinders for vertical scoring, look for a ridge at the top of the cylinder, and look at the crosshatch and finish to make sure the cylinders are not glazed or mirror like.

Did you do a leak down test on the motor before pulling the heads?

henryz28

I did do a leak down test a while ago; but have not driven the car much, all cylinders showed close to or a little over 150psi on the compression test and passed the leak down test. The car was burning oil; but not smoking, and running rough at idle.We found that the driver side head gasket was leaking a little coolant and ready to blow. I am thinking the rings are good; I felt nor ridges, I need to do a closer inspection of the cylinders tomorrow.

Guest47904

There are several reasons you could be consuming oil but not smoking. The most common reason is an external oil leak that never makes it to the ground. Or that does make it to the ground while the engine is under load (read going down the highway).

The reason it doesn't make it to the ground is it is burned off by the hot engine. Did you know the most common reason for an external leak is a bad PCV valve?

If the rings were bad and causing oil consumption issues the evidence would be on the plugs.....

While you have the heads off, be sure to check the valve stems for oil leaks. Don't forget head flatness also.

If the cylinders have crosshatch showing, there is no need to do anything to them.