[78w72]

Originally Posted by Cliff R

"Nobody has proven to me that I should rebuild the bottom end because of a noise that eludes me."

Forgive me if I didn't read all the responses, but at this point in my life I don't have an hour and a half to give up. If someone else actually installed pistons backwards in an engine build, by accident or on purpose, then did a 100,000 mile test I missed it.

So far as I know I'm the only one that actually installed 8 pistons in the WRONG direction and ran the engine like that. It was NOT good. Made "odd" noises, used a bit too much oil for my liking, and you could just tell something wasn't right with it. I left it that way for 10,000 miles and it just got worse. The rings never "set" as good as they should or the pistons slapping around some in th e bores didn't allow them to seal up well, doesn't matter. I pulled the engine and moved them to the correct locations with the "F" on the front of the pistons facing forward. That immediately fixed ALL the issues including some oil consumption and the engine went on to be flawless for another 90,000 miles.

A lesson early in my learning curve I made sure NOT TO REPEAT........FWIW.......

I asked this before regarding moving pistons but must have been overlooked... wont moving pistons to different cylinders after the engine has been broken in & ran for awhile cause problems with rings sealing? Or do you keep the rings in the same cylinder swapping them to the other pistons? Never heard of swapping pistons/rings to a different cylinder after break in.

[Jay S]

Originally Posted by 78w72

I asked this before regarding moving pistons but must have been overlooked... wont moving pistons to different cylinders after the engine has been broken in & ran for awhile cause problems with rings sealing? Or do you keep the rings in the same cylinder swapping them to the other pistons? Never heard of swapping pistons/rings to a different cylinder after break in.

The correct way is hone the cylinders, break the glaze, install new rings. Then swap the pistons.

On a good engine that has a good ring seal you could just swap them bank too bank, and do nothing and most of the time it will be ok. Engine masters did that and had the same dyno results back to back. But on a seasoned engine, your better off deglazing and rering.

I would imagine Cliff honed his 400 SBC out and installed new rings when he swapped his pistons.

I didn’t read what is all going on I guess, sounds like there is some ghost noise that is yet to be tracked down was the reason this was apart???? Good luck

[78w72]

Originally Posted by Jay S

The correct way is hone the cylinders, break the glaze, install new rings. Then swap the pistons.

On a good engine that has a good ring seal you could just swap them bank too bank, and do nothing and most of the time it will be ok. Engine masters did that and had the same dyno results back to back. But on a seasoned engine, your better off deglazing and rering.

I would imagine Cliff honed his 400 SBC out and installed new rings when he swapped his pistons.

I didn’t read what is all going on I guess, sounds like there is some ghost noise that is yet to be tracked down was the reason this was apart???? Good luck

Thanks for the clarification. With all the critical steps involved in a good rebuild I was surprised nobody mentioned honing & new rings, seems that would be the only way to ensure a good ring seal vs just swapping pistons & already broken in rings to another cylinder where the rings werent broken in at.