Piston damage

[europeanme]

after separating my rods from the pistons I noticed a small dent on the top corner of
N°3 piston. I plan to dress the small area out to reduce any potential failure from any weakened part of the forging.

The material has raised slightly on the face but the diameter of the piston remains ok with no raised area.

I suppose what I am asking is will this cause any problem if i do this?.....any feedback is welcome.

cheers
Mike

[Error404]

are those oversized pistons? don't remember seeing a + on mine
had it been dropped during assembly?

[europeanme]

are those oversized pistons? don't remember seeing a + on mine
had it been dropped during assembly?

i hope they aren't oversized..... they fit in the bore of my block quite nicely...so heres hoping....
it hasn't been dropped during assembly as i haven't done owt with them...yet...iirc they came out the block like that..

[QuattroFever]

that looks like knock. looks burned away. has it run lean at any point or misfired on bad fuel and hot weather?

[europeanme]

that looks like knock. looks burned away. has it run lean at any point or misfired on bad fuel and hot weather?

no idea mate, it came out of a bottom end brought form another forum member..

[europeanme]

are those oversized pistons?

i have mneasured them and they are 80.97 around the piston skirt and 80.79 above the oil ring grooves....phew...i thought i was in for a right pile of pain..

[Thuppu]

are those oversized pistons? don't remember seeing a + on mine
had it been dropped during assembly?

The + don't stand for owersize, the measure text is on a different place on the piston. I've asked about the + (and some numbers) marking in my project thread but nowbody seemd to know what it stands for.

[AUDIS2avant]

As long as its std'ish power i would use it no problem, sand it down gently so there is no sharp raised edges and youll be fine m8

[europeanme]

As long as its std'ish power i would use it no problem, sand it down gently so there is no sharp raised edges and youll be fine m8

ah...it isn't going to be standard power....

[Thuppu]

I would say those minor dents wouldn't efect anything even on heavily upgraded power levels.

[europeanme]

I would say those minor dents wouldn't efect anything even on heavily upgraded power levels.

i was thinking that....as long as the top face is flat and the outside diameter isn't protruding too much to score the bores, it should be fine as there is plenty of material on the piston... i may even get it crack checked at work...just to make sure i haven't inadvertantly taken too much off....

[Jonnybravo]

Clean it up and use it, no worse than some det marks I've seen on pistons and they are still going now in modified engines

Personally though mate if thats out of the engine I sold you then its been dropped since being removed from the bore, that or knocked against something as I'm sure you will agree that bottom end had never been apart since it was built originally at the Audi factory and there is no way you can damage it like that with it fitted IMHO

[europeanme]

the thing is if it had been dropped after i took it out of the block the mark would be shiny and not the same colour as the rest of the piston...i suspect the engine has had a hard life due to the colour/state of a few things i have found upon stripping down.
Would you pm me the history of this engine...please don't think i am after anything at all, i am just curious.....

[Jonnybravo]

I'll post it on here if thats ok Mike.

I don't recall having any history for that engine or the car except what mileage it had which was reasonably low.

The car was a nail, rotten beyond belief but was the right money and did have perfect running gear I was told, I actually met the chap in Birmingham in the early hours as he had come over from Ireland to do the deal. I drove the car back and besides a blow from the downpipe to system joint it was sweet as a nut, no knocks rattles, smoke or anything like that, it was chipped and went very well but crabbed like crazy so wasn't exactly a nice car to drive.

I left the car on the drive as I already had to cars in my unit, when I eventually got the car to the unit I noticed what looked like wet oil around the top of the block, someone on the forum wanted a head I decided to split the engine as although it ran fine I didn't want to chance selling a engine to someone that might have a suspect gasket failure of some description.
Typically on removal it was clear there was no leaks of any sort from the HG and it was the cam cover gasket that overtime had left a lot of oil in that area. I was quite annoyed with myself for not washing it down as it was a sweet runner and even after 3 months of sitting on my drive it started first time without a rattle ( which is unusual ) no smoke at all and really proved it was a great runner as I was told.

Typically the head was also perfect, no cracks anywhere so that annoyed me as that I knew the bottom end would be a nightmare to sell on and overtime I had to keep dropping the price until I finally sold it to yourself.

I was dissapointed that the engine has not been much good to you in the end, it certainly was a great runner and although its turned out to have a few hidden problems ( none of which I can say I would of known about ) its a shame its not worked out how you wanted. Typically I did know you were building an engine so I assumed ( wrongly ) that it was getting a rebore and some new pistons so the fact it had rusty bores when I sold it on were not going to be a issue, and as for the piston it was so long ago I can't say I remember looking at it that hard to of noticed anything like that. I will still stand by the fact it looks to of been dropped and if that wasn't in your posession that without doubt the engine has been apart before either of us owned it. Strangely it didn't look like that engine had ever been out of the car as I'm sure you will agree it had more grease and dirt on it than any engine I have ever seen !

All I can tell you about that engine really is that it ran sweet as a nut, I believe even Pete ( Acidburn ) heard it running and would back me up on that, I certainly don't intend to sell rubbish, everything I sell works and if it has a known fault I would ofcourse mention that in the listing as I know how bloody awkward these cars are to put together and I would be fuming if I fitted a known good engine to find out its nothing of the sort.

I would as mentioned already just clean that up and use it, it will be fine and I'm sure many others would agree on that.

[4WheelDrifter]

Mike, they'll be fine when you skim them flat. :mischeif: