1L rebuild or buy reconditioned ?
Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:10 am
I got an 83 1L Sierra of a mate a few months ago to use as an unregistered farm truck.
Besides the engine it's mechanically sound.
It has always blown a fair bit of smoke under revs as apparently the rings are stuffed.
My mate replaced the head gasket a while ago and reckons that the cyliders were all OK.
Now it's got that much blow by that the spark plugs foul up instantly (causing it to run very roughly) and plumes of smoke bellow from the exhaust.
I've read a bit about 1.3 conversions and this seems too much work for it's intended purposes, and I'm happy with the 1Ls performance as its only stays in low range.
The question is, with my basic-moderate mechanical ability, do I attempt to replace the piston rings to give this engine a new lease on life, or do I track down a reconditioned 1L and simply replace it ?
Based on my futile attempts to find any reco 1Ls I am erring towards replacing the rings myself.
As this is not my DD I can afford for it to be in pieces for a while, however I'd like to only have to do it once !
Is this a fairly straightforward procedure ?, and are there other things I should be looking out for whilst doing this ?
Cheers
Besides the engine it's mechanically sound.
It has always blown a fair bit of smoke under revs as apparently the rings are stuffed.
My mate replaced the head gasket a while ago and reckons that the cyliders were all OK.
Now it's got that much blow by that the spark plugs foul up instantly (causing it to run very roughly) and plumes of smoke bellow from the exhaust.
I've read a bit about 1.3 conversions and this seems too much work for it's intended purposes, and I'm happy with the 1Ls performance as its only stays in low range.
The question is, with my basic-moderate mechanical ability, do I attempt to replace the piston rings to give this engine a new lease on life, or do I track down a reconditioned 1L and simply replace it ?
Based on my futile attempts to find any reco 1Ls I am erring towards replacing the rings myself.
As this is not my DD I can afford for it to be in pieces for a while, however I'd like to only have to do it once !
Is this a fairly straightforward procedure ?, and are there other things I should be looking out for whilst doing this ?
Cheers