So i bought a set of lsa rods and pistons taken out of a crate engine.. but they have some damage to them. A friend of mine is a mecanic, not engine builder, and he says that they can be used. I am surprised if that is true, but hey.. I am a carpenter

I thought that some of you guys could take a look and give me your opinion.
Thanks

 

I wouldn't use them, especially with the gouges around the ring lands. Those gouges look like they would likely scratch up the cylinder walls...

 

I was worried about that too but he, mecanic, said if i carefully removed them i would be fine..damed shame... nice pistons

 

I wouldn't use them. If you are taking the engine down that far, why would you replace parts with damaged parts?

 

I´m not taking an engine down.. and i have the same opinion as you I don´t think I would use them. But thats only opinions. So if someone could tell me, from an engeneering standpoint, why i can or can´t use them i would like to know

 

Your best opinion would be to take them to a machine shop and see what they say. Just looking at them we can't fully judge if they are salvageable.

 

That is good advice. Thing is I live in Denmark, Europe, and nobody around here knows jack about ls engines...
Thanks

 

It looks like some of those are kind of deep. It could be a stress riser which would cause a crack. You may be able to get away with smoothing them out with a grinder but who's to say how well they'll hold up. Those look like LSA pistons so I'm assuming this would go in an engine with a power adder.

 

Wouldn't use them. Looks like they done some scarring of their own to someone else's cylinder walls. Wouldn't even take the chance. Must have been too small for the bore size they were using. Horrible piston slap i bet.

 

I hear you, and thought something like that myself... I was just really surprised by my friend statement, he was like no problem at all... thats why I thought I would ask here. LSA pistons it is


Not exacly sure what you mean. They have never been run. IIRC i saw detailed pics with no damage when I buoght them. I think damage was made in costums or where i picked them up

 

I would just smooth out the rough edges with some sand paper and run them! LS motors in these parts are tough to come by, so I understand what you are dealing with...

 

Well I can say that I've got a piston in mine that looked like it had a slight nick in the top edge of it. No problems at all. But those you may have to smooth out a little deep. I guess if you've got some hefty rings in them and the damage to the ring landings is not too extensive you could use them.

 

What the heck am i saying, go for it

 

If this is a race engine I would replace them, If it's a street engine I would use them. Just debur and smooth the area so there are no high spots. It won't effect ring seal and if you think about it, The sides and skirt have a lot of surface area so the damaged area is not that large compared to the overall area that is in contact with the cylinder wall.
Piston material is rather soft compared to the cylinder walls so they are not likely to gouge them easily. Most cylinder wall scoring seems to occur because of foreign debris being sucked in the combustion chamber and getting wedged between the rings and cylinder wall or between the piston and cylinder wall. Even something as small as a grain of sand can do some serious damage.

 

couldn't pay me to use those. They'd badly scratch up your cylinder walls within the break in period.

 

Care to explain how that would happen if they were deburred to remove high spots?

 

I would use them in a street engine, carbon is going to cover them anyway.

 

Stone them smooth and forget about it.

 

those can be used. just wire wheel them to clean them up and touch up the rough spots. ive seen worse pistons cleaned up and used before.