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So my lq4 got water in it and it sat like that for 2 years before I bought it unbeknownst to me until I tore it down. My idea now was to use the block and and bore it for some ls3 pistons and rods to keep it budget friendly as it's just going to be a NA street engine. I bought some used ls3 pistons and rods from a forum member here after he sent me pics of the pistons and rods and they seemed clean. I specifically asked about the condition of the parts and he said he doesn't sell junk only good parts. After a lengthy deal with shipping and waiting 2 weeks for everything this is what I got
I've never bought used stuff and this is why so do you guys think this stuff is salvageable? I'm not real happy about the rods but I think they are useable with some now bushings and a clean up. I'm worried about the 3 piston skirts though and if I should bother with them. I'll have everything balanced ant the machine shop that is going to bore the block over and then assemble everything myself.
Looks like it was boxed horribly wrong and destroyed during shipping. IMO all the imperfections are fixable at least to the point of working for your combo.
Try to channel your frustration from someone who now could care less into the elbow grease needed to fix those.
Heck. Box them up proper and send them to me. I’d fix those
Great idea for you to stretch that 6.0 out to 6.2.
Those look pretty beat up. I would say fixing them could be an option, but another part of me, (the side that inspects and fixes things on helicopters) wants to say no way. Too bad I already sold mine, they looked much better, no damage at all.
As far as repair goes, I'd replace ALL the bushings, and blend the damage out over about 1/4" around using sand paper. This is how it's done on MUCH more expensive helicopter parts, including titanium. Blending can restore the strength of a component by removing the weak spot. A gouge is a weak spot, and can cause a crack.
As I tell my younger students and soldiers, it's like a ketchup packet, if you leave the perforations on the top, it's easy to open. If you cut them off, then, even though material has been removed, it becomes much stronger. There is obviously a limit as to depth to consider.
The technical inspector in me says to blend to 1/4 to half", then measure with depth gauge.
Luckily it looks like most of the damage is on the skirts, and not the top where it could be more detrimental.
A.R thanks I value your opinion and appreciate your contributions here. Your right about channeling my frustrations and it's not even like I'm that mad about the damage I'm more mad about the carelessness of the packaging and boxing and the fact that he told me it would cost 50 for shipping and he sent me a pic of the receipt with the tracking number and it only cost him 18 so he had the money to put it in a good box and make sure it got to me safely. I knew the shipping wasn't 50 but I'm like hey he's trying to make a few bucks on shipping and parts and I'm ok with that as long as you do the right thing. Just real disappointed I guess
What has the seller said? He should either offer some money back for your troubles or give you back all your money including shipping for his obvious poor packing skills. You didn't get what you paid for. Don't forget there is also a feedback system here so depending on how he handles it...leave the appropriate rating.
Seller should definitely step up and offer some resolution. Packaging was obviously not up to snuff. Hard to know what they looked like before shipping.
Box was insured at least for $50, it comes with the priority mail/box. At the least, file for damaged goods with usps. Seller should step up though. I use 2 or 3 boxes on heavy stuff like rods/pistons and wrap them in bubble wrap and then in paper and then in plastic bags.
The rods will clean up with a hand stone. The pistons, I don't think so. With that much damage to the ring lands, looks to me like they're beyond recall, although somebody with a Swiss pattern file and too much time on their hands might be able to salvage em.
I guess it depends on how bad you want those particular parts, and what you paid for em. Obviously if that's the only such set the seller had, they can't make good on it with a replacement; best they could do is give you back your money. Maybe give you part of it back if you want to keep the rods but send back the pistons or something like that.
Looks like all the parts banged all against each other in the box from lack of padding, then fell out onto the concrete somewhere when the box gave out.
It's not too hard, when shipping stuff like this, to wrap each piece in bubble wrap; cut some cardboard pieces to make dividers; then wrap the whole thing in more bubbles and tape it up good so nothing can move; then put it in a box that's actually capable of holding that much weight. Looks to me like the seller hasn't ever been around shipping very much, in which case, they don't have any business selling such stuff in the first place. You don't just dump a bunch of big heavy stuff in one of those weenie boxes like that and expect it to make the trip undamaged. The sheer amount of tape required to hold the corpse of the box together shows what an idiotic move that was from square one.
I'm going to contact usps tomorrow cuz I got them late yesterday and I couldn't go there. I contacted the seller and he doesn't want to do anything he told me to contact usps. like everyone has said here that it doesn't take much to box this stuff up correctly to insure its doesn't get damaged. he did wrap the parts individually in one layer of used bubble wrap but that didn't really help any without a good box to contain it all. I'm just trying to figure out what to do from here cuz this really is a budget build and I don't have the time or money to spend at the machine shop for them to clean everything up so I just don't know where to go from here. at least 3 pistons are damaged
Well if you wanna take the risk, you can try dressing all those dents with a set of very small files. Main thing would be, to make absolutely sure that the new rings are free to spin in the grooves in a damaged piston just like an undamaged one; but that the groove isn't opened up such that the side of the ring doesn't seat up against the top & bottom of the groove positively absolutely all the way around.
I wouldn't pay a machine shop to clean that up. They'll just charge you by the hour, and that looks like about 2 - 3 hours of work. Meaning, probably $250ish of labor, maybe more. "Budget" kinda goes out the window when you have to put so much money into fixing used stuff that you coulda just bought new, or other good used, for less than you'll end up with in that. If it was mine, and I decided to try to run it anyway, I'd buy the file set (maybe $15 for a good quality PROFESSIONAL GRADE set, not HF or the like) and a whetstone if I didn't already have em, and spend an evening dressing it all down.
Again, not knowing how much you paid for the stuff, it's really hard to say you should do this or that or the other; but if it was insured for $50, then that's the most USPS will give you even best-case, meaning even if they concede that it was properly packaged, that they destroyed it of their own negligence, and that it's a total loss. Hard to predict how likely THAT is but even if I was the betting kind I still wouldn't bet on it. My money would be on them telling you, it was inadequately packed, it's the shipper's fault, and have a nice day, next in line please.
im working with the seller now on a resolution hes being very helpful so im optimistic we can work something out. i would like to keep this thread going about the build of my 6.0 to 6.2 so hopefully we can get this worked out and i can bring my stuff to the machine shop and get this thing going.
Holy snickies. I'd put that crap back in the box and send it back, that **** looks damaged before it was ever shipped (my opinion) do you have any pics of the stuff before he shipped, you can contact the Postmaster and file a fraud claim since it was sent USPS, and never, I mean never pay with Paypal as a gift, iy think it says that somewhere here on the site as its a scammers tactic. Good luck brother,
Agreed with most folks here. I would be going into orbit with tesla if someone sold me those saying they were perfect. Most of it is superficial (Rods) but not something you want to see on parts your putting into an engine.
02-10-2018, 12:15 PM
I bought some used pistons and rods 
