So after doing the leak down test, it looked like my Hellfire rings had gone bad; I'm sure washed out from excessive fueling and a coolant leak...which was an issue sine the motor was built. After the driver-side head off, this is what I found:

Now this motor only has 500-800 miles on it. It never ran well enough for it to go hard. The pistons are JE blower pistons that were cryo treated. So my question is, how bad is this? Can these be salvaged? If these are this bad, should I assume I'm also going to have to get down into the crank and check the bearings and everything else while the motor is out?

 

From the pics they don't look bad. Looks as though the edges from the damage may be able to be smoothed over and pistons reused.

 

Thanks, I really hope so. Do you think I'd need to to start inspecting the crank/cam, etc? I'm guessing I'll see the bearings when I have to take the pistons out anyways, right?

 

You can at least take the caps off and inspect them. If they are still good then don't bother. Just make sure to put the caps back in the same order and also know the torque values.

 

Will-do, thanks!

 

So here's another Q: While tearing apart the motor, I want to get these front and rear oil leaks taken care of. It's hard to pinpoint these leaks, and I see oil all up and down the timing chain cover. When I removed the opti, I noticed some oil on the outside of where the O-ring should have plugged.



Is it normal for oil to be in there? If not, what could cause that besides the opti o-ring?

 

The water pump drive seal is a very common leak point, and is above the opti drive.

 

Grr. At this point I guess I'll just tear the whole motor down. Thanks for the info. 👍🏼

 

Nope. Should be dry outside of the seal. Looks as though there are traces of oil above the opti seal, which as stated, most likely is coming from the w/p seal, or possibly the front of the intake.

 

Got it. Looks like new seals all the way around! Thank