a_kelley
mechanical fixer
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2010
- Location
- Rutherfordton
I have replaced a single piston with a used one on a grand Cherokee that I transferred to my wife. It had like 250k on it. Worked fine. It's got a little bit of looseness in it, as expected having 1/4 million on it, so I just used the better of the two sets of rod bearings. The only things I had to buy was an oil change and head gasket, reused everything else and did it in frame. Wouldn't necessarily recommend that route but I think I have 3 used pistons left with rod bearings. I was going to rebuild a motor to put in it for her but not now.
Oh yeah, dropping the pan is pretty easy, let the suspension drop (if it's stock height, lifted you may not need to) remove starter & you can finesse it out without touching exhaust bolts. Then look in the pan for piston pieces. If you do drop one piston in it, make sure you check on top of the ledge by the distributor for pieces. I put the ones I found back together to make sure I got all the pieces. Piston on it was not far from turning sideways in the bore and ventilating the block. Ran it 3 weeks or so before I tore into it. Figured if it was loose rod it would've come apart in that time
Oh yeah, dropping the pan is pretty easy, let the suspension drop (if it's stock height, lifted you may not need to) remove starter & you can finesse it out without touching exhaust bolts. Then look in the pan for piston pieces. If you do drop one piston in it, make sure you check on top of the ledge by the distributor for pieces. I put the ones I found back together to make sure I got all the pieces. Piston on it was not far from turning sideways in the bore and ventilating the block. Ran it 3 weeks or so before I tore into it. Figured if it was loose rod it would've come apart in that time
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