We removed all of the upper engine ancillaries after draining the fluids, then pulled the cylinder head. We then put the car on the hoist and dropped the engine and gearbox from the car. We had concerns due to a large amount of leak-down in the #1 cylinder along with low compression, so before we take the steps of sending the engine to the machine shop we started to pull it apart for an evaluation.
Upon the removal of the cylinder head we noticed that the timing chain was extremely loose and the slippers had been worn completely away. In addition, the upper timing chain gear bolt was loose.
A visual inspection of the cylinder head revealed cracks in the #2, #3, and #4 cylinders, two of which extend all the way to the coolant passage.
We removed the bearing cap on the #5 rod as it was easily accessible. As you can see, it’s worn to the copper. It’s been replaced at least once as it’s .010 oversize. We also noted the lack of pins in the connecting bolt nuts.
We pulled the #1 rod and piston to look at the rings. The bearing is down to copper here as well.
We located two broken rings in the #1 piston, causing our 70% leakdown.
