Thanks!!! haven't removed the liners yet but I did rotate the crank to get access to the piston bolts as I was planning to remove them to clean the water channels a little (They seem to be a little seized and I think the previous owner used some head gasket sealant which is gluing them a little).

Read More...

that is quite worrying and I would like to figure out exactly what exactly caused the chip. my one theory is that the liner expanded at that section and the piston started making contact and eventually chipped. But yea, Whoever put this together previously was a bit of an ape and made a lot of little mistakes like using silicone glue to assemble the head and stripping a few threads so not completely unlikely that they broke it. The liner bore looks completely fine at least (will get a picture when I'm tinkering again). I got the suggestion of welding the missing material back on the piston and sanding it to the correct shape. Is this a viable solution?

Read More...

Finally got around to removing the piston and can properly see the the damage, was actually pretty straight forward . Struggling a bit to get the liners out so I'm soaking them in penetrating fluid. 
It's got the number "135" stamped in the side. Could this be a piston from a 135 engine?(or are they the same and it doesn't matter?

Read More...

Thanks for all the great advice guys! makes working on the car less daunting.

to answer all the questions:
- I'm Located in South Africa (parts aren't super easy to come by but doable, and one can order things from Rimmerbros)
- the car has 136,000 km on it and the body is rust-free and in pretty good nick.
- There is no service history, but I heard the engine running(purchased for about 900 pounds so was willing to risk it) and It couldn't hear any obvious issues and started up easily. There was just an issue where it would stall once it got up to temperature. Quite strange in that it would idle fine, but then I would apply throttle and once it tried idling again it would stall.  
- I believe the HG failure was caused by one of the coolant pipes leaking fluid till the car overheated.
- I haven't rotated the crankshaft since removing the head (great tip)

I've already done some work on the cylinder head and am rebuilding it after skimming it and lapping there valves(watching lots of videos to make sure I don't mess up the timing and making sure it's within the head height limit)

 After reading all the messages I'm convinced to go ahead and remove the pistons to asses the damage and at minimum replace the damaged one and all piston rings. Will post my progress/findings here

 

Read More...

 
Hi All! 

I bought an MG tf 160 to learn how to fix cars knowing it had a bad head gasket. I've taken it apart and noticed that the bottom piston has a slight chip (see images: The lower piston ring barely shows through the chip).