Customs Straight 8 Pontiac problem diagnosed - only 7 pistons working

Thanks for the suggestion. Here's what I found....

 

I knew about POS and now I know about FOS. That reminds me of a story I read a couple of years ago about the Wisconsin Tourism Federation having to change their name to Tourism Federation of Wisconsin because they were receiving a lot of emails from people who weren't at all interested in tourism. WTF?

 

What do the cylinder walls look like? Are they scored badly?

 

,"the rest of the story" should be interesting

 

I don't know exactly what "badly" looks/feels like but it's a little rough in one area and you can see some scratch marks....

 

Whoa! I've not seen many go like that.
Have a picture of whats in the hole?
Might be time to get some lotto tickets too

 

Good idea. I'd do this before wasting time pulling the pan. Then in just a few minutes you'll have a better idea if an in car repair is doable

 

It's looking more and more like you may have dodged a bullet. Might get away with new piston and a cylinder hone, though I would snatch the engine out and freshen the whole thing up if it were mine

 

Way ahead of you.
See Top of page ?

 

if you can show us what the rest of it looks like and if the rest of the piston is still on the rod rotate it by hand to the bottom and we can see how bad the wall damage is . IMO so far your damn lucky that broke where it did .

 

Yes, it's looking like an in car fix may be doable. Take some pics in the hole. Motor's are very forgiving. Even if the wall's pretty ugly you can probly fix it with honing. I've put some real ugly shit together in my broke days with great results

 

I'll try to take some better ones tomorrow when I have better light....

 

Amazing! That can be fixed.
A simple overhaul with new pistons could do it, or a total rebuild. That's up to you. It looks like she survived intact not many designs would have.

 

Looks like that cylinder has been in trouble for some time. Note the oil fouled carbon buildup on the top of the block/valves and piston crown, compared to the adjacent cylinder.

From the photos of the wall, it does appear to have little damage. Of course, the pics may be deceiving.
It is possible to get more or less satisfactory performance from a less than perfect cylinder when saving costs trumps perfection. Depends on how much you want to drive it annually. If you were going to make this cylinder 'perfect', may as well do the other seven as well.

Ray

 

I would say U dodged a bullet for the most part. Now lets see if you can get a piston and rings.

 

Well I'm amazed. To have that wrist pin going up and down without making a big hole in the cylinder wall is stunning. You couldn't have run it that much after it gave away.

 

JEEBUS!!! You didn't say nothin' about running it with a blower on nitro!

Wait a minute... Those engines didn't use an oil control ring??? Learn something new every day if you're not careful.

 

The oil ring may well be in the lower part of the piston skirt. Some older engines were done that way.
Although, with the oil fouling evident in the cylinder, maybe it was assembled at some point with a compression ring in place of an oil ring.

Ray

 

You are one lucky SOB, but if it were mine I'd be yanking the powerplant and doing a complete disassembly.

There are parts of the piston floating around in the pan and checking the other pistons for cracks would do a lot for a persons sanity.

Who's ta say that there aren't a couple more pistons ready to do the same thing right after you get it all put together.

My luck would have the rest of them giving up 2 minutes after firing it up.

 

Why spend precious time and a boatload of money trying to partially fix an engine that was obsolete and ineficient many, many years ago. For a lot less trouble you can put in something modern, powerful and fun to drive. No ancient str 8 can keep up with the minimum standards of today. After all hotrodding is about making it better, not trying to preserve old junk.

 

Because old junk is cool and modern stuff is cheap and everybody has one.

 

This is a Traditional hot rodding site where we like the old stuff but you already know that.
Please elaborate these "minimum standards" if you will.

 

Wow, get yourself a 600hp digitally fuel injected, turbocharged Honda then.

If we cross off the list everything that does not meet the "minimum standards of today", then this site ceases to exist. Not even a small-block Chevy does that.

I am promoting this comment to the top of the list of comments that totally miss the point of this board, and of this pastime, in general.

You sir, have won the Internet. Good show.

You have been here for almost 12-years. Even after 854 posts, you seem detached from what this is all about.

Talk to, or better yet, LISTEN TO some of your elders on this board, and on this thread, many of whom could feasibly run ANY engine they want, but choose to run something different, less common, difficult, or thought impossible.

Then, and only then, may you begin to understand.

 

You definitely need to go buy some Lottery tickets! Good possibility that engine was locked up at one time and brute force was used on it..

 

Yup. Fairly impossible odds.

Fix it, and return it to service.

 

Just spend 3grand on pro rebuild on my 54 Chevy 261 and wouldn't have it any other way
Cheers

 

You Totally miss the entire essence of this place. I have a fair background in modern stuff and have done many conversions retrofitting. That too is a modern facet of hot rodding but its far from TRADITIONAL. There are several hundred other places to take a modern drivetrain swap but there's only ONE place for traditional hot rods and customs.

Many members here take a position that the word traditional doesn't separate the Hamb from other places. It's diluting this place and I whole heartedly miss the old Hamb. Back then and there it would be ok to tell the diluters to concisely fuck off. But since this is not the old Hamb ill refrain from doing it concisely and draw it out with elaboration.

 

I just searched the first 20 pages of ads and couldn't find it. Does it have "1950 Pontiac" in the title? Any idea how far back into the 177 pages of ads it is?

 

Here's the ad:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...ght-eight-and-hydromatic-transmission.940350/

I don't see how it would be "a lot less trouble" to put anything other than a Pontiac Straight Eight in a location where it was designed to go. Please elaborate on how it would be "a lot less trouble". And calling it "old junk" is an insult to most of us.

 

Thanks for the link. I would think that his would be identical to mine but it isn't. Look at the carb location....

His....



Mine....