So, pulled out a 1954 235 my dad gave me. Serial # says .......F54X. Can't seem to find what the X stands for, but I think truck, solid lifter. Anyways, found an interesting surprise of a standard bore block, 3.5665 with a pair of calipers. (3.5625 stock). So a little wear. Dropped out #5 piston, which came out surprising easy!? Decided to take a ring off and reset in the bore to see what it looked like. Holy cow, it looked a little big. Like .080"! Wow, allot of ware, but didn't really make since. Talked it over with my car buddies over lunch, figuring I'd have to do an overbore and new pistons, cam/lifters look wasted also. But .080" just didn't add up. I can slide the 2nd ring right into the gap just to verify.
After some discussion with my car buddies, I looked up the 216 bore size. 3.500" even. Bingo, adds up now. 216 rings in a 235 will have a .0625 ring gap to start. Explains all the oil in the combustion chamber and not allot of ware on the cylinder walls (low tension). We never ran this motor long, as we got a later, fresh 235 for cheap, so didn't take time to inspect this one.
Looks like I will be able to just do a ring/bearing job, along with a hydraulic cam. The new mechanical cam/lifters are quite a bit more money over hydraulic.
