The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1953 Chevy 3100 - Restoring the Basketcase

Cylinders can be bored over or sleeved. Don't condemn the block, yet.

I know that you are looking for issues in the cylinder bores related to the excessive exhaust smoke but I believe that you indicated cylinders #1 and #2 that you recently inspected with the bore scope had no indication of being the source of the smoke (clean plugs and decent compression). While the pictured piston defects are concerning and may add to your list of concerns for the engine try not to go down every rabbit hole you find or your driive yourself crazy. If your goal is to have a resonable looking and driving truck that will get used like most of these trucks are (a few thousand miles a year at most) without the cost of rebuilding the engine step back and review what you know, what else you need to know, and how best to obtain the information.

Having a lot of air pushing out of the carburetor when doing a leak down test would tend to indicate the intake valves were open, not just leaking past the valve/seat interface.

A good running replacement engine that you can install and achieve your goal without spending money on a rebuild is like winnning the lottery, possible but odds are not good.

OK, I'll secure from GQ...for now. In the meantime, stupid questions: if one of the possibilities is oil leaking past bad valve guides or seals, what will happen if oil/diesel makes its way into the cylinder? Will I cause even more damage? Is there a downside to filling each cylinder with the Berryman and allowing it to drain into the pan before I drain it and then remove it to clear out the sludge? Am I overthinking the sludge clogging up oil passages and should I go straight to the diesel flush (assuming that I won't cause any damage from diesel entering the cylinders)? Then there's the concern of running the engine with pistons that have chunks missing. I've assumed that is a bad thing. Am I wrong? A gentle reminder: I have no experience working on engines! I am truly at everyone's mercy on this!!!

I don’t think those are pieces missing from the pistons .Pistons have a mark on them to show the direction they are to be installed if I am correct .Do those marks happen to be pointing to the front of the engine .

Here is what chev of the 40,s show on there pistons they sell.

Those pics of the pistons don't look serious. Those notches may just be indicating the front of the piston for installing. That's a pretty common method that the manufacturers use. See pic.

So you should come down off that ledge as well.

[on edit]Looks like Kevinski squeaked in just before me with a pic.

Prior to multi-viscosity oils, it was common for crankcase oil to be diluted with kerosene in the winter time to thin it out. My 1939 Packard shop manual specifically says to dilute the 30 weight oil with 10% kerosene when temperatures are expected to be below 45 or so. It may even say that in the AD Chevy shop manual. Kerosene isn't as oily as diesel and it didn't harm the engine.

My dad worked at a Howard Johnson's service station as a young man and one of the regular services offered was a diesel engine flush similar to Jerry's description.

Diesel will act as a solvent to remove built up crud throughout the crankcase and will leave an oily film, unlike kerosene. By overfilling the crankcase with the two extra quarts, the crankshaft will churn the oil/diesel mix like butter and splash it all over, dissolving the crud.

Jerry and others will probably comment on the missing chunks of pistons but the missing pieces are long gone. Whatever damage they may have done is already done. The pieces probably got expelled into the exhaust system.

Stick a bendy magnet down the plug holes and see if you can fish anything out if you're worried.

Ok, I'm down off the ledge! The notch is a fascinating bit of info! So I guess the next question is do I need to drop the pan and clean it or just get the diesel and send it?

If you are going to do an engine flush, definitely remove the pan and clean out all the sludge, first. No need to loosen up the crud that's already congealed at the bottom of the pan. Clean out the sludge in the oil filter canister, too. Then fill it up with the oil and diesel, etc.