I don't like swearing, but @#$%%@!!

Good thing I pulled the head!!! The %$#@!! thing did it again!!!! Dent in the fron and the back of #1!!! @##@&$$**!!!!!!!!

What do you mean dent? Where is the dent?

Did you follow my episode on the way to St Louis?? Well, it looks identical, but I don't have the engine out yet!! I just called Loma in Boise, and he was totally baffled!!! He has more MG parts around there than you can believe. He is 68 years old and used to have the MG dealership in Boise, and he has never seen this before!! Last time a piece of the C-clip busted off and banged back and forth thru the wrist pin until it got to the top!! It up the cylinder wall really good. This looks identical without a closer examination!! @###%**&$!!!!!!!!! I will go and pull the engine now! DAMN!!!!!!

Did you use the same piston? Sounds like you need to have it boared out any way. I can imagine what that cyl wall looks like. You might could have just that cyl. sleeved and boared. Although you probably need to replace the piston too.

Even though it is the rings, you might want to have the head pulled apart also.
That bronze could have been left overs in the oil cooler, or it could be your guides or rist pin bushings.

The odds of having that exact same thing happen again on the same cylinder with a new block and a new piston have to be astronomical...

Maybe it's time to locate some of those Teflon "buttons" in a previous thread - or get GEM Industries to fabricate some...

There must be something wrong with the rod!!!! This time the whole bloody snap ring dissapeared!!! I put them together, Loma checked them when he put the rings on, and I checked them after he had put the rings on!! How is that possible???

&^%$ Gary, I cannot believe it! My pertronix issue is just an aggravation compared to your woes...%$#@!!!

Did you have the rods rebushed?

It's got to be something like the wrong piston pin retainers being supplied with the pistons. Like the pistons are grooved for the round wire type retainers, but they're putting the squair edged internal snap ring type retainers in the set, or vice-versa. I've never heard of, much less seen that problem you showed me in St. Louis and now this; it's simply unheard of.

And checked to be sure they were straight? Or were they new rods the second time around?

He didn't use the same piston. He had the bad one with him in St. Louis and the engine was together in Boise at the time. An about 3/16" piece broke off a pin retainer and jammed into the top land of the oil ring groove bending it down and crimping the oil rings and expander in their groove. The broken retainer looked like an internal snap ring with the little ears and holes in them for snap ring pliers. I've bent the hell out of that type snap ring removing them from other applications and have never seen one break. The one that disappeared in episode II has got to be in the pan, but I just don't get it, too wiered.

The only top end damage I've seen created by a bad rod is a busted piston pin when the top hole was loose or a screwy wear pattern on the piston skirt if it was bent or twisted a little.

Or a defective short wrist pin that slaps between the retainers? Was the pin used twice? Tough break no matter what.

He had the pin in St. Louis too.

See, on the other post I'm trying to get Gary to tell me what was from his original engine & what was from his Boise engine....inquiring minds gotts know so we can determine what caused the problem....
...1) did he use his original crankshaft?
...2) did he use his block or a Boise block?
...3) did he use his other 3 pistons/rods or all new matched pistons/rods?

Gary: ya gotta give us that info....&, which head are you using? & what did you do to it initially? how did you modify it?

Sorry Tony!! i thought that I had said. Anyway, all I did was replace the block and pistons! Everything else was the old stuff!