The heads are off part deux, other chemicals to use for stuck rings???

[Brad S.]

I've had the heads off for a while and had some time to think up some questions???
With the heads off can a person use some other type of chemical that wouldn't be
used if the heads were on??
I figured if this chemical was not going to be burned/combusted that maybe something else could be used??
First I'm gonna drain my oil pan so that perfectly good wmo doesn't get mixed with something really nasty.
Tell me what you think or may have used.

 

[typ4]

unless you drive like a grandma rings dont stick.
ok on edit, and dont change your oil on a regular schedule. and or run low engine temps all thew time, it takes heat to keep them clean. I have only seen stuck diesel rings on light load apps. mostly detroits in generators.

 

[RLDSL]

unless you drive like a grandma rings dont stick.

Not true at all. Sticky rings are one of the most common ailments in diesels and their symptoms get blamed on a lot of other things. It happens when the ring grooves get packed up with soot and varnish. Once that hard stuff gets to the point to where a ring can no longer flex, or flexes irregulerly, you end up with oil consumption, compression and starting problems.

on an engine that is running, a couple of treatments of auto rx is teh easiest way to clean them up, but if you have teh thing apart already, why not just pop the pistons and run a ring groove cleaner around the pistons, and maybe throw a new set of rings on there while youre at it The heads are off,,,, its halfway there. Just pouring a chemical statically down there isnt going to do anything

 

[lilredtdi]

By no means an expert, however if the head is off and the pistons are exposed I cannot see why you cannot use parts cleaner, marvel mystery oil or something like that in bores and use a wrench on the crank to rock the engine back and forth over a coupe of days.

This works for small engines so I cannot see why it would not work for a bigger engine. Just a thought.

 

[Black dawg]

I had a 6.5l apart here not to long ago that had stuck rings. I had the engine torn down, and figured I would try soaking them in different stuff and see what worked. NOTHING worked. after several days of soaking, I used the torch to heat the piston crowns, and the rings would pop out pretty quickly, but as soon as the stuff cooled back down they were sticky again.

In the end, I broke the rings to get them off, and used the torch to burn all of the junk out of the ring grooves. If I had one that I suspected stuck rings, I would load it as heavy as possible and (1000egt for 100s of miles) put some real hard miles on it.

 

[Brad S.]

I thought on most 4x4 pickups, even jacking the engine up, it was hard to get the oil pan off.
Believe me I would take the pistons out and put in some gapless rings and other assorted stuff.
And with 250,000+ miles are the cam bearings needing attention??
Here goes that old discussion, to pull or not to pull the engine???