Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 at 1:04PM :
In Reply to: Re: Stick with it. - Good advice. posted by Chris Davis - Centerville, UT on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 at 12:06PM :
Yes, before you start contemplating a total rebuild or buying another engine, at least pull the head and the pan and see what you have. These engines are simple, the tolerances aren't terribly tight, and they'll usually fire with amazingly low compression. #5 has something seriously wrong with it that will be obvious as soon as you look inside (broken piston or rings, burned or stuck valve, or a crack in the block. Low-budget guy that I am, if it was mine and the block was okay, and the cylinder didn't have big gouges in it, I'd probably just put a new piston & rings in #5 (mike it to see how big it'll take), if that was the problem, or fix the valve, if that was the problem and keep running it until the whole engine really did need an overhaul. Could be that it sat for a long time in the rain and the position of the valves was such that water got into #5 and rusted it, which then broke the rings or scraped things up when it was finally re-started. Could be a lot of things, but it'll be something obvious when you look.