Thread: Durr, We did something stupid..

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Okay I think we did something stupid.

We soaked the pistons in oil, this of course is bad when building an engine as experience has NOW taught me. My friend did the same thing, but his pistons have been sitting in the cylinders for about 7 to 8 months and we're just now getting ready to put it in the car.

Do you think that the oil should have drained all the way down by now and shouldn't cause any glazing or... is it still there?

We're using dino-sauce, not synthetic.

i'd like to know why you think thats so stupid? i've been shooting oil on top of pistons for yrs. and as far as i know i never messed up a motor that way. take the plugs out, turn the motor over with the starter and it will pump out any excess oil on top of the piston. when you crank it up it will burn the rest off. may smoke for awhile.

The guys at the machine shop said they never do that >_>

I just assumed..

Originally Posted by Crowbie

The guys at the machine shop said they never do that >_>

I just assumed..

people do wet and dry comp. test everyday, and adding some oil to the cyl. is the way you do it.

there's nothing wrong with soaking your pistons in oil when ur building an engine, how else do you think you get the rings and wrist pins oiled? All that will happen is any oil thats on the compression side of the rings will burn and the oil thats on the oil ring side with go to the oil pan. Your supposed to lube it all or your going to have metal on metal.

Usually what I do when I assemble my motors is to dunk the whole rod and piston assembly in a coffee can so that the oil gets everywhere around the piston and skirt areaand as an added bonus it slips easier from the piston ring compressor and into the bore.

Oh and mentioning "you did protect the crank big end journals from the rod bolts did'nt you ?"

i ussually let mine soak in gear oil for a few days while i send the block out to be cleaned and machined.... which i do after balancing.... that way i get everything garuanteed lube.... then i do an oil change after my 20 minute break in..... that way i get rid of any clumps of assebly lube in the pan.... on race application i also pull the pan and check the pickup screen for metal debree or grease globs

I've had "experts" tell me this for years, the theory being that Detroit doesn't do it so we shouldn't. They foretell all sorts of dire consequences, like high oil consumption, poor ring seal, etc. etc. I usually nod sagely and go ahead and oil 'em up good anyway, like just about every successful engine builder I know. We don't have the machinery to spin an engine over for a minute or two before fire-up like Detroit does (or used to do, apparently they don't anymore.)

that and the assembly process is fast and they dont have time to do extra things like that

The only disadvantage to dunking the piston like that is that you'll have oil all over the place by the time you've got them in. I don't put anything on that I'm not going to use for lubricant later either,with the exception of cam lube of course. Hank