pulling the piston from the bottom?

[Eljaro]

Everything was going fine after the engine rebuilt (new rings, new cylinder wall finishing, new valves, new con rod bearings), but after several hours of driving the new engine a strange sound came form it. I inmediately stopped it, had the car hauled back home and there I removed the oilpan. I did see some metalic residues, copper like, and after hitting the con rod caps with a soft hammer one of them, cylinder #1 sounded hollow. I removed the cap and the bearing was all worn and had even spinned. The con rod cap is deformed also.
I will have to remove the engine, take out the crankshaft and have at least that one bearing surface reground, if the rest is okay.
I will have to replace #1 rod also.
My question: is it possible to take the #1 piston out from the bottom of the cylinder in order to take out the rod? Is there space for it to come out, at least to be able to get the circlip out and push the wrist pin aside ?
I want to save myself the work of removing the head and would first like to know if this is possible.

[Jac Mac]

Once you have removed the crank Number one Piston should come out the bottom OK. However given your description I think a full teardown and cleanout of oil galleries etc would be the safer option. If there is any evidence of debris on any of the other rod/main bearing inserts it is obvious that the debris has got past the filter and into the gallery system and if not cleaned out you will only risk further problems.

Jac Mac

[bobcowan]

I just went through this. Unfortunatly, you'll have to completly dissamble down to the bare block.

You'll need to have all the rod journals ground to the same size for proper balance.

You'll need to replace the damaged rod, and possibly the one next to it. Not so much from deformity or trauma, but from overheating. Look very closely at the rods for any heat bluing.

You need to inspect the heads carefully. If your quench area is tight, the piston may have struck the head. If so, you may need to resurface the head. And you'll definatly need to replace the piston.

All that debris in your oil pan has been sucked into the engine. You need to remove the galley plugs and cam bearings to clean it all out. Replace the cam bearings and the oil pump. Be sure it check the cam journals for scoring. Disassemble and clean out the lifters. If they have some miles on them, just replace them.

Then you need to ask this question. What happened? Why did you spin that bearing? If your oil pressure was good, you probably had some debris in the crank throw oil passage.

[Eljaro]

I really do no know what happened. The engine was turning fine and I was reving it up to 6000 most of the morning during a rally. Oil pressure was perfect.
But one of the con rod bolts came off really easy, so I think that it might have been a con rod bolt that stretched. Incidentally I had ordered new bolts, only to find out (late) that I had ordered the 3/8" instead of the 13/32" which I have on my rods now, so I did not change them.
Regarding the engine teardown I will first see how everything looks like. Fortunately I cought the failure very early. The bad rod is not blued, and most of the debris was in the screen of the oil pickup.
The filter was brand new The two bearing halves were actually superposed on top of each other. The crank does not even look so bad.
I hope for the best, but if everything has to come off for cleaning, so be it.

[CHANMADD]

bobcowan's advice is great! Make sure your piston heads sit below the deck level too.If that bearing went as badly as you say, there will more damaged bearings including the cams from all the junk in the oil galleys.
Sorry you have to take alllll apart.