Russ's 2.1 SED Auto now in Mandarin

[White Exec]

That bore looks quite nasty.

[Dieselman]

Give the rust a rub with some wet n' dry paper to see whether the rust comes off easily, or it has eaten into the liner.

You would be amazed how tollerant an engine can be.

I woud be checking to see if the pistons are dimensionally the same, then using a good piston from the rusted liner block into the other block.

If it all lturns to rubbish, I'm just about to pull the engine out of my scrap Mandarin car

[White Exec]

You guys really do enjoy mucking about with rough ol' parts, even those deeply buried in engines that probably need to come out again if things don't work out. Each to their own!

[Dieselman]

You could look at this another way.
These engines have a single size of piston as standard, which are no longer available from Citroen, so any replacement part will be aftermarket and probably not fit a standard bore well. We know the bores are still correct and unworn as the original honing is still visble.
Russ's engine that seized did so because after removal it had water sitting in one of the bores, not a running issue.
Obviously the best option would be a full rebuild, but that's neither necessary, nor going to happen, so the choices are, continue with the pitted piston, or clean up the water damaged block, or move a piston over to replace the pitted one, or buy an aftermarket piston.
Personally, I'd rather have an original part inside my engine rather than an aftermarket one. I have known aftermarket pistons have faults immediately after installation, loose rings, or in one case the crown coming off at the top ring land.

[russ92xmsed]

You guys really do enjoy mucking about with rough ol' parts, even those deeply buried in engines that probably need to come out again if things don't work out. Each to their own!

Yeah, complete glutten for punishment Chris. Although in my defence I wasn't expecting to find a heavily pitted piston. If only engines were see through!

[russ92xmsed]

You could look at this another way.
These engines have a single size of piston as standard, which are no longer available from Citroen, so any replacement part will be aftermarket and probably not fit a standard bore well. We know the bores are still correct and unworn as the original honing is still visble.
Russ's engine that seized did so because after removal it had water sitting in one of the bores, not a running issue.
Obviously the best option would be a full rebuild, but that's neither necessary, nor going to happen, so the choices are, continue with the pitted piston, or clean up the water damaged block, or move a piston over to replace the pitted one, or buy an aftermarket piston.
Personally, I'd rather have an original part inside my engine rather than an aftermarket one. I have known aftermarket pistons have faults immediately after installation, loose rings, or in one case the crown coming off at the top ring land.

Agree with you there Will about pistons. I don't want to use any aftermarket rubbish. What I do want to do is to exhaust all options with the mandarin engine first. See if it's still viable. Overall it's in much much better condition, bore issues aside.
I wouldn't dismiss a rebuild on it... if possible. A very expensive option, but it does give the car its original engine back.

But if all else fails, I'm highly tempted by your kind offer of your mandarins engine. Question is, how hard is it to convert mine to a manual...... would be a good opportunity too!
First things first, I'm going to see if a light sand will get rid of that corrosion build up and see if there is any significant pitting.

[russ92xmsed]

Ergh... not looking too encouraging.

There is pitting as expected. It doesn't feel horrendously deep, but I bet it's deep enough to cause issues.

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[Dieselman]

That would need boring to get rid of it.

[White Exec]

Agree with that. Check availability of new pistons (=sizes) first.

[Dean]

The best way to repair would be to bore it out and have a dry sleeve fitted, you can then re-use your standard size OE pistons with a new set of rings...............................but being sensible you ask a friend how much he wants for his perfect and tweaked 2.1 engine, I'm sure Wills engine will be more than a match for your Van Halen one.
Either keep the auto or buy the whole lot, pedal box and all and put your effort into a conversion rather than an engine rebuild.

D