Re: How bad do my pistons look?

Posted by Ross On 2019/12/18 13:22:43

In a quick review I can see that #2 has a broken top ring in that the wear pattern does not continue up to the top land. #3 has been rusty in the past as the tiny pits are still visible. My experience is that rings wear quickly in cylinders like that.

None of this is a huge surprise; the broken top ring is fairly common in engines that are overdue for a ring job. Many somewhat smokey , anemic, and difficult to start Packards are running around in similar state. Sadly, there was a reason that your car was "put up" long ago--it was tired and not worth fixing at the time. You have inherited problems from long ago. Still don't see a reason for the noise. Did you perchance have the filler tube out of the block?