Some of you know that I pulled the head on the 22RE-B Gen2 this last week due to some coolant burning. Turns out #1 had the fire ring seperate towards the exhuast cooling passages both top and bottom. More than likely a defective gasket....but still better than any Felpro I have used.
Anyway upon teardown I fumbled the head and smashed into the drivers timing guide sending its remnants into the pan. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> No big deal since the throwout bearing was whining recently...I'll just pull the motor, deal with the throwout bearing and drop the oil pan to retrieve debris.
Noticed some odd markings in the #2 cylinder wall at 90* about 1-1/2" below the block deck. Uh-oh...wonder what happened there?? So I pull the shortblock out of the truck and mount her to the stand, pull the oil pan and seen something in the sump area resembling a keyring. I knew exactly what I was seeing and got a sinking feeling in my guts. Pulled the #2 rod cap and extracted the rod/piston assembly...yup the piston pin keeper had ejected from the piston on the backside and ended up in multiple pieces in the oil pan. This was not a recent occurance based on coloration of the remnant and the "curing" of the freshened cylinder surface. But who knows how long it would have been before the pin wore to a point that the piston and rod woould seperate and send things horizontal through the side.
EB says Im lucky as hell that I get anal about the slightest problem with my engines. If I hadnt of decided to pull the head at first signs of a HG failure I could have ejected the rod assembly while doing 60+ along way from home!
The fix: All 4 cylinders will get a light hone, new rings and rod bearings. The head and block deck are perfect. In fact I pulled the timing cover without disrupting 20 month old gaskets, same for the intake. This is my daily driver with 25K+ miles on the engine. Quality parts and paying attention to details during assembly is worth my butts weight in gold. Parts should be in next week (rings are special order) and the 88' should be back on the road next weekend. Gotta love my EB engines...and btw even I got the much talked about support when I mentioned to him what I had found. LOL. The Street RV head is as clean and perfect as the day Tod built it too. Gonna be a simple reassembly. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />
~Darin <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />
PS- EB says this is the FIRST time he's heard/seen this happen on these engines... and was surprised it wasnt discovered via a catastrophic BANG!
