Valve-Piston Photo

Date 12/19/07, updated 12/21/2007

Well, after cleaning all the carbon buildup off the piston today, it seems like there was more going on in that cylinder than I previously thought. Apparently there was most definitely something banging around in there for a while.

-- Daniel J. Holtman

Details Pending - Buford
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12/21/2007

Holly krap! Gotta save that pic for future reference.

Question, are sho valves one piece or spin welded?

k mier
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Ouch!!! I suppose that will increase your compression slightly if you have a replacement in place.....

Jim
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I never found any foreign debris in the cylinder or anywhere downstream, so I don't know for sure.

Don't know for sure, but judging by the fracture surface on the valve stem it appears the valve are one-piece.

I should mention that I fiddled around with exposure (horribly, I might add) in Photoshop to show the detail a little better. If anyone wants the unmodified, uncropped picture send me an email off list.
Daniel J. Holtman
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How many miles on the puppy?

Tim
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Mike B's car -
16 pounds of boost - oops.

Bigger pulley dropped it to ~11 pounds of boost @ 7000 rpms. We feel
we dislodged a chunk of carbon from a valvestem and the valve was hung
open on said carbon chunk. One valve on the #1 cylinder was damaged
and leaking and causing a "Puff" back into the intake manifold.

This is when the SHOFAST Nightmare started.

However, this is NOT the point of Dan's post. The point is, a chunk of
loose carbon could have caused this malady and then disintegrated and
blew out the exhaust.

Eric Lehmann
97 Ebony 42k Welded - With the Angels Now so that I don't have to be.
Long Live the Garage Queen !
96 Medium Willow Green Metallic 103k Resurrected, Welded, Eaton M90 inside
96 Rosemist 72k 2006 Best Of SHO, Popular Vote, 2007 Best Gen 3, Welded
96 Medium Graphite 120k - Resurrected, Welded
97 Pacific Green - Parting this one Out
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The odometer on the car was at ~132K when the engine failed IIRC. The tranny was a factory reman, but it appears the engine was original.
Daniel J. Holtman
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Judging by the marks in the top of the piston I feel the head might not look much better.
Carter Fuji
Latitude 35.23948924537855, Longitude -94.30673988764765
'97 ES Whoosh CarDomain Site
Supercharger Video Link
Greenwood, AR.
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I've shown pictures of the head before. There is one beep gash right at the spark plug, but it's otherwise unharmed. Definitely repairable.
Daniel J. Holtman
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I have seen carbon do damage it can be pretty tough. The marks have been there for a long time.

Also cylinder firing problems can mark up a piston.. What does the Combustion chamber in the head look like.

Clare Allenby
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Can we get a side-angle or orthogonal shot to see how deep the valve
is buried in the piston (and how "smashed" the valve is where it was
hammering against the head?)

Dan Carman

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