Look what I found

[nigelr2000]

I have been using a lot of water in the pickup lately and the compression was down on No3 so I assumed these were connected however when I took the head off I found the idjut who last worked on the engine forgot to put the circlips in on the piston and I now have lovely matching grooves down both sides of the bore. Its amazing really that apart from being rough on tickover it has run quite well and was toodling along the bypass yesterday at a steady 60 !!!

So anyways here's the picture to show the damage[frame][/frame]

[bmcecosse]

Not ideal - but won't be related to water loss. If it runs ok - maybe just fit a cicrclip and leave well alone ?

[nigelr2000]

Luckily I have a spare engine so thats the route I am going down. Although they dont look it in the picture the grooves can be measured in mm's rather than thou so I dont think it will even be re-boreable. And yes the water loss was a leak at the other end of the block, probably caused because the head nuts were lose at that end

[bmcecosse]

At worst it can always be sleeved. But there are huge oversize pistons available (at a price..) for the 1098 engine.