Well here I am, a little over 2 years on the road with my car and now the rebuild . But hey I have the knowledge and I have the money(soon) to do this and make things right again and get myself ahead of the game hopefully.

So let me tell you about what happened (since this is a car forum still you know ) I will link in the threads/events leading into my discovery but to sum it all up for you, I had a issue with my alternator which would cut electrical power noticeably in the car and eventually lead to misfires. After replacing the alternator everything ran great except for the misfires, after pulling the plugs, I discovered some serious problems with the number 1 piston plug being melted and the others having significant oil build up. https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/problems-service-maintenance-69/serious-electrical-problems-202435/



Enter the compression test which showed 210-210-210-180, 180 being the number 1 piston. Changed the plugs went out for a spirited drive with hptuners and everything was coming back great, the tune file was working fine and there were no abnormalities with any of the cars computer dynamics.https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/2-0l-lsj-performance-tech-47/compression-test-interesting-numbers-204595/

Few days later I go to my buddy's headshop (chevyss/sc thanks again) and we do a leak-down test. Not good, 20% leakage in the number 1 piston with the leak coming out of the crankcase breather (the hose that returns to the intake), meaning the piston has a hole (unlikely) or the one of the piston rings is bad (most likely). However the other pistons showed 0% leak I was very pleased with this because my compression numbers are higher than your average SC balt.

So without further or do I present the solution that we came up with. I will be replacing the piston rings or piston itself by removing the head and then by taking out the piston with the engine in place (basically a piston swap just to put new rings on). The head meanwhile once taken off will get ported and polished by Headgames with a full valve job as well. A dual pass end plate will also be added. So basically this is a head job with a purpose I opted not to do bottom end work because I am not looking to make big power down the road ( just enough to have a better than stock car, with power for road course racing).

Some of you know that I already decided on the headwork a while ago, that was postponed bc of the alternator problem which ate up some funds, but now we are back on track.

All this information and planning has just started to come together last night so if there are any suggestions, questions or comments about my plan and possibly direction with the car feel free to pm me or throw it up in here.

Summary: Piston 1 has a leak and I'm going to fix it and do some side work on the head since it's out.

Starting Estimate: 3000-3300
Head work: 1800
Labor: 1000
Dual pass: 220

Update 4/14

Boroscoped the cylinder and there was no indication that the piston was damaged (cracking, broken) Saw that the tip of the plug melted on top of the piston head but now it looks like the detonation had damaged the valves and not caused the piston rings or ring lands to blow. There is a slight ticking/tapping noise coming from the valve train that was not there before so this is now a matter of getting a new head on bc the valve guides might be getting fucked up. Dynod it for ***** and giggles and came in at 240/209....... from a previous 262/228....... wow

Update 4/26
Well its been fun.... stock head haha This is the final entry because the problem has been correctly diagnosed and I am omw to ported head power. The final conclusion has been this, injector on the number 1 cylinder was bad from when I got it :-( this caused my cylinder to lean out at wot and coupled with the alternator issue caused my head gasket to blow. Fortunately NO PISTON damage was incurred . Ended up with a ported and polished head with stock valves and 76lb dual sprung supertech springs... 3 months later and the head went on Saturday 4/24 and with maven behind the wrenches it got done perfectly 180 compression across the cylinders and then the injector issue also came up bc i switched it from 1 to 2 and the misfires came with it and now I am just waiting for a new 60lber.

Here are pics of the break down enjoy






Number 1 A-OK


Number 1 valves had alot of **** burnt up on it.


You can see along the edge the oil was seeping out slightly

 

Damn #4 lol

 

yes sir, atleast its not blown blown, i can still drive it

 

yeah i wouldn't be driving it, cause you may break something off and if it gets into the rotating assembly, you'll be buying a lot more than a piston

 

Sub'd!

 

subscribed and in regards to the comment above, drive it ******* hard!!!!! blow the piston through the hood!!

 

if you do it within a month you can use my pnp head but if not im usein it let me know within the next couple of weeks.

 

need cash now.... lol i have 2 grand need mawr

 

told ya id run into u on here

 

Damn, NJ rep'in this thread haha

So Max, when ya gettin all this shenanigans done?

 

$1000 you can have my p&p head with 78# springs, everything except the cams included, will come with flowbench results as well

 

^^I'll take it off your hands

 

dude you should pic that up max, **** id even drive down to KY to get it with you

 

it's for sale, we've got some new ideas to try and if i can sell this one, we're gonna do some fancy stuff to the new one

 

the head price is still subject to minor change in price, but ive pretty much locked into the deal with the shop to do it with them thanks for the offer though

 

march or over the summer

 

ok no problem, i'm not really trying to sell it but thought i would help you out. I have i think it was almost $975 in it, my machinist wanted to try some new stuff on a different head if i get another one though.

i'm just curious enough to see if whatever it is he wants to do would work or not lol

 

the billigs kid wants it haha

 

Sweet!

haha I am rather tempted

 

haha where did this cash flow come from lol

 

look at your other thread (boost bypass) joes got one for ya

 

Glad to see someone fixing a problem early.

 

It isn't haha. I want that head though. Just gotta find $1000 out of nowhere and not put it on credit cards. Grrrrr

 

yeah i was drunk last night so that head isn't for sale to anyone else. since i told you two it was, i would sell it just to keep my word, otherwise it's not available to anyone haha

******* whiskey

 

^^Well uh... you don't remember but uh... you said you'd give it to me for the special price of $700 if I came down and picked it up. So ya know... whenever you're ready