Shucks!

[Ultradog MN]

So I pulled the pistons out of that 545
engine this weekend.
Found this on #2.
What do you think would have caused a
failure like that?
The other 2 are perfect.
Book says they should be .008-.009"
smaller than the bores.
All of them are reading about 4.3918 + -
though my 4-5 mic hasn't been on a
standard for a couple years - I am missing
the one for this size but trust it's still
close.
Seller did tell me his dad had the tractor
in to the NH dealer and they said it would
need some work done to the engine but he
had no clue why or what.
So now what do you guys recommend?
Buy just one piston or buy all three?
If you say all three I'm gonna cry cause
what does a guy do with 2 almost new
pistons?
The bore on #2 looks fine. I cleaned it
out good and don't see anything that a
quick hone job won't cure.

 

[Bern]

Look in the tool box. Do you see any empty ether cans? I don't know what else could have caused something like that. If it was an injector failure of some sort, it should have damaged the crown of the piston as well. Having said that, I've never seen anything like that before.

If you can pin it on ether, I wouldn't trust the other 2 pistons either.

 

[Fordfarmer]

My first thought was ether damage. Especially since the back story was that it started hard.
Don't know what to tell you, one vs. all three. I think the issue with replacing one will be weight/balance with the other two. I wouldn't replace just one in a 289 or 351 V8...but this is not a high rpm engine. My first instinct is to say replace as a set, but I had an 850 that I replaced just one in, probably 8-10 years ago now. Used it for a while before I sold it, and it ran just fine.

 

[Dean]

Looks like Ether Fever.

Dean

 

[Ultradog MN]

I just pulled the rings out of the other 2, cleaned them in gas and took a hand wire brush to the lands and grooves. Then looked them over with a big old magnifying glass I have. The lands on #3 are cracked as well.
Cant see it with just my eye glasses but magnified they are easily discernible.

Oh well.
I would never have felt good about installing just one piston anyway.
What is scrap aluminum going for these days?

 

[Fordfarmer]

ouch!

 

[David G]

I might think over fueling if one cylinder, but ether if more than one.

 

[Bern]

If another one has cracked ring lands, then I'm cementing my opinion of ether damage. That said, I've never seen anything quite like the picture you posted. That almost looks like it was chiseled and then ground away by hand. Usually classic ether damage leaves some pretty jagged edges.

Did you find any empty cans in the tool box?

 

[Welding man]

I have a collection of pistons, from Fords, Masseys and John Deeres to show my customers what starting fluid will do for them. I have some that look a lot worse than those. When I find one bad I replace them all, without hesitation.

 

[Royse]

Sounds like you already have your answer but I was going to
say that if you couldn't prove ether damage, there is always a
chance that it was a defective piston bought from who knows
where and if one was bad, they all may be. I'd replace all three.

I did a quick search on fleabay and prices are all over the board.
$34 to $125 each by the looks. (not to say I'd buy them on eBay)

 

[Ultradog MN]

Yeah, has to be devil juice if two of them are bad.
No empty ether cans in the tool box but that's not saying he didn't have a 20 lb pressure tank full of the stuff either.
It's sad to see a good engine tortured to death like this one was. Both top and bottom ends with odd catastrophes.
I'm keeping the pump, injectors, timing gear, front cover, tach and drive gear, + misc other things that I needed for my other project.
Still a good parts engine at this point. Block, head, crank with a grind.
Ken's willing to trade me a nice set of 13X30 rims and centers - new sandblast, prime and paint on them for the rest of it. Dunno if it's equal value but I'm happy to make the trade.
Anyone else want to do some horse trading so I can get some new pistons?
I have 2 sets of nos gas pistons for a 201 and 2 new sets of diesel pistons for a 175 to trade.

 

[Vito]

Looks like the ether bunny strikes again!

Sorry Jerry couldn't help myself. I had a Diesel engine rebuilt and when it needed being done again , balancer bearings went failed and broke the crank, we found the lands broken on a couple of the new pistons I had paid for . Used to much juice trying to get it going on initial startup.

Vito

 

[cemeyer]

What do the rings look like?

Is there a chance the ring gap was too tight and stuck a ring? Any time that happens, broken ring lands are the result.

 

[DGinVT]

If you want to sleep well, You would be wise to replace all 4 pistons and sleeves as well as have a look at the crankshaft and its bearings. I used to work at a large rebuilt shop in Rutland, VT and the shop foreman would never accept the responsibility of only replacing one or two parts. Point is, we never had to redo a job.

 

[Ultradog MN]

Hmmm,
Replace all 4 pistons on a 3 cylinder?
Here are a couple of photos of the crank and bearings

 

[cdmn]

Must be a North Dakota tractor? Someone used some fracking fluid!

 

[wisbaker]

If the either bunny broke one he probably got a few licks in on the other two. Do you really want to chance it? How much will it cost you to tear it down AGAIN to replace the piston you didn't last time?

 

[dannyidp]

Hey you might want to put that magnifying glass to the cylinder walls also I don't know how the cylinders be okay with that kind of damage.