Broken Piston Rings

[chickenchippie]

I believe my rave valve was not cut back enough when I did an over bore of .5MM and it nicked and broke a piston ring. I removed the head due to low compression and found that the head and piston had tons of marks where the broken piston ring has been banging around. My question is; where did all the fragments go? I'm hoping out the exhaust but I'm also thinking they are in the crankcase, Surprising the ski ran ok with one cylinder because i nursed it back to the dock about 10 miles or so. If the ring fragments where in the crankcase, they should have caused a problem with the lower end on the ride back. I really would like to just hone the cylinders and do a top end rebuild. I'm on the fence with taking the motor out and splitting the cases apart. If that is the case I will just replace the motor but that is twice as much money than I would really like to spend. Its the old pay now or pay later syndrome.
Any ideas on what I should do.

[Technical Support]

Re: Broken Piston Rings

would recommend that you inspect the bottom end,if the crank is in good shape replace the seals and top and you you should be in good shape

[randyhig]

Re: Broken Piston Rings

Hmmmm.... I hate cost vs reliability tradeoffs. I would want the confidence that I could go 10 miles away at any time. It really depends on your specific situation. Do you have the time, money, and resources to do the tear down? I would do the tear down, but my free time is limited which means the ski is out of use for the summer. Maybe go with the long lock (if you know the history of the donor ski)

[chickenchippie]

Re: Broken Piston Rings

Well I thought about it and came to a conclusion. Since the ski did not fail due to lack of oil, (hence the advice from this forum about the brown color underneath the pistons, rules out that problem) and the carbs having the correct jets. I decided to buy an long block and just change out the whole motor, perhaps the crank seals were leaking causing a lean condition. Now I have a new motor, and a no fault warranty. This should be a better start, just hope it does not happen again. Thanks for all the advice.