My 3.0 started ticking so i did a compression test and the 2 middle cylinders were at about 55lbs, low. So i figured that maybe my valves were bent so I took the heads off and this is what i found,only one piston. it doesn't look like the piston slapping the head would make it look like this. I spun a rod bearing in the previous motor so i got a used block and machined heads. I timed it to jtis and got it wrong the first time so, i took it back out and re timed it and it was fine for a couple hours then it started the ticking noise. Has anyone seen anything like this. Any input would be great thanks

 

Mushu, looking at the pics, it looks like you had a small piece of metal inside the cylinder and that is what was causing your ticking. You don't mention finding any metal inside the cylinder when you pulled the head off. Looking at the picture of the piston, if you look at the 3 o'clock position, it appears a chunk of the piston is missing. I don't know if this is a result of the loose piece of metal or if that broke off and this is the result. Looking, it appears that your initial timing problem wasn't the cause of this (would have seen it on all 6 cylinders and you would have had curled valves too).

All that I can figure is if it wasn't the chunk of piston that came loose, there was a small piece of metal that accidentally made it into the one cylinder. It is possible that with it getting crushed between the head and the piston, the small piece of metal simply got crushed to powder, therefore leaving the cylinder in the form of dust.

I wish I had better news, but it is looking like to me that you have a new head and a new piston to be putting in and hoping that the cylinder walls are not damaged.

 

Is there any part of the sparkplug missing from that cylinder? Side electrode maybe?

Is that piston sitting higher than other pistons?

BTW, when you shave a head, you lose valve clearance. You can shave some, but it is a question of how much.

On OHV engines, clearancing valves is not a big deal, and the same technique applies.

 

Looks like piston is hitting the head. You said there was machining, normally you need a thicker head gasket when you do that. Looks like you "fixed" yourself a problem.

 

It's only on one cylinder though?

 

thats not piston/head hitting, thats foreign object damage

 

I found a small chunk of steel when i ground off the bad area on the head

 

Last time I saw something that looked like those photos, a fellow had dropped the wing nut from the air cleaner down the throat of the carb.

He started it up, to "try and blow it out the tailpipe".

Best of luck with this one. I'd cut my losses and just buy a used complete engine.

 

Do you know where the chunk came from, like Plumsauce said, have you checked your plugs to see if the electrodes are still in place?

 

You sure the guy wasn't a wingnut himself?

 

Spark plugs are all good. Must have had something in the intake manifold or something?