Advice Needed: Early S54 (pre 03) Rebuild

[N44BF]

Fellas,

Compression is low on my engine and I am looking to tear the engine down. The motor is an early one with the irreplaceable rod bolts. Any advice on bearing brand, piston ring options, and things to do “while in there” would greatly be appreciated.

-Currently looking at Kings bearings or ACL.
-Piston rings, is there any reliable aftermarket for these?
-Rod bolts, just reuse or has there been development of ones for use in the early motor?

Thank you!

[Obioban]

Fellas,

Compression is low on my engine and I am looking to tear the engine down. The motor is an early one with the irreplaceable rod bolts. Any advice on bearing brand, piston ring options, and things to do “while in there” would greatly be appreciated.

-Currently looking at Kings bearings or ACL.
-Piston rings, is there any reliable aftermarket for these?
-Rod bolts, just reuse or has there been development of ones for use in the early motor?

Thank you!

Reusing the rod bolts in the early cars is totally fine.

Have you confirmed where your engine is losing compression? Normally it's from the head gasket, not the rings.

[N44BF]

The mechanic who did the compression and leak down test wasn’t super informative. He said he didn’t hear any air out of the intake or exhaust. He doesn’t think he heard any air bubbling in the coolant tank and didn’t hear any air out of the dip stick or oil cap.

compression was 140-145 across 4 cylinders, 135, and 150 for others with a leak down of 50%.

Now with the car back I may have someone double check these things. There is also an upper engine/fuel injector cleaner fluid by AC delco I was told my clean things up in the cylinder and possibly help reseat the things if things are dirty in there. Motor has 103k miles with cams. I am not sure if someone botched an install and damaged something as I’ve never had a stock baseline dyno.

Thanks Ian

[Inizes]

I’m using ACL bearings. A few places have them right around $100 right now. Lang Racing says they use them on all their builds. They haven’t had any issues with them.