Long story short. I blew my engine @ 120k miles. Was a daily driver now dedicated track duty. I finally bought a used long block with 52k miles. Being an engine that will see strictly track miles I pulled it apart to do some maintenance and longevity upgrades. When I pulled the head I noticed the interesting wear on the cylinder walls. Here are some pictures.

Now engine of 120k hard miles had the same darker areas, but were my concern is the wear/markings within the darker area.
Is this normal? Should I be concerned? What can I do to repair this issue, if it is a concern?




Thanks everyone!

Cb

I think that's normal. WHen my headgasket failed on the track my walls looked like that upon inspection. My engine had 68k miles on it, you have twice as much so I would say not bad. Im in a similar predicament as you actually but I keep changing ideas about which route to go so I never make progress.

Are the imperfections deep, like can you hang your nail in them? The dark marks are normal. I'm assuming you're talking about the brighter flake looking marking's within the dark area..

The pictures are of the new engine. And I feel you on changing your mind (stock motor and sell it, 4g64, or same set up and enjoy the car)it's been 6 months since my engine blew lol

Yes, I am talking about the lighter flakes/pitting areas.
You can't hang a nail on them so they are not deep,
but you can lightly drag a pocket screw driver across them and feel an occational drag.

If you can't hang a nail on them I wouldn't worry about it. Worst thing that happens is slightly higher oil consumption and potentially lower compression in that hole, nothing drastic.

If you were highly worried about it, the only way to properly cure it would be an overbore and new pistons.

Gotcha. It is in all holes though. Over boring was my assumption.

Has anyone else seen this, it's peaked my curiosity.

Witnessed them both ways some motors with not scuff marks and only crosshatch marks from the honing and seen motors with some scuff marks that have lasted thousands of miles.
The question you need to ask yourself is why the skiff marks are there ?

That is the reason for the this post... But knowing why won't make them disappear and I can't afford another engine, I'm trying to make this one work. So what causes this? What is this? How can I prevent this? Is this going to cause an issue in the future is I don't address it now?

Just to clarify. These lighter colored scuffs/Pitts/wear in the normal dark areas is only on the used motor that I purchased to replace my blown 120k motor. Pictures shown are of an engine stated to be at 52k miles, not of my orginal 120k motor which has melted piston and a ruined block.

Thanks for all the input!

Cheers,

Cb

If you want to put your mind at ease, have a trusted machine shop give the new block a thorough once over. If they give the block a clean bill of health, build it up! If they uncover any problems, make a new plan of attack.

Good luck.

The old block is not ruined. Do not scrap it!

This is a great idea and what i plan to do,I just don't know how familiar they are with this block. I was hoping to find someone who has seen this and could shed some light on it.

If it was my block what is would do is.

Inspect the engine for any abnormal wear and take it even further look for cracks by using a dye penetrant kit. Or maybe a good machine shop can take a look at it for a few bucks and pass a quick hone on the cylinders

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/SPO...rant-Kit-3WU63

And if scuff marks are to deep have a good shop like AMS performance overbore to 0.040" but then you would have to get larger pistons... This you only have to do if the pits have some depth to them


I am no engine builder I am just a gear head that is very particular with its hardware

all bad advice. DO NOT hone those cylinders. that will just kill the good ring seal. these cylinders look fine to someone who knows what he is looking at. this is a normal wear pattern and is of no concern whatsoever.

So you have seen the light color markings within the dark wear areas before? How many miles were on those engines?