THIS CAR GETS THE WORST FIX IV SEEN IN 20 YEARS!

/ @barumbts
Well guys it’s another week and we not only manage to get the Merc finished but we get onto the Rover K16 engine. Also, we have never seen such a bad fix than this in 20 years

[@clivewilliams3661]

Knurling piston skirts was a popular (predominantly US) race prep back in 1960's and 70's to reduce the friction of the skirt on the bore. The knurled section did allow greater clearance for pistons and rings without the attendant piston slap as well as retaining more oil against the bore. The knurling was tighter than that shown as the object was to have a myriad of pyramid peaks that would act like miniature bearing surfaces, the theory being that the peaks would quickly round over to give a smooth contact. Today hi-perf pistons have teflon/ceramic coatings that purport to do the same thing, a modern take on a old tradition..

[@goldcountryruss7035]

Back in the 1960's knurling pistons was very common on an "overhaul" and new pistons would be used for a "rebuild".

[@class27]

Remember reading the instructions on an old set of American made rings, which talked about knurling the skirt if clearance was excessive.I remember reading it two or three times in disbelief. Positives would be a reduction in friction surface and great oil retention. Don't think it's an option on modern pistons though. Liner protrusion dependant on type of head gasket type being used. I run 6 thou on my old Renault motors with composite gaskets and never an issue. Spent 10 years circuit racing, broke a few bits, but never blew a gasket.

[@JB-de5cp]

They use to do a lot of this years ago, im surprised you never seen it before.

[@ChrisBalch]

Back in 1978 my dodge Charger 440 magnum was due for a fast freshen up. Just rings and bearings. it still ran well but had 140000 miles... The pistons were a little sloppy in the bore, otherwise it all looked good to go.... A friends brother was a machinist, but not specifically automotive. I got the pistons knurled to take up the slop and assembled the engine. It ran very well! i sold the car 2 years later, the engine was strong, sounded good, ran well. I saw the guy around town still driving the 1970 dodge for at least another 5 years! He wasn't a racer, drive hard kinda guy like me so it all worked out well for all concerned. very cheap refresh

[@adamhopkinson6363]

Garage 54 has made lots of pistons made out of different materials, copper, lead, all kinds

[@sahalin12345]

Yeah, my favorit one was making an inline 6 out of two inline 4 engines.

[@adamhopkinson6363]

@@sahalin12345 Yeah, the transparent engine one was good and honing over polishing.

[@georgebettiol8338]

@@sahalin12345 Wouldn't that result in an in-line 8 cyl engine - or did they lop-off 2 cyl off one engine before the join.

[@sahalin12345]

@@georgebettiol8338 they did chop off 2 cylinders out of one block

[@lennewton8184]

When you talk about wooden pistons takes me back to 1974 when I started as an apprentice in a garage and an old mechanic who forgot more about engines than I will ever know made a piston for an engine during the war as cast iron and especially aluminium was very hard to get hold of. And the amazing thing was it worked and I suppose long stroke slow reviving plodding engines were a bit more forgiving. He also said he would weld teeth on the rear axle crown wheels and grind them to shape to keep the cars on the road so I’m sorry to say these things did happen. Len.

[@damianbutterworth2434]

I heard something similar about a tank being repaired with a wooden piston to get it home.

[@michaelmason5459]

I'll own up to going around inside of aluminium and steel bearing recess with a punch to raise metal and take up wear, also cut King Ping Bushs with one axe saw cut, hard soldered rear press back in and Re-remeared to size. 50 years ago money was tight parts expensive and your time was free, needs must. You could do one of your viewers bodgers once a week on show. Old hacks and repairs and skills are being lost through time. Cheers Mick

[@donaldhalls2189]

I would price how much it costs to rebuild the first motor, then take that off what the running engine is worth, thanks for sharing, all the best to you and your loved ones

[@johnmoruzzi7236]

Good quality video again but can I suggest that when you go up to an engine and start talking about it you give a quick 20 second recap on it to help identify it rather than expect everyone to remember the story ? So for example instead of just saying “Now… Rover…. blah blah” you say “Rover K Series, 1.8, MG track car, in for a refresh and new cylinder head…” Helps keep things less random…

[@robinmoorshead804]

When I was in college in the early 1960s we did repairs that would make your hair stand on end. One friend had an old Hillman Minx in which the top of no.4 piston came off. There was no obvious reason why that happened so we put a new piston in it and the top came off that one a few weeks later. He was too broke to afford another piston so I went to Fields Engine Service who I knew well and I asked them if they had a used piston I could put in the car. The let me rummage through a large wicker basket of old pistons. I couldn't find a Hillman piston, but I did find a Ford piston which was the right diameter and the gudgeon pin was the right diameter. The only problem was that the top of the piston was about 3/16 of an inch lower that the Hillman. We fitted it and it worked beautifully until he finished college. I regularly cleaned big ends with emery paper and put shims behind the bearings.

[@billweston6579]

Some of the “cheaper” engine reconditioning establishments used to do this to save money. The had a machine set up to do it and it could be done quite quickly.

[@iangardiner8535]

Hello Lee I was going to mention the camera being waved back and for and making the viewer feel sea sick but, some one has done it for me. I was disappointed with your response, basically take some pills and lump it. I though you may have said I'll try and smooth it out a bit. But, alas we're going to have to lump it. Not all negative though. Great to see the M3 progressing. Would have loved to seen a 4 pot fitted, not quite the power of the S50 but they sound awesome at full chat. Ian_G

[@Flakmagnet1701]

Always fun to play 'Guess where John's Austin is today' ... its like an automotive Where's Wally. It's usually lurking somewhere just on the edge of shot. Managed to avoid motion sickness...I've mounted the montor on a gimbal and rock it to compensate for the unsteady cam. Big brain solution.

[@gailtaylor1636]

LMAO!

[@tompirozek4490]

I believe the 2 stroke tuners used to knurl or put hacksaw grooves in the skirts

[@midgetrace]

Back in the 50s and 60s Knurling and GI spacers were the norm. The piston now has a closer tolerance and the GI spacer is placed in the top ring grove because the top grove usually is worn beyond limits. Lastly the piston pin (gudgeon) is replaced with an oversize pin. ------- like new. The knurling usually lasts about 20K miles.

[@andyday4535]

Back in the 60s when a model diesel engine was worn out and had no compression a trick was to rub candlewax over the piston skirt, assemble and sell it quick!

[@petergordon4525]

If you need any Cosworth cam covers made, complete with any design you can think of. XYZ Fabrications is the place to go.

[@RWDcosworthRSTurboEscort]

I’ve got one, awesome quality

[@adrianrigby1933]

I have only seen this on engines re-built in the USA 60-70`s. To my mind it would wreck the pistons and knock them out of shape. Each to their own!

[@timevans9710]

Knurling skirts is an old trick to hold oil and reduce friction in the days before slipper skirt pistons .Peening out skirts was also used in times of need. You said it would be a dodgy fix ,but is it any dodgier than using a split link on a timing chain, I wonder Hmmm.

[@tractorhead971]

Lignin Vitae pistons are a thing in Africa, extremely hard dark colour wood can be machined just like aluminium. They work well.

[@gailtaylor1636]

Love the snarkiness about taking a pill. Some channels make me sick. I just don't watch them. Mainly when camera is head mounted. Yours has never bothered me. Just keep on keeping on.

[@howardhilson2374]

I remember seeing pictures of a piston knurler in an old mechanics book. The tooling was made by a piston ring manufacturer and the pattern produced was the companies logo rather than a crosshatch. Apparently this was common practice on old slow revving engines.

[@TheBlibo]

The rover k engines I liked the original 1100 and 1400 units as the liners were hung from a register at the block deck and sealed with o rings at the bottom and then they increased the capacity to 1600 and finally 1800 and the liners then sat on the register at the bottom like you have and then the problems started the liners and gasket would fret against the head more on the exhaust valve side necessitating the head saver gasket kit. Just another example of squeezing a quart out of a pint pot

[@Ben-Dixey]

Give the Knurling pistons a try, could save you some time. Time is money.

[@susanhenderson2322]

I did this back in early/ mid 80s on a couple of early lotus turbo engines to cure piston slap, I worked at MCL cars in Vancouver and this was the service managers fix on used sales cars.

[@peterfairlane2065]

That was common years and years ago when replacement pistons were not available. Or the bores were out of round. Find some old repair manuals from the 1930s to 70s and it will be in there.

[@missogyny4921]

The seasickness ain’t to do with the gimbal, Lee, it’s the speed with which you pan round - slow it down mate!!

[@trevor4426]

Light knurling of alloy pistons is used to determine the eventual shape of the piston. By identifying where the knurling wears, the design aspects: gudgeon pin off set, top-land clearance, ring land clearance, skirt barreling and ovality can be determined. This is usually carried with temperature sensitive ‘plugs’ in the piston crown, as it is important to know the temperature and hence expansion of the piston material.

[@richardsweet5068]

Chap I worked with blew up a big outboard engine, One piston in bits. Had it welded back together, filed it to fit, re assembled and part exchanged it for another engine. He reckoned it ran ok on tickover. Didn't chance revving it though. Beware strangers px ing engines

[@brucewaterworth3873]

Ask Bob Dove,he’s probably seen that on some Climax pistons.

[@neilmchardy9061]

I saw a guy on an American channel centre punching the main bearing sides because they were fretted and loose in the housing. I commented that I would have gotten the sack if I did that. The hate I got was very informative. Must be a common dodge.

[@terencehawkes3933]

Well done with that Merc engine. That is a cracking good job!!

[@aerotube7291]

Life outside Barum...sounds exciting..."making a warranty claim on toaster today"😂. Will check it out

[@ants9230]

i saw a video on a youtube channel "garage54" where he cut a crankshaft, rotated it and welded it back up to change the firing order. He does some crazy stuff!

[@TheBlibo]

I had heard that knerling pistons was popular years ago and then in about 1985 I was working on a compressor with a 4 cylinder ford Dover or Dorset engine that had had a coolant leak and was asked to do what I can as cheap as possible. It had started to pick up on the rear cylinder so the bore was cleaned and deglazed and the piston was knerled to restore close to the correct piston bore clearance and on starting it was a little slappy but once warm it was quiet and smooth. Certainly not something I would entertain on a modern engine but for and old low power unit an acceptable repair

[@lelandlewis7207]

Knurling was a common process for pistons up until the '70s to take up a few thousandths in clearance and stabilize the piston. It was also thought that the knurl held extra oil for better wall lubrication. There was a machine specifically for piston knurling which took only a few minutes to set up and knurl a skirt. The first shop I worked in had a machine and the manager used to do a few in the mid-70s. A video of a 2-stroke piston being knurled in a knurling machine: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqbdi4yGfqyVkKc The knurling didn't hurt the bores and didn't wear the knurl quickly. We disassembled engines with knurled pistons that had virtually no wear on the piston or bore. If I remember correctly, only the thrust side was knurled. Something else we experimented with in the mid-70s was to install Teflon buttons in the skirts to minimize friction in racing engines. Today most skirts are coated for friction reduction. Another area common for knurling, was the inside of a slightly worn valve guide, usually no more than .003 wear. A spiral knurl was run through the guide which was then reamed or honed to a maximum clearance of .001 on the intake and .0015 on the exhaust. Once again, the knurl held extra oil for lubrication. I have seen knurled guides last as long as replacements. Some companies sold pre-spiralled guides and Hastings sold Bron-el guides, which had bronze liners that were knurled and fitted as tight as .0005 on an 11/32 stem intake. goodson.com/collections/valve-guide-knurling/products/valve-guide-knurling-arbors

[@PatrickFrawley-h7f]

I guess the idea behind the cross pattern grooves is to retain oil for lubrication. Its a bit like on injection moulds where you have moving cores running on hardened H13 steel plates, I would have cross pattern grooves on the plates to retain grease for lubrication. Its a well known method.

[@josephbradshaw5353]

I’m my Father’s Day he told me knurling was done in combination of excessive wall clearance with the cylinders to get less friction. He said that the point was when assembling the engine that the piston could almost fall down on its own. Of course his race motors didn’t last long maybe 5 passes.

[@dennissheridan1550]

Lee, I guess I have an advantage on you, I'm 80, but knurling was used here in the US many years ago in the engine rebuilding business to save the customer money by reusing the pistons, as long as they weren't banging around the bore like a BB in a boxcar. It simply increased the diameter of the piston so it was snug in the honed bore. Of course if the engine was bored us would have to use an oversized new piston.

[@mikeadams7829]

I seem to remember a system called "Micro Peening' that achieved the same end.

[@dermotbyrne6267]

I some years ago stripped Kart 210 cc Villers engine piston found with small hacksaw marks all over skirt. Told that it was to stop seizing problems with argument that each small cut would contain some oil.

[@RachelEvans680]

Hey Isaac, I watch Garage 54 as well.... cheers

[@skiroule1]

I worked for an engine rebuilder in the early 70 's and nurling of pistons was quite common .

[@jagracershoestring609]

I have an E28 2.8 engine in my shed you can have if you can get it out and take it away. been there since 1995, came from the breakers in Billingshurst.

[@UK_Lemons]

Was that Charlie Muddles' breakers at Adversane? I lived in Steyning and was a regular visitor to the yard mainly for MK2 Cortina and Escort parts. I miss the days when a visit to the breakers usually resulted in dangerous clambering on towers of cars and shoes covered in oily yard sludge.

[@terencehawkes3933]

That Rover block is really interesting!!

[@krispatty-knash6778]

Being 67 years old I have seen knurled pistons many many times I have done it myself it only takes a few minutes per piston. Have seen rebuilds like that last 50000 miles. But you must remember that was old 216 chevys low remember engines. The tool to do it was in almost all shops back 60 plus years. Low speed low hp low compression. It worked good. Overhaul would cost you 60 to 80 dollars .

[@TheMadManPlace]

Pistons are not only tapered but they are oval as well.

[@ouroborosirvington]

Nothing wrong with using an old basin for a sump - add some fairy liquid it will keep the engine clean and smelling fresh. Highly recommend

[@keithfletcher6123]

Knurling … it’s a thing in the world of pistons …who’d o’ thunk it 😂

[@sumkunt0r]

That knurling is professional standard! 😂 Cheapskates use two files clamped in a vice round the piston skirt 😎

[@daledavies2334]

Had to have the skirts knurled on an engine when I got a bit exuberant deglazing the bores while I was an apprentice. That was about 45 years ago. One thing, the knurling should hold and spread oil in the grooves to lube the skirts and cylinder walls.

[@fredsmith6725]

Funny you said about wooden pistons. An old boss of mine turned up a mahogany piston once , just to get a 1970s engine working, long enough to sell the car! 😲

[@ataxpayer723]

That knurling looks pretty narly!

[@Maxx1066]

Garage 54 did wooden pistons lol worth watching too enjoyed the video.

[@richardmoorhouse8030]

In the 50s, a friend of my uncle bought an Austin Seven at an auction. It was fitted with said wooden piston. Apparently it ran quite well until it disintegrated!

[@jdsmort]

I have also seen this as common practice in '70's, mostly in race prep pistons, and especially in 2-stroke m/cycles... and I never saw any effect on the bores.

[@BillyWillicker]

This _was_ common in the US in the '30's up until the early '70's.

[@countryboysteve]

I finally sent my piston knurler to the scrapyard due to the fact i couldn't get the tooling anymore. That coupled with companies like line to line, it's no longer nessecary. Knurling was used in a lot of preformance 2 stroke stuff, or where i used it a lot was in antique tractor or oil field engines. The piston mounted into a jig, then rotated as a press wheel knurled each side. It then swung around and rotated across a platen sander to even things up. You could swell a piston .010-.015 no issue. The process took about 10 mins/piston. Many of these engines were going to be parade queens or oilfield stuff where running now was more important than being prefect. My machine came out of an old reman facility that sold out in the 50's. You can do the same thing with modern coating systems. Honestly the engines lasted perfectly well. With no real issues with scuffing. Everything being said its a dead practice primarily because of modern coating systems and the ease of replacement parts.

[@warwickmclean690]

Yes, my dad couldn't get pistons for his car during the war so he made a wooden piston out of Australian Ironbark. He was an engineer working on war planes so he knew what he was doing. If you can't get something because of a lack of components because all the aluminium is used up in the war effort, then you jury-rig it.

[@peterlogan706]

When I seen it I was thinking it was a garage54 thing lol

[@jagracershoestring609]

Piston stretching machine takes up the slop, use stepped rings as well. Hard Anodise the pistons to increase size by two thou.

[@gazza116]

seen the knurling before and another practice was expanding worn pistons,they were filled with steal or lead shot inside with the small end holes plugged and vibrated in a machine.usually a .002 thou increase in diameter

[@flydieselair]

When I started doing engine work in 1974, knurling was just coming to an end. I've seen a few sets of pistons that were knurled, if done properly it works quite well but you only get about 1/3 the life of a non-knurled piston.

[@chillierdavro]

The sad thing with social media and voutube, is that if you done stupid things like that and made silly engine components like wooden pistons and cams out of broomsticks, and run engine on cutting oil you would go viral and make tons of advertising monies.

[@madeljacky]

Knurling pistons isnt done on a lathe like i would do normal knurling, there is a machine for knurling pistons called a Perfect Circle Piston Nurlizing machine, they spelt knurling with a N for some reason, ive seen it been done years ago but dont know if it was to hold oil on the piston skirt or to actually expand the worn piston to bore fit on a overhauled engine

[@oh_crisis]

When labor was cheep and parts were $ % out of reach. Saw demo knurling skirts in school years ago.

[@gakali123]

We knurled pistons on a proper piston knurling machine in automotive trade school in the mid-nineties. Very likely an out of date “procedure” by that time I’m sure. I remember filing down the knurled pistons to proper size 😆

[@Phantom-mk4kp]

Knurling pistons back in the day to reduce piston slap on worn pistons instead of replacing. Not something I will comment on as I've never done it, but as a budget rebuild to gain a bit more time before replacement could be OK I suppose

[@TheSharkey22]

Writing a comment saying you are not going to make a comment then expressing an opinion. Confused 😕. lol.

[@Phantom-mk4kp]

@@TheSharkey22 That's why I said 'Could' (maybe maybe not) OK Mr Pedantic

[@andrewphillips6053]

Best amateur piston maker in his garden shed was Les Monroe. The fastest Indian motorcycle.

[@iankidd6500]

Burt Munro was the man 👍

[@peterwilson8797]

A real hero of mine. The amount of bikes I've blown up trying to be like him.😂😂

[@rogerbond7811]

Les Munroe was a pilot on the Dam Busters raid Operation Chastise.

[@TurnWrightEngineering-xo1yg]

Seen this on standard pistons, popular on the 80's motorcycles .... com-on Lee, pistons don't only touch at the bottom, we have all seen the wear halfway down ....

[@christopheryarnold2150]

When I was a child we lived next door to the track matainance guy for shellsley Walsh hill climb track he told me of a old Austin lorry that had a wooden piston used as a run around for track maintenance it didn't have a spark plug in that cylinder and was run on three just after the war there was no money or parts available for it at that time and so necessity is the mother of invention

[@TamTran-vw7zm]

And I thought hurling was the game our northern neighbors (the Canadians), and others around the world, played with sliding weights (on ice) and lots of assistance from a determined person with a broom. 🤭 of course, I'm just an American...

[@EricaMTB]

Stop counting the dollars on the 3 motor deal. Just go through with the deal and make the most of it.

[@bobmizen1]

Hi both, thanks for giving me fame on the introduction of your recent video (clock batteries) and it was good to see you checking the time first thing today, did the batteries also fit your mouse? Thank you not just for the technical side but the entertainment with your humour 🤣. Best wishes, Bob M. South Wales

[@milesfinch]

Welcome back to the camp thumbnail channel!!! ;-)

[@ataxpayer723]

Would it have been easier/cheaper to just replace that red Cossie cam cover with a replacement used one??

[@Kalus_Saxon]

11:26 garage 54 crazy vlad 😂

[@joetuotoiv7486]

Yes Isaac is the man he watches garage 54 👍

[@davidedgar2818]

Lee, those are special honing pistons. Very hard to find these days and quite sought after.🤔🤔🤔🤔😳

[@JohnRumens]

Yeah seen the knurling trick in easy riders magazine in 70s on harley pistons using two files in a vice ,beat that 😂

[@stumartin2644]

Barum Engines branded sick bags for all the Karens ;-)

[@onecookieboy]

Garage 54 is one of my favourite channels, I honestly don't know how they come up with their ideas but it's funny as hell. Pro tip, don't take your car to a Russian mechanic, if Garage 54 is any indication.

[@Sandysand701]

Would the criss cross on the pistons help them carry more oil up the bore?

[@jagracershoestring609]

No they advertised themselves as official BMW breakers and recyclers. Sadly it later turned out that they were not as seemed.

[@rogerbond7811]

Remember reading a magazine article about knurling piston in the early seventies.

[@stevefletcher7531]

Talking about wooden pistons, i needed a car quickly, so i bought a Mk1 Cavalier from the auctions, 130 quid, drove it home, running rough as ^^^^, took off the rocker cover, one of the rocker arms was made of wood, i kid you not. Put a new arm on, then drove over 1000 miles that weekend to Inverness and back.

[@bullitautorepairsmobile4989]

You mean one from the scrap yard , ha ha

[@rjp666]

Knurling started about 90 years ago when labour was cheap and parts were expensive, it temporarily solved piston slap, a common practice among dodgy car salesman 😯😲😳

[@tomrayborn6558]

The piston knurling was done on a special devise whin doing a ring job.

[@jacketrussell]

11:22 - Isaac's referencing the 'Garage 54' channel. They do some whacky stuff.

[@hughbatchelor8599]

Are you sure it wasn't an April Fools Day job!?!?

[@damianbutterworth2434]

Might be easier to glue KitKat wrappers round the piston. :)

[@dermotnixon8446]

Was that piston knurled on the 1st of. April

[@andrewbaron8713]

K series should be 4 thou plus on the liners on just about every forum I read.

[@itsverygreen532]

That's not knurled! That's oil retention grooves engraved in the rubbing faces. Knurling would have gone all the way around the piston, that stops at a very specific point. This was done on some very early pistons.

[@barbaraneville5036]

I think from when I owned a K series rover the liner protusion specifications Was between .002" to .004" But don't knurl the liner to make it higher (y) LOL

[@miked6505]

wooden pistons were made out oak in the war because of lack of suply

[@markgrant8771]

is the wooden piston engine built by the post apocalyptic inventor ?

[@Simon-ui6db]

Rover K series 3thou max, and if using the MLS gasket instead of the elastomer one, all liners need to be within 0.5thou of one another.

[@johnmoruzzi7236]

Good advice… the liner just needs to dig in to the gasket…. MLS slightly out of favour now I believe….

[@Ben-Dixey]

Stop recording while turning the camera to yourself and back to the job, then edit video. General Panning is also too quick and jerky. It is hard to watch and makes you feel sick. Sometimes I just switch off and wait for the next video, if you want more views, likes, subscribers then stop making people feel sick.

[@Sir2ofLitre]

Well done on hitting 45k subs.