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Grr, too late for power tools in my apartment, so I did some measuring. Looks like .040in needs to come off to clear, plus min .035 as recommended before. Taking .075+ off the skirt for either side of the piston. The piston measures just as 343 measurments stated earlier. 2.45in from skirt to face, and ledge about .21in thick at narrowest point.
Clear schedule tomorrow afternoon, so I'll try to escape work around 5. I'll update after I make a piston fit.
Took a quick look and couldn't find the casting number on the crank. Is it visible still in the engine? When I tore down, I got the distinct impression that everything inside was original. The wear on the cylinders made it impossible to remove the pistons, so original crank/rods seems likely.
I clearance one piston skirt last night by less than 1 mm, and it can now pass the crank counterweight. I don't like how much debre stuck to the piston, even after trying to clean it. I'm going by the machine shop to ask a price to remove, then later reinstall pistons. If I can afford that, I'll clearance them all myself and rebalance.
I have bad luck with piston rings, and I expect to break one during removal/reinstall. Any recommendations for a complete new set for a 343, .040 over, 11:1 compression?
Casting number is on the side of the small part of one of the counterweights. Second one from the front near the main journal. Have heard good and bad things, Maddog Racing / Fast Engine Parts seems to have good pricing, but some claim to have had shady experiences. My understanding is cast rings will seat in easier and faster than chromemoly. Do you have the info about proper ring orientation ? Are you aware that AMC pistons have an offset pin, a specific Front & Back to the piston, and should be mounted to the rod and installed in the block a certain way ? They Rods and caps should have cylinder numbers stamped into them. Install Rods so stamped numbers face outward. Other side of Rod Cap joint has a notch which serves as an oil squirter hole for cylinder lubrication. "Problem" is the rod bearings being manufactured now do NOT have a semicirular notch at the mating ends opposite the locating tabs. There are differing opinions as to if this notch and squirter are needed or not. Some say no, others notch the rod bearings by hand to allow the oil squirter hole to continue to function.
Had the pistons facing the right way, these pistons have a mark to front. The ring set I got had directions for ring gap and orientation. Rod caps are all marked for order and orientation, but I will double check which way the stamped number on the rod faces. I know they are either all right, or all wrong. Rod beardings have the notch for oil squireter. I've got cast rings now, and if I break one, I'll get a new set of cast. My federal mogul bearings have the notch in them, and I'll be using them if I don't mar up the couple I need to take back out. Rods were installed snug, but not torqued down yet, so I think I'm ok.
EDIT: Talked to the machine shop. He said only 100 bucks to remove and reinstall the pistons, BUT, there is a danger of breaking a piston in the process (I'm just assuming during removal). I'm having them check with Eggy if a single replacement piston is available should that happen, because with my luck it always happens. If no single piston is available, I'll just clearance the piston while on the rod, and clean as best I can.
After several delays, I got the pistons clearanced and installed. Found out they are Egge brand. I took down each side about 2mm to just under 61mm from face to flat part of the skirt. Each piston clears the counterweights by > .035in.
I used a 4" grinding wheel, then Dremel sanding wheel, then sandpaper to get a clean surface. I removed the oil rings, then dunked everything in gasoline and it was clean of debree. Oiled everything back up and installed. Now I can finally put in all these other parts that are lying around, like the BT toys I just got in the mail...
I tossed my old intake, and cut off the fill tube to try and reuse. It doesn’t fit even after freezing. Is the oil fill tube tapered at one end, or does it just take a lot of encouragement to fit? Do I just need a new tube?
Pretty sure the oil fill tube is not tapered.
I've heated up the intake with a propane torch to get it installed.
May I ask when did you get those pistons from Egge ?
Do you have a part number ?
Everyone is looking for 343/360 pistons that are not dished
and that's what you appear to have there. They're cast ?
If Egge has those they could sell a lot of'em.
If a person want's, they can add a breather cap to a valve cover
for oil fill and put a freeze plug in the inatke oil tube hole.
Make sure though to have the sheet metal baffle for thr PCV on the itake bottom.
They are cast. I'm afraid the numbers were in ink on the piston face. It's gone now. I ordered them in January through Decker when I ordered my gasket set and machine work. Less than $400 I think. I'll try and remember to ask part# when I go in friday.
Note: If it helps anyone, this appears to be the first rebuild on the engine, deck was surfaced, but not extra material removed. At TDC, piston face measures about .040 below deck surface.
I called EGGE to get the info on the pistons. Thanks PaintedRat !
Those EGGE pistons are what a lotta folks have been lookin' for.
They have the "as-stock" 1.600 Compression Height rather than
the shorter 1.58 that all the others seem to have
and they're even flat tops or a 2V with a small dish.
You outta have some pretty healthy Compression in your motor.
They're hard to find on the EGGE site, they're listed under RAMBLER, not AMC.
Check out my post in the ENGINES Section here.
Told'em about the crank counterweight problem you had also.
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