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1984 Suzuki SJ410


DavidB

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I’ve been driving this fine since I got it mot’d with a few problems.

Recently I was scootling along and noticed a sound that was like a knocking, kind of like pinking. The engine gradually got slower and more smoke out of the exhaust until it could not be driven any further.

I did a full diagnosis on it and found very little compression on pistons 1 & 2 - checked valve clearances, spark etc prior. Pulling leads off 1 & 2 plugs made no difference. Oil was spitting out of the plug bores as well when cranking the engine on the starter. It was definitely burning oil in the cylinder, and I think either the rings, valves and head gasket had gone. It’s barely done 1000 miles since rebuild so something was obviously wrong.

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A few weeks later I spent about five minutes taking the head off and the problem seemed obvious:

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There was a massive hole between 1 & 2, but not letting any oil or coolant in.

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Pistons are heavily coked up, you can feel a good 1mm of carbon in the crown of pistons 3 & 4, and obviously 1 & 2 are too oily.

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The valves look ok but I think I’ll change them for new ones and reseat them and also change the piston rings.

 

Is there any other way if oil getting apart from blowing past the rings? Carb and timing might be wrong, but I’m guessing over-fuelling and or oil has caused the weak point between cylinders to become way too hot.

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  • 1 month later...

Built the engine back up and a quick drive home turned into a backfiring extravanza that had neighbour's curtains twitching and pedestrians ducking for cover.

I got sick of the engine being a fool, so when someone told me the 16v EFi engine from a 2000's Suzuki Alto fitted, I searched Facebook Marketplace for an example, and I found an Alto in Manchester with a slipping clutch, so off I went to get it. It was drivable, but there was an undisclosed knocking from the front, which turned out to be a cracked mount which had the wheel moving freely forwards and backwards, and I had 40 miles to drive home. Also had an engine light on, which turned out to be the lambda sensor.

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Engine was quiet and nippy and couldn't wait to ditch the carb/choke combo. So the next day took the engine out of the Alto and the SJ, and got to work figuring out what I would need to get it all together. I intended to just use the ECU and everything. It was OBD2 but didn't have anything like wheel sensors etc to work.

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Everything mounted perfectly, but there was 1mm of space between the end of the head's dizzy unit and the bulkhead, even with the gearbox spaced on it's mount 1cm, it wasn't going to make it any better and when I saw the RWD oil pickup pipe from the SJ protruded into the crankshaft and the sump overhung the block a bit, I just got the willies and reversed my decision and removed everything.

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Also - bonnet wouldn't close! The thought of cutting a hole in it for a bulge finalised it for me.

I concentrated back on my F10A and found one of the retaining bolts on top of the valve had come loose and the clearance was about 20mm. I rebuilt everything, put the engine back into the Alto with a brand new clutch and subframe mount.
Most of the oil and gearbox fluid ended up on the floor, so I can't start anything until I get some of that stuff!

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I spent a few days doing this, but I got two good* working** cars out of it in the end.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

New engine/block time for the SJ. Have taken it out twice since I did all this, and it's pumping out greyish/blueish smoke from startup, and even more when under load.

I put oil in the cylinders before I put the head back on, and #1 lost most in a couple of days, with #2 coming in a slow second but the other two were OK.

The options are buying a new block (there is a new one on ebay for £30 odd quid, but 'history unknown'), a complete new working engine, or just rebuilding this block with new rings and bearings etc.

I think with everything else fixed, it worked out what could fail next that hasn't yet and went with the only one thing that I didn't bother changing on the entire car.
It's not such a bad job to do on these, but I really wish it would stop messing about.

 

I've been driving the Alto as my main car, and apart from a crunchy first and second gear when the fluids are cold, it's a really nice car to drive.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Only joking, I've never done a piston out job before, but this was really easy.

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I was told to be careful putting new rings in as they're really fragile with no give in them. My first go removing the old rings and I crack one - this was piston that was letting oil past the control rings:

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I got the others out and everything was done in about 20 minutes and ready to put back in:

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Should have got a ring compressor really, but can wait until tomorrow until I borrow one. I was looking at the bearing shells, and they look OK to me - no doubt I'll be doing them in two months when they fail, bah.

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You need to de-glaze the cylinders with a honing tool or at least use some oiled 600 production paper otherwise the new rings won't bed in and you really will burn through the contents of the sump.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254057337358?epid=1842336445&hash=item3b26ff520e:g:r9YAAOSwiT1cM50I

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I did hone the cylinder walls with one of those drill honers, I got a piston ring compressor from Halfords for £5 as they obivously don't get people buying them anymore.
It took about half an hour to get everything back together again, engine started fine and has ran up to temperature without any blueish smoke from the exhaust so I guess the rings fixed that.

It has never ran higher than about 1/5 up the temp gauge, so I had it going with the fan taken off and thermostate out and got it properly hot to clear all the crud from the coolant system - popped a few dishwasher tablets in there and managed to get a lot out, and after flushing again have it sitting over night full of white vinegar. Will check later to see if it's dissolved the aluminium head. If it doesn't do anything I'll try central heating gunk flush stuff.

I didn't like the look of the new head gasket so will have to take the head off again at some point and put a new one on.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've done about 200 miles in this and it's been great. I took it to Southport and back (100 miles) and it was fine. There's a random clacking that sometimes happens when it's coming to a stop with the clutch down, it never does it in drive. I can feel it through the transfer box lever more, but no idea where it's coming from really. It stopped when I engaged locking hubs on the front wheels and when for a blast down Thurstaton beach on Friday - but eventually comes back. It doesn't sound terminal and I thought it was the spring on the handbrake mechanism catching on something on the TB?

 

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