FC Pinto Piston issue

[John Green]

I have a Bradford engine out of Colorado in my 93 VD
I ran the car twice to see what it would need over the winter. Car smoked a bit but blamed that probably on worn valve guides.
I tore the engine down and found the bottom end to be in pretty good shape. Bearings etc all looked fresh.
However all the pistons other than #2 had plastic plugs at both ends of the floating wrist pins. I have never seen these before. The #2 cylinder was deeply scored (see photos) I am shocked that the motor could have been assembled this way. Anyone else experience something like this?
I am hoping that the block can be sleeved.
Where would I get these wrist pin plugs? I believe the pistons are Ford racing, but I am not sure about the rods.
Thanks
John

[robo]

John, I have 4 good std. pistons and rods if your interested. Very reasonable. Jim 847-471-0921 I live in the Chicago Area.

[billtebbutt]

I believe those plugs are just machined out of teflon. You should be able to use one of the plugs that you do have and have a decent machine shop spin a set up for piston #2. There are all sorts of builders/shops that use these types of plugs on engines

And I agree - how does a motor get assembled w/o wrist pin keepers in place on one rod????

cheers,
BT

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Call Eric at QuickSilver.

Those pistons don't look like the Ford Racing pistons I had. And the one's I had used press-fit pins.
So, I'd question their use.

Eric can help you determine if the block can use the long rod setup.
Might be cheaper just to move on and sell the rods you have.

I've got to imagine Piston 2 is scored as well.

Yeah, it sucks, but don't spend many small amounts of money fixing a bunch of little problems when spending more to get things done right will actually be cheaper. I spend a year and tons of time and money going in circles and not on track.

[Purple Frog]

I'm with BeerBudget, I'm not sure those pistons and rods are SCCA legal. If it matters to you...

[Rick Kirchner]

Trying to remember, but before the J&Es there were at least two, maybe 3 acceptable production pistons. Probably one of those.

I know the teflon button solution is big in VW engine building circles.

I'm betting the rods were changed to floating pins just to reduce the assembly hassle of press fit pins.

[jrh3]

I believe those plugs are just machined out of teflon. You should be able to use one of the plugs that you do have and have a decent machine shop spin a set up for piston #2. There are all sorts of builders/shops that use these types of plugs on engines

And I agree - how does a motor get assembled w/o wrist pin keepers in place on one rod????

cheers,
BT

Not a good idea to be assembling on Friday afternoon drinking beer.