Rebuilding only 1 side of the power head

[Chris_94_Sprint_TX]

Just wanted to get everyone's opinion on this, just curious of the general consensus. Engine is 2 stroke with no oil injection

If you tear down say the cylinders on the right side of an outboard and replace pistons and rings but do gaskets all the way around. Compression is right at the upper end of the accepted range on the other side. Only issue was that one cylinder had low compression but was decided to just replace pistons and rings on the right side.

Whats everyone's thought on reliability or should a full rebuild just be done? Had a discussion with some friends (car guys) the other day about all this and was curious what y'all thought.

Chris

 

[tblshur]

You are halfway there do it right you won’t regret it

 

[F_R]

My opinion is "it depends". What damaged that one side? For example, suppose it swallowed a screw from a throttle shaft, which scored a piston and cylinder in an otherwise good powerhead. Is it OK to bore that one cylinder and replace that one piston? I say yes. As for the rest, it is a judgement call according to their condition.

I suspect the real question here is whether it is OK to put one new piston in an otherwise good engine. I say it is wasteful to bore all cylinders when only one needs it. Suppose in the future something happens to one of those other cylinders? If you bored it unnecessarily, it may now be beyond further repair.

So we are back to "it depends".

 

[Chris_94_Sprint_TX]

For discussion sake the cylinder walls are good and one piston dropped the rings from running lean or running hot. No boring needed on any cylinder. nothing being ingested to cause mechanical damage.

Chris

 

[racerone]

It is a mistake to put new rings in worn out grooves on a V-4 crossflow engine.-----Do yourself a favor.----4 new O / S pistons.