piston ring change

[grantnicol543]

Hi, has anyone changed the rings without removing the head?? is it even possible?? i realise it will be tricky when putting piston back in. It is on a 4.3 v6 carb engine, and its the piston on the left bank at the rear closest to the transom, not sure what number ops:

thanks
grant

[Gazjen]

No not really because the crank has to come out to get the piston out the bottom and I'm not even sure the piston will come out the bottom with the crank removed

Why don't you want to remove the head? the engine will have to come out anyway and its very easy to remove the heads

EDIT: I pretty sure you wont do it because of getting the piston and piston ring compressor in from the bottom

[tomjentommy]

i dont think getting them out wuld be a problem however putting them back in might be beside if you have the motor out you might aswell strip of the heads and everything else

[seapuppy]

well...it would be a miracle to get the piston out the bottom....so..in an answer..no.....
you would need to pull the heads apart and have them magnefluxed to make sure they aren't cracked or anything....
so..I'd pull it completely down if it were me..replace all the gaskets and check everything..since it's out..might as well...you'd be well ahead to do that ..plus get the cam journels line bored for true..and have the crank checked...but that is just me...

SP

[grantnicol543]

thank you.