New engine or New pistons?
 

Hi all,

Had a bit of a mishap and have melted pistons 1 and 4. Although 2 and 3 seem to be unharmed. I believe it was pinging slightly due to a dodgy M/S tune the previous owner applied or because the timing was slightly out (I'm still not entirely sure on the reason and need to investigate further).

I've recently fitted a brand new turbo to the engine after the oil seals went previously. However the car was still smoking slightly and was losing some coolant. So we took the head off and found the pistons were knackered.


I see two options (unless anyone can suggest something else?)

1: Buy either 2 or 4 pistons from a scrap engine alongside some new piston-rings and big end bearings etc and end up with what is essentially a new engine?

2: Buy a second hand 1.6 engine with good compression/a known runner and fit my sump and turbo to this engine and use this. (This is the cheaper option).



If you were in my place what would you guys suggest?
Also if I do end up replacing pistons etc would you recommend replacing only the damaged ones or just to replace them all? In addition; can you suggest anything else that should be seen to whilst I have the engine out?


Cheers :)

If getting the whole engine is cheaper I would do that just because you know the engine as a whole is running with good compression. If you put new pistons in your engine you may have other problems that will then kill the engine anyway.

Well, pistons don't leak coolant, so you have other issues (head, block, head gasket, all of the above?) with your existing engine.

If it were me, I'd swap the engine.

Swap the entire engine is what I would do.