Got a misfire, check the number of pistons!

[Del Lardo]

http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=577806


BS or no BS, you decide!

[Joe 90]

i wish i were a mechanic (or at least had some more knowledge) so that this might be a little more astounding.

wouldn't a missing piston create a massive hole, and lack of pressure within whatever that part of the engine is where combustion occurs? and thus a massively under-powered engine?

[Burble]

BS. Complete and utter BS. I don't believe it for one second.

There's no way there would be no damage to the bore if there were a rod and gudgeon pin flying around. Said rod and pin would also make on hell of a din.

Also the oil would be as thin as hell and therefore useless with all the fuel that was injected down the bore straight into the sump.

[divine]

I can't see how that's possible.

Surely a more likely scenario is a couple of guys were working on the car, one of the pistons was a bit duff for whatever reason so he binned it and another blokey came along and went 'WTF no piston?'

Even more likely is the entire story is a wind up and utter balls of the highest degree.

[Flibster]

Also the oil would be as thin as hell and therefore useless with all the fuel that was injected down the bore straight into the sump.

If it was direct injection.

If not, it's possible that not very much fuel would go to the missing piston as it wouldn't be being drawn in.

[divine]

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14629485&postcount=11

The rod would have destroyed the bore, and the management system on that vehicle would have detected the lack of acceleration of the flywheel on the dead stroke and brought the MIL on as an emissions related failure.

And.....a 4 cylinder inline will run like a bag of **** with a pot doing nothing. not to mention a strong vibration through the engine as the crank is balanced for 4 pistons.

MOT wise, the engine rpm, HC emissions and CO% would have been well outside the limits of the test. That car would have been through at least 2 tests.

There is also a clear patch where the piston has been in contact with the gudgeon pin in contrast to where the little end has run on the pin.

On another point, The phone number for FMC warranty and policy is not listed, it's dealer only.

Warranty don't send engineers out, Customer relations request a field visit from Ford Technical.

How come the bore is rusty, with the full amount of the engines oil being allowed to come into contact with the bores and head it should be clean and as new, the oil level never rose or fell....... some oil would have been lost to the exhaust via the valves in the head.

[Glaucus]

BS, the piston rod would tear some new inlet valves into the bore.

[Darrin]

I agree this is a complete load of B.S. For many, many reasons.

[Desmo]

I know sweet FA about the internals of an engine compared to some of you guys, but even I know that bore looks far to clean to have had that rod shooting up and down it hundreds of thousands of times over the years.

[Nutcase]

I've driven a car with a large chunk of piston missing (Austin Allegro FTW!). Clouds of oil and smoke out the exhaust, extremely lumpy running, shaking all over the place.

(and that was just me, the engine was awful BOOM BOOM :D).

Didn't see the thread as it's deleted? But get the gist.

[Burble]

Didn't see the thread as it's deleted? But get the gist.

It was a 2004 1.4 Focus that had been to Ford numerous times for misfiring and being down on power. The spark plugs were being changed and one broke so the head came off and cylinder 4 had a con rod with gudgeon pin but no piston.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7937/76583949.jpg
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3350/58319512.jpg