How A Rare Problem With My WWII Jeep’s Piston Rings Led Me To An Amazing Old-School Engine Shop

With less than a month to go before the Easter Jeep Safari, my quest to build an entire WWII Jeep from scratch is behind. And that’s partly a result  of numerous roadblocks — many of them self-created, like the piston I broke and the timing cover I bought that was for the wrong vehicle. But not all my project’s problems are my own fault, and among the most demoralizing was a rare piston ring manufacturing defect.

The last update I wrote about my eBay WWII Jeep project ended on a bit of a cliff-hanger. I had just flown my friend Laurence from Australia to help me wrench, and after finishing rebuilding a Dana Model 18 transfer case, we set about finishing up the brand new Go-Devil engine I had purchased through eBay seller Kaiser Willys, and that my friend Brandon and I had already started assembling a few weeks prior.

As I mentioned in my story “I Just Made Two Idiotic Mistakes While Building My eBay WWII Jeep,” while trying to hammer off connecting rod end caps that had apprently been torqued on way too tight by the manufacturer, my connecting rod slipped, pulling a piston against my vice, leading to a crack:

Of course, the one piston I cracked happened to be piston #4, so all three of the other piston-rod assemblies now had to be removed from my engine block.

Luckily, I had purchased an extensive engine overhaul kit from Kaiser Willys (this, and the engine were on their website and not on their eBay page, but they gladly listed it for me), and it included a set of pistons and rings.

The piston set I had cracked had actually come with my engine; this meant I had a new set of pistons from the above overhaul kit sitting on the shelf, ready to tag in and dutifully serve inside the bores of this fine new motor.

One by one, Laurence and I replaced each piston on each rod. I installed the rings by squeezing my piston ring pliers, expanding the rings, and slipping them over the piston Laurence was holding until each ring was in its correct groove.

Then I used a piston ring compressor, squeezed the rings until they were flush with the piston ring lands, inserted the connecting rod into each bore, and hammered the piston top until it was in the cylinder. Laurence guided the connecting rods from below, ensuring they didn’t nick the crankshaft.

We installed each rod bearing cap, torquing it to spec and adding its sheetmetal lock nut, and then we got to piston four.

Almost like a sick joke being played by the wrenching-gods, with three pistons already in the block, I noticed something as I was sliding my very last ring on.

I pulled the ring back up off the piston, took the ring off my pliers, and looked carefully. Oh no.

Noooo!!!!

Why?! Why me?!

The ring has a major crater-like manufacturing defect; I checked the package and there was no sign of a small piece that would indicate damage during shipping, so I’m assuming this was a failure in the casting process. While, deep down, part of me wanted to just take a top ring off an old piston (the set that I cracked), the old piston top rings didn’t feature a chamfer, and given that I’m obsessive — especially about an engine that will probably end up costing $8,000 in the end — I couldn’t do that. I want this engine to have the same pistons and the same rings in all four cylinders.

Yes, I could have taken all the rings off the old pistons and installed them on the new pistons, but those old rings had come from the same manufacturer of those pistons — the French company that built my engine block. I didn’t want to risk those rings and those pistons somehow being a set, and the rings not being compatible with a different piston. The risk was extremely low, but like I said, this is an expensive motor; it’s gotta be done right.

So, in order to get this part ASAP, Laurence and I called up the piston ring manufacturer, Hastings — the Michigan-based world-standard when it comes to piston rings — and they guided me to a number of Hastings retailers near me. Laurence, our camera-guy Griffin, and I called a dozen shops, but I knew I had the right one when an older gentleman picked up the phone and told me to give him a minute while he looked through some books.

My experience has been that old-timers with thick parts-books are usually the best when it comes to sourcing parts, and this gentleman did disappoint. In about 12 hours, he had a new pack of Hastings piston rings ready for me to pick up at his shop, L&R Engines. And let me just tell you: When Laurence and I stopped by this place, it blew our minds. It felt like we had stepped into a different era.

 

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Every school should take its kids to places like L&R engines in Santa Fe Springs, California. Shops like this are disappearing off the face of the earth, as many of the old-timers who have done so much for car culture are reaching their advanced age. Places that rebuild engines, starter motors, speedometers, leaf spring packs, radiators, and various other specialty car-parts are becoming fewer and farther between. And in this climate, L&R Engines shines like a bright star, with Laurence and me in awe at the humongous stacks of parts-books, the ancient but still-kicking specialized machinery, and above all, the folks at the helm.

Larkin Ranney Jr. started the business in 1977 after he learned to build engines when he left the service in 1962. Now in a 10,000 square-foot building and run by Larkin’s son, Derek, L&R has been family-owned since day one, with Derek’s own children now working there.

It was actually Larkin who had picked up my phone call and sourced me the new rings. I later chatted with him on the phone about the business he had founded nearly 50 years ago. He proudly told me he’s passed his knowledge onto his boys Derek and Brent, but that he’s watched many other shops disappear recently. “So many businesses have gone out of business because the older people retire and nobody wants to take it over,” he told me.

I told Larkin that I had moved to Detroit in 2013, during a time when Baby Boomers were retiring and getting really involved in the car scene. To me, even 15 years ago felt like a golden era for engine/suspension/electrical specialty shops, but I’ve noticed such shops have been drying up. “That era is ending,” Larkin agreed.

But L&R Engines remains. And it is the engine shop of your dreams. Just look at all these books:

And check out all these crankshafts!:

How about these blocks?!:

Here are a bunch of cylinder heads:

The most impressive thing was seeing the work being done. Here’s a honing machine:

Here are some valve guides being installed:

Here’s what appears to be a sandblasting cabinet right next to some industrial cleaning machines/hot tanks:

Some jobs don’t require precision, and you can just do them with hand tools in the driveway:

Other jobs require an engine-boring machine: 

It’s an amazing place run by genuine experts, and I’m grateful it still exists.

To tie this all back to my WWII Jeep build, which is being sponsored by eBay, I do plan on getting a refund from Kaiser Willys on those piston rings. eBay Free Returns has been easy, this seller, Kaiser Willys, has been excellent.

With my new rings in hand, it’s time to finally get this engine built.