Hi Guys,
I'm doing up the EL motor in the XH van, it's a complete rebuild, new oversize slugs, bearings, every surface machined, the whole nine yards...

I had to get the deck machined because of some pretty serious pitting around the water jackets. I've just begun assembling the motor, and found that I can feel the tops of the piston protruding a bit past the block deck. It's not much, but I'm worried the head gasket won't be thick enough to take up the slack.

Does anyone have any experience with this problem?

Just for interests sake, if I lay the head gasket on the block, the pistons are well below the surface of the gasket, but obviously once it is compressed, it will be a lot closer.

Thanks in advance people and merry Christmas.

Ive often wondered if one of those decompression plates would fix this problem. One for the smart people I thinks..

So the answer to the question in my mind " will it f**k it?" is yes, yes it will.

I put the head on with some plastigauge in a few spots. I didn't have any cam gear on the head, I just spun the crank up to about 500 RPM and could hear the pistons hitting the head, so the plastigauge was useless.

So, a tear down it is, I'm going to dogy up a jig to take a mil or 2 off the pistons, I'll post some foters, it's gonna be funny!

hmm compression is OVER 9000!!!


you better post some pics lol.

my first thourgts

"FA*K!"

might be less dodgy to shim the head lol

Your'e on the right track machining the pistons . Shimming the head will lose you all your compression , think about it 2 head gaskets plus the thickness of the shim .

The macine shop that decked the block also should have milled the pistons to suit the new deck height. I find that a bit of a worry they didnt. But as you have been advised millimg the pistons is the way to go.

piston and rod assy will travel up the bore to max. travel by hand,but under revs all the clearances and flex they travel higher,is there enough ring back up to remove a few mm off the top?can you change the pistons to shorter ones,or shorter rods.most suppliers carry a lot of brands,and variations.i have come across a few strange things done in canberra engine shops in the past.