Question aboout miles and rings?

[spadesluck]

I pulled the heads off my 97 Exp /w 215k miles on it to fix the exhaust manifold bolts. I figured I would also get the heads looked at and see if they need anything done to them. The machine shop recommended to me if I were to get a valve job that I would run into oiling problems since the rings on the pistons have the miles on them and that our rings were weak anyways.

What do you guys think? I was thinking since I already how it down this far why not since I do not want to do it again but was wondering if there was any truth to this. Thanks

 

[Thermo]

spades, as long as you have taken good care of the engine, then you have another 100K miles left on that engine. Personally, as long as the engine was running good and not burning oil, get the head work and go from there. I wouldn't worry about the block rebuild until you start burning through oil which is going to indicate that the rings are worn out.

On a side note, if the rings were "weak", do you think that they would have lasted 215K miles? Just something to ponder. If you look around, guys have already pushed these blocks over 300K miles with no engine work. So, relax.

 

[spadesluck]

Thats very true and good advice. The only thing the plugs show are burnt coolant wich was from the head. The truck never burned oil, at least I never noticed it. It only had its leaks from bad gaskets. Thanks again for the real world view.