/// 273 Commando Teardown Help ///

Bossanova5 said
Hello All,

I know there have been many posts on here about this subject, but due to the length of some of the threads it's hard to find direct answers.

Tearing down a greasy/tired 67 273 Commando

Please comment on the pictures:

1) Appears to be OEM pistons I don't know what 'B" means stamped on the top of the piston?
2) Head gasket appears to have been on there a very long time. Advice on removing it? (Don't want to scrape it and risk gouging the head or block surfaces) as it is stuck to head and the block deck has material stuck to it as well.
4) Both valves leak on cylinder #4. Valve job and new veal seals intended for both heads.
3) Any other observations or recommendations welcome.

I haven't measured the pistons or bore sizes yet, but from looking at the cylinder walls there is cross hatch lines visible on all of the cylinder walls.
I hoping to clean and reuse the pistons, re-ring them and hone the cylinders. Are there decent piston rings still available for the OEM bore size? (Assuming it hasn't been bored before)
Was probably going to order some custom Cometic head gaskets? as I would like to keep the compression ratio as high as possible. I'm not looking to build this thing other than to make it a reliable street engine.

Thanks in advance

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This might be a tough response. I'm watching a movie with the wife right now so bear with me.

Those are nice high compression pistons. They look like the originals but so do all the aftermarket ones. Measure the bore. It could be standard. Crosshatch is common. Mopar had high nickle blocks and they just don't wear much. They will develop a ridge and slight taper at the top of the bore. I will try to look closer at the head gaskets but they don't look like the originals which were embossed steel shim. The stockers had a strange shaped chamber that wasn't round.No need to use Cometics. Their thinnest aren't any thinner than the composite gaskets Summit sells. Let's see. What did I forget?