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I decided to buy the car. It cost about half what I got from the insurance. He didn't know what was wrong with it, he said. I had gotten the Opel station wagon cheap because it had a bad and easily repairable fuel pump. This Opel was a coup, green with a big four cylinder engine. Taking it home I got stuck down at Valencia and Army. Apparently when it got warm, the noise got louder and it would just quit. Found that I had only to let it cool down to get it the rest of the way up the hill. I parked it on Winfield at the pottery shop and did the repairs there on the street.
I pulled the head on the Opel I bought and found that someone had dropped a screw down the carburetor. The two inner pistons were pitted, pock-marked
and cube cratered like a cheese grater, as well as the above head chambers and valves. With the all mangled appearance of the valves they appeared to be OK and properly sealing; probably because it was an overhead cam and the valves were above in the head, where the dancing screw did not get into the seats. So I left the valves as they appeared undamaged and seating properly. Valves are a hassle. I thought I would replace these two pistons and leave the rest. So I had to pull the pan, remove the rod caps from the crank, and push the pistons out the top. Got two new pistons and rings, cut out the carbon ridge that forms on the top of the cylinder walls, and de-glazed the cylinders with a de-glazer tool on an electric drill.
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