Should I be worried?

[trexbob]

Just got around to getting a better look at my "new" used engine... It's a year 1996 787 I was told it had good compression and comes from a running 96 XP. I wonder if the definition of running was stretched...
Anyways, after carefully picking all the bits of styrofoam out of the inside from the packing, I threw some fresh oil onto the rings and turned it over by hand a few times (engine is just basically a long block, not in the boat yet or anything). I cringed when I saw some scorch marks or whatever you want to call them on one side of one of the pistons, but I can deal with that... then I got a look at the crank and I cringed further... What would cause the scraping of the bottom of the piston as seen in the second and third pictures? There was some serious metal to metal contact at some point from the looks of it. It is only on the one piston, the one with the scorch marks. It does turn over just fine, at least by hand... Should I plan already for a rebuild?

Thanks for looking and advice!


Crank...

 

[Dr Honda]

Have I seen those pics before?? (I may just need more coffee)


Well.... you said it was used and running. Unless the compression is low... I'm sure it will run. The scuffs on the piston are kind of normal... but the rub on the con-rod bothers me.

Is it just a rub... or is there a hunk of metal missing?

 

[trexbob]

It doesn't look like much metal is missing from the connecting rod, but it has me worried as to why it scraped something in the first place... and what was it scraping?? I think I may open this thing up and investigate further before I go and try to put it in my boat.