Hello everyone,

I've built an engine before with supervision of friends and other mechanics before so feel generally confident i can do it. Here the rundown... I have a bone stock L98. Long story short, i pulled the motor as part of my manual conversion. I pulled thr oil pan with intentions of just putting new gaskets on it and running it. Well, I pulled off the pan, and there were chunks of 2 of the piston skirts sitting in there.

Piston bores look very clean, great crosshatching. No scarring from the breakage. I think I can safely swap out the pistons with 4.000 standard bore pistons with new bearings and rings. What style pistons would be a quality direct replacement? Flat top pistons with 4 way valve reliefs? I will also probably lap the valves, install new valve seals and run a stock height headgasket. Not looking for a performance build, but I would like to replace everything with quality parts.

 

Speed Pro hypereuctectic flat tops. $179 Summit Racing

 

After some research it looks like the 88 L98 would be 9-3-1 compression based on some forum searching. So it looks like these are a DIRECT factory compression ratio replacement. Not looking to make ANY additional power, just looking for a fresh reliable build. I am using a T5 transmission, so I can't push the limits too bad. Just looking for a nice cruiser style build.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/slp-h345dcp

 

I used them on several stockish 350 builds and they have done well

 

This is what I am dealing with. 2 of the piston skirts have just broken off. So I'm assuming either the pistons are cracked, or I have broken rings atleast. Looking to rebuild this as close to stock as possible, as budget friendly as possible. The crosshatching looks great and the connecting rods feel tight. So I am hoping that i can get away with new bearings, rings, and midaswell swap all the pistons at once.