svoman18

Were the svo's known for having rod failure in the 4th cylinder? 2 of the svo's i've looked at both had rod failure in the 4th cylinder so I was just wondering if that was a common issue or just a coincidence.

TRBOPWR

Sounds like a coincidence to me. It is actually rather strange you found ones damaged in that way. Generally takes lots more over stock power to do any damage to rods in these motors. Must have been poorly maintained or something.

svoman18

Then the guys who owned the 1 I looked at and the one I bought must have just maintained them poorly. Strange thing with mine is the guy was running acdelco plugs in it...

Chrisvan

I've owned quite a few 2.3L motors with or w/o turbos- I have never had a problem with any of the pistons- the only issue that I had was shearing of the distributor drive gear on one particular car- happened to two motors consecutively- not sure why

mg man 75

On distributor gear. Several theories and lots of opions. I stripped a distributor. I took motor apart and oil pan full of sludge. Also running a high volume oil pump is bad idea unless running oil squirts [not a stock item]. Also have read running Zinc additive helps. I know worked wonders on my 1500 cc MG Midget. [Very similiar oil pump drive]Maurice

Chrisvan

Hi, I had issues with two consecutive motors shredding the gear on the bottom of the distributor- not sure what caused it since it is belt driven and I am careful with oil changes! After I swapped in the third motor the issue stopped- still not sure why this happened!