Last year, I’ve lost my air filter on my Reedy 121VR engine. As expected, dirt has entered the carb, my engine ran really lean and I ruined my piston and sleeve. My piston and sleeve were so much ruined that it was easy to turn the crankshaft even with a glow plug installed. When I got back home, I disassembled the engine for a complete inspection. Luckily, there was no dirt in the crankcase and the bearings were spinning smoothly. However, the compression was gone and there were few minor scratches on the piston. I had no difficulty to push the piston all the way through the top of the sleeve. Then I’ve put all the parts in a bag and I’ve placed the engine on the shelve.
Six month later, I’ve heard about RayARacing.com, a company located in New-York and specialized in piston and sleeve resizing. After few searches on the web, all I was reading about RayARacing was good comments so I decided to try their services. I filled the order form located on their website, sent the money with Paypal and sent my piston and sleeve.
Less than two weeks after, I’ve received my piston and sleeve. I live in Canada, so shipping takes a little more time than if I was living in USA. The turnaround is 1-2 days so you can expect to receive your resized piston and sleeve quickly.
My piston and sleeve were looking like new. The first test I did was to push the piston into the sleeve just to see where it will stop. The piston stopped at about 6-7mm from the top of the sleeve, that’s excellent. You can select the tightness you wish, in my case, I selected medium tightness.
Once my engine was rebuilt, I did a little break in, just to make sure everything was fine. The engine fired up instantly and I broke my engine in by using a heat cycling method. Once I have set the engine to its optimal performance I’ve ran the engine for 5-6 tanks consecutively. Back to the pit area, I’ve turned the flywheel with my thumb to inspect compression and there was a lot of compression. In fact, the compression was exactly where it was before I ruined my engine.
Piston and sleeve resizing is much complicated than just buying a pinching tool on EBay and try to resize the sleeve at home. The guys at Ray A Racing did an awesome job on my “left for death” engine. After 2 gallons, my engine is still running as strong as before it losts its air filter. All this for 20 bucks!
For more information, visit www.rayaracing.com
