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[Andy B]

There's a clear chip to the left of the lower valve recess (as you look at it).....

Pah!
Many many years ago .... I removed the head of my MKIII Cortina, 1600 Pinto, (can't remember now why ) the piece missing from the top edge of the piston was quite noticeable/obvious. It was a piece that was about an inch long and down to the top piston ring! 

[STEMO]

There's a clear chip to the left of the lower valve recess (as you look at it).....

Pah!
Many many years ago .... I removed the head of my MKIII Cortina, 1600 Pinto, (can't remember now why ) the piece missing from the top edge of the piston was quite noticeable/obvious. It was a piece that was about an inch long and down to the top piston ring! 

That probably reduced the power from 68bhp down to 60.

[Raeturbo]

Should see a few of the ones I’ve pulled out if the Evo over the years pieces broken everywhere between the rings   before I upgraded to later Evo9 pistons and rods. Evo3 was notorious for ringland failures as they run a slightly higher compression ratio, once the naughty little fingers started raising boost pressures (my weakness) cost me a bloody fortune

[JamesV6CDX]

Here are a few more pics, from the beginning.

Rocker cover off, injectors out, and air-con compressor disconnected:





Starting to disconnect some of the turbo gubbins, and the heat exchanger / cooler:



And, manifold and turbo off as one unit:





Turbo seems OK inside:



Now we come onto removing the timing belt cover. Note the engine mount had to come off for this, so engine supported from underneath:



Before I took it apart, thought I'd do a timing check to see if there were any problems there. With the crank at TDC, the cam pulley aligned to where it should:



The injection pump, however, did not! On most modern commonrail diesels, the injection pump isn't "timed" like old ones, so it's position doesn't usually matter. But, the workshop manual for this car is clear that the larger hole of the two on the pulley (the only one capable of taking an M8 bolt) should be screwed in. You can see here, the injection pump is actually 180deg out, because the M8 bolt / thread is opposite of where it shoudl be:



This is where the injection pump should be:



Time for a break:



Then, camshafts out:



Still can't get to the head bolts, though - this added bit has to come off:



All looking quite bare, now:





Now for the moment of truth. With the head off, you can see the tip of the glow plug on cyl number 4 is missing:



Now we come onto removing both lower and upper sumps. Lower sump was simply 15 bolts, and using the special vauxhall separating tool brute force to encourage it off.

The upper sump, was attached to the gearbox, drivehaft, cable trays, and was a bit of a pain in the @rse to get off. But I got there, finishing the job with yet another specialist tool a sharp clout from a bit of wood.

No pictures of the sumps, my hands were saturated in black engine blood by this stage through my ripped gloves 

However, the sump removal then left us seeing this, from underneath the car. You can see there's a protection tray thingy:



And with that removed, we start to see the business end of things:



So now the piston for no4 cylinder is removed.

We can get a decent look inside the bore walls.

It LOOKS terrible, but I still think this can be salvaged. As I mentioned earlier, it doesn't photo well, and in images this looks like scoring, but with the naked eye, it's clear that something has attached itself to the wall, rather than inwardly scoring it. I think some patience and fine wet and dry followed by a hone, might save this.



And the bit you've all been waiting for, the state of the piston. As they say, every picture tells a thousand words:

[henryd]

Well James,the piston is proper fubar,lets hope you can save the bore 

[STEMO]

Hmmmmm.......lets just go back 6 pages......a cheap but very tidy astra. 

[Andy B]

Just confirms that the AA man's verdict of injector or DPF was way off the mark 

[JamesV6CDX]

The DPF is screwed to be fair. I would imagine as a result of being constantly pumped full of burning oil from that piston, though 

[Broomies Mate]

Impossible to say from the picture, but hopefully you'll be able to clean up the bore.

On a lighter note, the rest of the engine doesn't look too shabby.  I'm wondering what sealant has been used on the sump though? 

[JamesV6CDX]

Hmmmmm.......lets just go back 6 pages......a cheap but very tidy astra. 

Still very much the case. For what I paid, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I’d have had to pay for a new engine on top.

I know you all probably think I’m mad, but I do things like this for the fun and sense of achievement and satisfaction I get from it. It’s stopping me going mad currently with this lock down  

[JamesV6CDX]

Impossible to say from the picture, but hopefully you'll be able to clean up the bore.

On a lighter note, the rest of the engine doesn't look too shabby.  I'm wondering what sealant has been used on the sump though? 

Grey sealant like on the V6 oil cooler.

It’s actually the correct stuff for a sump, as opposed to the black RTV

[STEMO]

Hmmmmm.......lets just go back 6 pages......a cheap but very tidy astra. 

Still very much the case. For what I paid, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I’d have had to pay for a new engine on top.

I know you all probably think I’m mad, but I do things like this for the fun and sense of achievement and satisfaction I get from it. It’s stopping me going mad currently with this lock down

Yes, I know you love all of this stuff, James. And, to be fair, you're keeping quite a few of us on here sane as well. 
My astra 2.0 diesel might need attention one day and, as you love it so much........ 

[STEMO]

What's the mileage on that engine? You may have said already, but I've missed it.

[JamesV6CDX]

Hmmmmm.......lets just go back 6 pages......a cheap but very tidy astra. 

Still very much the case. For what I paid, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I’d have had to pay for a new engine on top.

I know you all probably think I’m mad, but I do things like this for the fun and sense of achievement and satisfaction I get from it. It’s stopping me going mad currently with this lock down

Yes, I know you love all of this stuff, James. And, to be fair, you're keeping quite a few of us on here sane as well. 
My astra 2.0 diesel might need attention one day and, as you love it so much........ 

From memory, 120k

[Broomies Mate]

It’s actually the correct stuff for a sump, as opposed to the black RTV

Makes perfect sense.  On this stupid touchscreen laptop it looked white.

Good luck with it.  Should make a reasonable runaround once it's sorted.