With the cylinder head inspected, the presenter moves on to the engine block. While most of the components inspected, like the oil, crankshaft, and bearings, looked fine, the pistons displayed skirt wear and a significant amount of carbon deposit, and with everything else seeming perfectly OK, the presenter concludes that the culprit for the engine’s failure lay in this area.
The carbon deposits could be the result of excess oil being burned. In the case of this B38 engine, the piston rings might’ve become faulty, allowing oil to enter the combustion chamber and eventually burn. Typically, this doesn’t happen on low mileage engines, and there are usually signs, like blue smoke from the exhaust, to indicate that you’re burning oil. Yet again, it seems like an engine failure that could’ve been averted with proper care and maintenance.