Top two photos are the carnage of "ring land failure". When the metal holding the piston rings in place gets weak and lets go, bits of piston ring break off and smash the spark plugs for that cylinder. Some times the engine coughs, and sometime we go the whole flight without knowing! Luckily there are 18 cylinders on each engine, more than enough power to keep going...
Bottom photo is what happens when a cylinder "drops a valve". A stuck or loose valve will destroy the piston of it's cylinder in seconds. Unlike a ring land failure, when a valve drops, we will know it right away, and shut down the engine immediately. If soon enough they can just change the cylinder. If it chews too long though, it turns into an engine change...
Neither problem is frequent since we created our own cylinder rebuild shop!
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