So, at Christmas I was ready to re strip the engine and start again. Before I did that however, I stripped and painted the head, using the grinder-mounted wire brush. I took the last few bits off with a small drill brush, then cleaned with "Marine Clean", the POR 15 cleaning agent, then with carb cleaner and then with Deox C gel to get any remaining rust, rinsed, dried and then a final clean with cellulose thinners. This is what the end result looks like
After 1 coat of POR 15 grey and 2 of Light Admiralty Grey engine paint from "Stationary Engine Parts" it looked like this.
I rather liked the effect, but having already made a start stripping the block again, I stuck with it and stripped the engine, right back to the bare block. I started to clean off the previous coats of POR15 and engine enamal, but it was a very difficult job, even with the grinder-mounted wire brush, so, in the end I sent it off to a local engineering shop to get the block stripped. The end result wasnt very good ultimately, so I finished it off with the brush. I took out all the oilway plugs and cleaned the oil ways through with a brush. Then I cleaned it with "Marine Clean", petrol, and with carb cleaner and then repainted it the same as the head:
I then set about verifying that the engine was in spec.
I measured up the crank and found that it was 10thou under. This tied in with the markings on the main bearings which were 10thou over sized. Good start.
But, re assembling the crank in the block to check the bearing clearences, I found that the crank did not turn completely freely in the journals; there was a very slight resistance at one point on the rotation. Closer examination of the shells showed a very slight, and uneven shine on the surface.
Checking on the Marhle Damage Brochure (a very useful resource here), it looked suspiciously like either the crank was ground off-centre, or was bent, or the block was warped due to over heating.
With more than a little trepidation, I took the block and crank back to the engineers to get them checked. It turned out the crank was "out" and needed regrinding an additional 10thou over to rectify it. And thats where we are to date, waiting for the phone call from the engineers to say come and pick it up.
Amazing how fast three months gets away from you.
Right...a little update.
I got the block back this week and all is now well, however, I have had a BAD day
The plan was to soak the water ways with Deox-C to get rid of the corrosion and improve cooling, before re assembly. Pretty simple Huh? This is a great illustration of how a job can go rapidly down hill!
Cunningly (I thought) I was going to re-attach the old water pump to seal the front port, unfortunately, I couldn't find the bolts for the pump. I had put them somewhere safe, in a Zip-Lock bag all labled up, but couldnt find the bag. No problem, plan "B" make up a plate to seal the front, out of 3-ply instead. Brilliant.
Bolted it on with a squeeze of Blue Hylomar, just to stop the leaks. Tighened up the last bolt ...................and the head snapped off.
Deep breath.
OK I have some extractors.
2.5mm drill to take the extractor, annnnnd....it snapped
(Ha! I have a spare!)
It snapped too!
Fine, plenty of room in the stud, Ill go for a 3.5 and use the next size up extractor
It also snapped
I have spare of that too, but by now I am a little cross, so I have a cup of tea.
Using the last drill bit, I manage to drill a reasonably central hole in the bolt. The extractor even fits.....and then ........it snapped off in the hole.
So now I have a siezed in broken off bolt, in one of the bolt holes for the water pump and embeded in the bolt a high carbon steel extractor. Which of course I cant drill out because its HCS. And now the block has to go back to the engineers to get the bolt out
Words fail me
