[geeyoutoo]

Now onto the not so great news. It might've seemed above that I can just buy all new genuine gaskets for the engine, give it a good clean inside, put it all back together, and have a recently rebuilt engine all well and good, but that's probably not the case.

While the top end has clearly been rebuilt, Dad's suspecting that the bottom end hasn't been touched, or has been touched but put back together the way it was.
Basically, there's a lot of play in the pistons inside the bore, and the thing that worries him most is that there's a small amount of rotational play as well; as in, you can rotate the pistons slightly either way.

The other thing too is that it looks like the bores have been honed, but probably not much, as you can still see the honing marks all around the cylinder. Problem is you can also see some pretty significant scratch marks up the sides of each cylinder too, perpendicular to the crank and gudgeon pins. So it seems that the bottom end bearings, and/or the gudgeon pins, have some play in them. It also seems like after the bore was honed they either didn't replace the rings, or replaced them with standard size, not oversized ones to suit the hone, which could be contributing to the piston play.

If you rock the pistons side-to-side in the cylinders they knock against each side of the wall as well, not sure if this is normal but dad suspects this is where my engine had a noisier, knockier, and generally slightly rougher idle than the farm ute we've got.

Pics of the cylinder bores, and a video of the piston movement, to come.

A rule of thumb is 0.001" play per inch of bore and bearing diameter, give or take a little depending on how it will be driven.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Does that include rotational play? That's the bit that Dad said concerns him as that's to do with bearings, not bore, rings, or pistons.

If you only have 0.001" play per inch of bearing diam you will get 2 tenths of bugga all rotational play out of that.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Take pics of everything before you pull it apart and you won't forget how it goes together and load all stages to a portable hard drive.

Foo

Ed Zackery, can't have to many pics when your pulling things apart or making adjustments.

 

[geeyoutoo]

As for journal sizing in previous pics, that is about parr for the course.

Not bad for an old engine, lead indium coating just getting a polish.

 

[geeyoutoo]

If they sat STD then that is even gooderer. Wipe the journals clean and take a few shots of the main and big end journals, the main journals look good through the oil but is that only oil on the big end journal in the last pic of crank or a a wear mark?

 

[geeyoutoo]

In the picture of the crank I think it's a smudged oil mark, because all of the crank's journal surfaces look good, but I'll go double check later to be sure.

When you say them saying standard is a good thing, is that just because the new bearings won't need to be as oversized if the crank needs grinding?

No No, if the crank needs grinding you need will slipper bearings to suit, the main bearings looked very good which indicated to me the crank should be OK, hence my question on the big end as we have not seen the big end slippers, then of course you need to check the little end at some time. But if big end bearings are fine it looks like the crank is in good nick.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Oh I thought I'd already put more detailed photos of the big end bearings in, apparently not:
View attachment 546083
That's them laid out from number 6 - 1 in that order. A bit hard to see in this picture, and also that's the 'power' or 'push' side of the bearings, whereas the main bearing pics I put up are of the 'pull' side, not taking any combustion force.

Pretty much all of the conrod bearings look like this:
View attachment 546084

And all of the conrod cap bearings look like this:
View attachment 546085

I'll go take photos of the main cap bearings now for comparison, as you know they're the aforementioned 'power' side.

Just starting to break through. Clean up the big end journals and slowly run your finger over the journal, amazing what the finger can sense. Are you able to measure the crank?

 

[geeyoutoo]

Interesting re head, no idea how they do it now but we never machined a warp out of a head, we would pull the head down on a mill table so the warp was taken out then reface the head and bolt it up which pulled the warp back out anyway.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Good pickup...

It doesnt appear to be cracked but does have some decent scoring. It's by far the worst bore
Will need to pluck all the pistons and have a really good look
View attachment 546679

Possibly a broken ring, seen that before.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Is it necessary to hone all the scoring out or will it 'survive' with a light hone and new rings?

I understand ideally you want it perfect but is it necessary?

Yes it will survive, if I'm reading you correctly you want to put this engine together at a good price. I suppose the question is how will the pistons look when they come out? if they aren't good then you will need to go oversize and the decision is made for you.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Good news!
He got time to measure up the crank and he said it's in very good condition, I think he was expecting it to be pretty bad after the disaster that was the previous block. Didn't need grinding, he just gave it a 'linish' (?) to get the bearing surface looking good again and gave it a clean up, and I can use standard size bearings for the rebuild which is awesome.

So just got to complete the teardown of this engine (which I've been slack on because I wasn't expecting the crank back so soon), the light cylinder hone, order all the bearings and piston rings, as well as mostly genuine gaskets by the sounds of it, and give him the block to clean. That way I can at least get the bottom end back together and decide how much work I'm going to do to the head.

Linish is basically a grit polish, common engineering term.
All working out OK.

 

[geeyoutoo]

It does look quite flat in the photos, but I promise it’s crossed like it’s supposed to be, maybe a little less angle than it should have though

Yes, the angle is a little shallow, I would have done the up and down much faster. I'd like a dollar for every engine and brake system I've honed.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Alright, how does another 20 sound, with a faster up-down, then do the 40 on the other 5?

Looking at the pics again you can be a fair bit more aggressive.

 

[geeyoutoo]

I didn't use oil, I used Kero to clean and cut.

 

[geeyoutoo]

No they are not precisely machined for each lifter, but having said that, I always put them back in the same hole when I did a rebuild. Have replaced individual lifters in cases of damage. Check the face of the lifter for hollowing, I would rub them over an oil stone to repair minor hollowing, rub, twist, rub twist, etc, etc.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Alright as most of you know we’re back from Victoria so time to crack on with the engine rebuild, at this stage I’m not much further than when we left, crank and cam are in, I’ve put 3 of the 4 bearing caps in, was waiting on the eBay gasket kit for the stick seals that seal #4 to the block.
Then I did some reading and found out I should be using engine assembly lube instead of just oil for the reassembly, so went and got myself some today, and going to pull the crank and cam back out to use this stuff. Should have the crank completely bolted in and caps torqued before it’s time to go to work.
View attachment 549485
View attachment 549486


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I use that stuff all the time, works well, when I was racing I used another type when rebuilding engines (after every 3rd race meeting, so quite OFTEN ) but can't remember its name. You won't regret it com start up time.

 

[geeyoutoo]

So, bit of a problem…
I installed the crank before we went to Vic, early Dec, and that included the block half of the rear main seal, only that half. Then I went and cleaned up the shed (moved everything to the side) to fit the Patrol in while we were down. And now that I’m back and continuing,
I’ve lost the other half of the rear main 🤦‍♂️

Not sure what to do now, I spent about an hour yesterday searching the shed for it, couldn’t find it, so I guess I continue assembly and see if I find it along the way?
I suppose worst case I get another one, not ideal though.

No, not ideal, every one is slightly different, that would mean getting the mains line bored again.
Go through the shed again, you wouldn't have thrown it out!

 

[geeyoutoo]

OK I initially thought you were talking about the rear main bearing cap. If it is just the seal housing it will be fine if you can find a replacement.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Alright, been a few days and been doing things here and there on the engine.

Firstly, I took the injectors to get tested at North Coast Diesel Service in Nambour.
He did a quick test of the spray pattern on the hand pump and said they're average. I'm confident they were rebuilt less than 200,000km ago at the last engine rebuild, and he said he'd rebuild them if I'm doing up the whole engine, but I can run them for now and get them rebuilt at a later stage. That's what I'll do for now, I'll have them rebuilt in a few thousand k's when I'm in a better financial situation.

I also pressed new small end bearings into the conrods, and took them another engine builder, also in Nambour, to have them honed to suit the gudgeon pins, so the pistons are ready to be reassembled. I tried the one in Caloundra first, since when I walk in he just recognises me at this point and I know he does decent work; but he said they sold their small hone a while ago and didn't have one to suit so recommended I go to the Nambour guys for them, so that's what I did.
View attachment 549780


Currently waiting on the rear main seal to arrive, then I can put the last main cap on, put the pistons in, oil pickup in, sump on, and the bottom end will be sealed up ready to go.

I cleaned up the oil cooler, took it apart and cleaned all the built up cooling system rust out, so it'll be good for another 5000km now .
View attachment 549786
View attachment 549787

Nambour does have some talented automotive guys whom I have used from time to time.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Fact: The longer you consider a 'plan' the easier the project becomes.