Ongoing Progress

Today the decals I ordered from our vintage webmaster arrived (he just had them re-made for us). So I thought I would wait the normal amount of time I take to do things - and installed them.

 

One on each side of the trailer and one on each side of the boat cowling (BTW, the name of our vintage site is: "The Vintage Hydroplanes".

 

http://www.vintagehydroplanes.com/

 

I have some very early prognosis information - after taking the top end apart, it appears that we may NOT have a cracked head after all. Now saying that, knowing it's still early because Tom Carter hasn't magnafluxed the heads head, but his first blush look at the two heads he says that they may not be cracked. They still could be warped.

 

I'm pretty sure we will hear more in the next day or so.

 

What I found so far- it appears that when the engine lost water and over heated, the heads heated up and the area between cylinders 4 and 6 couldn't seal anymore and water leaked in from the water jacket to that area.

 

I get to start cleaning up the cylinders and piston tops (the crud off the top of two pistons - we think we now know where that came from - the intake manifold sucked in part of the gasket material and it basically adhered itself to the top of the cylinder).

 

We will go back to the other kind of head gaskets we used before - they are less expensive, but they also seem to work just fine.

 

If anyone would like to apply - I'm posting an ad out on Craigslist looking for a new "COMPETENT" crew chief, some one who is willing to work LONG hours for NO pay and must be able to remember which way the gaskets are suppose to be installed, be able to check simple mundane tasks and be able to understand and comprehend the basics of a 4 cycle engine. And that person must be UNDER 65 and have a longer term memory then 3 minutes .......... Senior citizens NEED not apply - the now FIRED crew chief has been put out to the pasture with bossy the cow.

 

I found this today, they were posted on May 6th. Many vintage pictures and even a couple of our MH (course it was more of the sunset).

 

http://julie-a-sparrowgrove.smugmug.com/gallery/8096730_BKRz2#527690291_hW9Xz

 

 

Today Scott and I bought a Snapon Visual Inspection Device. It allows us to see inside the cylinder to inspect the pistons, valves and cylinder walls without taking off the heads.

 

It has a light and camera. I have always thought they would be nice to have but to expensive, so Scott and I went in 50/50.

 

It has a connection so that you can download the image directly to your computer and save it to look at later (at double the resolution.

 

 

Today Scott and took the flex plate over to Kevin for balancing. Another really cool find - we now have lined up Del Corey, Best Man, Tom Carter, our engine machinist, Merle Black, our external parts machinist, Scott Purcell, our engine technical and now Kevin, the engine balancer.

 

I'm feeling very comfortable with the folks we have found and they are ALL interested in us succeeding. Del and I feel together we are equal to one semi good brain. So with this group of supporters behind us, I think Del and I can rest our tired old brains a LITTLE.

 

Dr Scott just left the house and he confirmed what I thought. He performed an upper GI (colonoscopy) on the engine and his diagnostics were about the same as mine - it wasn't good (but it could of been worse optimistically thinking). It looked like sand on top of the pistons. We think the pistons will be okay after I clean them up with a scraper.

 

We think one head is okay and we think the other head has a crack in it. I will remove both of them and we will have them both magnafluxed. If we do have a cracked head, I do have four more as spares (course they will have to be reworked to accommodate the changes we made).

 

The attached pictures are what the new tool visual inspection device (engine colonoscopy device).

 

Now for SOME GOOD NEWS (I think anyway). Towards the bottom are yesterday's compression test results. The #'s vary a little because of amount of WD 40 I sprayed into the cylinders when we returned from Moses Lake and the engine is/was cold.

 

Now for the good news. Kathy and I did a leak down test today and it appears on the most part, the leakage is 10% thru the rings, 0 % past the intake and exhaust valves. Years ago when we built motors, 15% leakage was a maximum before we would decide if we needed to do something. 8% was/is a perfect #. So 10% is a good # since we only have about 20 min or so on the engine.

 

Scott says let's run the motor again and test everything again and then GO RACIN (vintage style).

 

I think I will be able to sleep tonight for the first time since Moses Lake.

 

Tomorrow we will take the new flex plate over to Kevin to get balanced to the same weight as the old flex plate. Scott Purcell is working on the headers to eliminate any possible leaks. The new starter motor and flex plate seem to be the cat's meow.

 

Merle drilled out the safety collars for the new Dog Nose allen screws. That should eliminate any possible chance of the shaft moving forward.

 

Maybe next week we can get back to the boat updates finished (to keep the water from entering the transom area).

 

Saturday is Wallace Depot days, so Josephine thinks it's about her turn to have some fun (our '55 Chevy). So Friday, take her out of the garage, check the air in the tires, start here and check her fluids.

  

 

I started doing the compression test and the spark plug fitting got stuck in the second cylinder hole. Then it broke the fitting off while it was still screwed into the cylinder. Had to use a chisel to get the compression gauge fitting out. Dang if it isn't one thing, it's another.

 

Dave @ NAPA sold me a new compression gauge.

 

Cylinder 1, first crank 120 lbs, fourth crank 155 lbs

Cylinder 3, first crank 120 lbs, fourth crank 152 lbs

Cylinder 5, first crank 115 lbs, fourth crank 160 lbs

Cylinder 2, first crank 110 lbs, fourth crank 150 lbs

Cylinder 4, first crank 120 lbs, fourth crank 180 lbs

Cylinder 6, first crank 120 lbs, fourth crank 180 lbs

 

Today the new master on/off switch was installed. It is in a new location as well. It is so much bigger then the old switch, I felt there might be conflict with the starter wires. So it got moved. 

The new flex plate arrived today. It is MUCH beefier then the old one (heavier also, so will see how to it balances out). 

On Friday, Del and I worked on building the dam to keep the water from flowing into the boat at the transom area. When other hydros come and go during the heats, the waves were to much for the boat to keep the water out. Del and I came up with several genius idea's (including heating windshield material and bending it to a desired shape). This new idea will be easy and work very effectively. 

When installed, the painted cover will go over it. If we should need to get into the steering pulley area, just remove and re-install. 

Also enclosed is a picture of the Lignum Vitae material. We use some many exotic materials in boating, I was fascinated with the characteristics of the wood.