Report on PowerMax kit Perkins 152

[Rford]

I'm refreshing a 231 Massey that has a dusted engine. There are lots of aftermarket kits. The dealer recommended PowerMax. I got the kit and was pleasantly surprised to see it was from England, not China, etc. The parts were well-packed, look great, and spec out so far. Haven't installed anything yet, and if something turns out poorly I'll pass that along. The in frame kit was about $320 plus tax and shipping.

[Mike476]

Look forward to hearing how it works out.

[MasseyWV]

The dealer recommended PowerMax.

Dealer?

[Rford]

Well, I went out to put in liners this morning, thinking that 80 degrees sounded cool, but it was not. Plus, I made a serious error and chipped about an inch out of the first liner's flange so I quit. The sleeve went in easily for about 3/4s of the way by tapping on it with a hammer and 2x4. When it got harder I used a wooden ax handle laid across the top and hit that with the hammer. That was dumb. It chipped off a piece the width of the handle, of course. I will order another liner the morning and will use my homemade removal tool in reverse to "press" them in rather than pound on them. Or maybe use the dry ice/acetone freeze method....

I also found out that contrary to my belief I cannot replace the front and rear main bearings without pulling the engine.

[Rford]

Dealer?

Yes, the Massey dealer.

[MasseyWV]

Yes, the Massey dealer.

I was asking the name of the Massey dealer.

[The kid]

I was asking the name of the Massey dealer.

Try powermaxparts.com

[Rford]

Powermax got me my replacement liner delivered to my door in one day. It was packed very nicely. I've got my acetone, a dry ice source, and a small Igloo water jug, and I plan on going out in the cool morning and trying it again with less hammer and more brains. I haven't figured out if I'm supposed to lube the liner using this freeze method...that seems counter intuitive. The liner, once at -170, might just drop right in so I'm going to give that try first without much oil. I've also fabricated a puller out of all-thread and some steel so if I need some force it will be controlled.

[Rford]

Turned out the puller I made failed in service. But all sleeves are in, pistons and head back on and if I can figure out what's up with the valves I'll be firing it up this weekend.

The dry ice/acetone worked. I bought 5 lbs of dry ice, 2 would have done it. I put a few chunks in the 1/2 gallon cooler and added the acetone slowly and watched it bubble. Kept adding dry ice until the bubbling stopped and the chunks just sit there, which means its cold as its going to get. Then I slowly put the sleeve in. It was about 3/4 covered. Left it in about 15 minutes or so.

They did not just drop in but had to be driven in with a hammer and wood block. As I progressed I got more comfortable with driving them in and the third one took about 2/3rds less time than the first. Also, I wasn't sure about whether to put oil on the sleeve but concluded that probably not. I did wipe off the acetone with a towel on the 2nd and third and I think that helped too. Bottom line is that freezing did help. Total cost: dry ice $5, cooler $5, acetone $12 (can reuse) so $22.

[Rford]

Got everything buttoned up tonight and, to my great surprise, it started right up. Had one small leak at an injector that I'll fix but other than that I think I'm good to go, no funny noises and it purred. Of course it might fly apart later.

The smartest thing I did on this whole project was taking a bunch of pictures before I started and printing them out to use for reference. The dumbest thing was not pulling the engine and bringing it home to rebuild in the garage where I'd have a refrigerator full of beer. You can't really do a in-frame rebuild because you can't get to two of the mains without pulling the engine, even though the in-frame kit comes with the mains.