To rebuild or not to rebuild this old engine?

[TYMinColton]

OOR - I think he means Out Of Round. When cylinders wear they get larger at the top and also egg shaped.

Those may be on the edge of nasty, but for 20-40 bucks you could get a hone and try to fix them up and see what you get. That would only cost you a small amount of time and money.

I blew the big bucks on mine as there were some serious gouges in one cylinder where a broken ring had wedged between the piston and wall after some nimrod had used ether incorrectly to start it. Grrrrr. 8500 hours and the cylinders were still in spec for stock pistons, except for that gouge. Naturally, some smuck had hit the crank too. And thats with one rod 91 grams lighter than the rest!

Short story is you can probably get away with honing, ringing and replace bearings. Full rebuild is better and will last longer, but is the added cost worth it?

jb

Worth a try at least. And no, at this point the added cost isn't worth it. If I can get her running and she's good for 1000 hrs that'd be a victory.

Sounds like you got a really raw deal with your engine. There must a be a pretty large graveyard out there for the all of the perfectly good pistons that go homeless. Looking through many a TBN post, I suspect that a lot of folks may be suffering a similar fate. Then again, maybe they do know what they're doing.

I tried to get my hands on a 4" ball hone on e-scam (funny!) today, but no such luck. I might just drop the block off at the end of the week and having her sunnen honed. I'll probably break about even, and hopefully will benefit from having someone who (a) knows what they're doing, and (b) has equipment that should let me set a maximum depth of cut. I'll just do the cleanup myself.

Pete

 

[Soundguy]

yep.

soundguy

OOR - I think he means Out Of Round. jb

 

[john_bud]

Status?

 

[TYMinColton]

Here you go:

Picked up a flex-hone at Carquest last thursday, and worked over the cylinders for a few hours. I was able to remove all of the rust in the cylinders , but there is still "visible" evidence of where the oil rings were frozen to the cyl walls. Pitting is minimal though (a.k.a. I can barely feel them with a finger nail), and the ring gaps are still within tolerance (~0.014-0.017), so I think I'm going to stop here. I also checked and confirmed that the bores are in-round (not ORR ). Washed out the cylinders with light oil, and then lots of soapy water, and they're spotless (white rag wipedowns come out white).

So, I'm tickled pink at this point! Phase two will involve ordering a replacement 0.02 ring set (~$65), complete set of engine gaskets ($65), and rod ($30) and camshaft bearings ($38). So, total cost for these parts looks to be around $200 if I place orders with Phil's Tractor and Supply, or Walt's Tractors. Any other suggestions?

Once I get my finance's in order (I just bit the bullet on 900 gal heating oil ), and my ford shop manual (seems to be lost in the mail), I'll be ready to order the parts and get on with my rebuild.

I'll try to post some pics, but at this point I think the block looks pretty good, and I'm ready to turn my attention to lapping the valves over the weekend.

Regards,
pete

 

[john_bud]

Sounds like you are on top of it. I am assuming that you saturated the block with oil after the water wash so it won't rust up.

Have you removed the bottom plate from the oil pump and measured clearances and looked for scratches yet? If oil it the life blood of an engine, the pump is it's heart. It deserves a once over! I would probably add a washer to the relief spring too, but that's just a personal preference as I LIKE higher oil pressure and would rather see 60 psi in stead of 25psi. But, either is probably ok.

 

[Soundguy]

Yep pete.. sound slike you are getting right along.

make sure you ream the ridge at the top of the cyl if present.
that'l save the new rings..

soundguy

 

[TYMinColton]

Sounds like you are on top of it. I am assuming that you saturated the block with oil after the water wash so it won't rust up.

Yup. Used compressed air to dry thing out and then oiled the block to prevent rust.

Have you removed the bottom plate from the oil pump and measured clearances and looked for scratches yet? If oil it the life blood of an engine, the pump is it's heart. It deserves a once over! I would probably add a washer to the relief spring too, but that's just a personal preference as I LIKE higher oil pressure and would rather see 60 psi in stead of 25psi. But, either is probably ok.

On the list you might say. I still have to manually go over the crank, cam, and oil pump before I begin to put the engine back together. If for no other reason than I'm curious, I will definitely have a look inside the oil pump and check against specs. . . .

Pete

 

[TYMinColton]

Yep pete.. sound slike you are getting right along.

make sure you ream the ridge at the top of the cyl if present.
that'l save the new rings..

soundguy

No ridge to be reamed . It's all starting to add up that this engine was probably rebuilt shortly before the previous owner sold me my current estate . The tractor was just part of the package. When she was running, I probably put no more than 50 hours on her before the PTO started to become a problem. Given the health of the previous owner, I doubt he put much more on it. The upside is that once cleaned up, I suspect that most of the other components will also be in good shape, and she might run for a good bit. The downside is it's a darned shame I wasn't a better owner early on . Just too much on my plate I guess. . . .

By the way, I did try to contact the NH dealer that I think did the engine work, but they didn't have invoices that went back to pre-2000.

Pete

 

[Soundguy]

I've heard stories of guys buying non runners and dropping the pan to find loads of new parts.. but for some reason or another.. the prev owner just never finished torquing everything down and adding oil.. etc..

soundguy

 

[john_bud]

I've heard stories of guys buying non runners and dropping the pan to find loads of new parts.. but for some reason or another.. the prev owner just never finished torquing everything down and adding oil.. etc..

soundguy

You mean like this one that cost $1000? Pulled the rocker arm cover and the valve train had break in lube on every part. Rumor was full rebuild, then old owner got sick and died. Son let it sit for years and sold to the guy that I bought it from. Click on image to enlarge...