the Generals latest visit 2017

[steptoe]

We couldn’t leave it at that, so I,ve travelled down the road to Dougs place to reinvestigate,
First things first we lifted the machine on a forklift to get it to eye level where a proper gander could be had. The oil wasn,t coming from the head gasket, it was tracing off the the centre fin between the cams chain tunnel and #2 exhaust port.
     A phone call to the guru of guru’s was conducted in which information was passed down involving a story of head replacements under warranty because the head itself was leaking, either through a porous section of the casting or a crack in the casting. A trip to Bunnings for some small heavy duty pipe cleaners consisting of a wire brush ensued which resulted in this




Hopefully this will have solved the oil issue, if not I guess it’ll be another head
 
In the second picture you can clearly see in the centre of the piccie beside the stud a crack about 4mm across, and under the bottom fin is another that we think may just be a casting line but it’s got the devcon treatment also

[Jonesy :-)]

Dont beat ya self up too much mate, we all make mistakes, and now your a heaps good better xs mechanic by what you learned from it 

[steptoe]

Well it has finally come to pass that the outfit has left the barefoot garage, 
                                                      But first
The grinding sound, was created by me putting a thrust washer on the wrong side of a bearing, the main bearing on the starter shaft to be exact, which transferred the load to the other end support bearing in the cap, it loaded the bearing to the point that no oil could get between the rollers and the outer, which made the horrible noise in no time
https://ibb.co/2PnXBC2 flat, 
Initially I thought some engine blast media had not been rinsed out of an oil journal, but that was not the case, so another complete strip down and clean up was the ticket
 
which took so long because firstly I needed to build a “tangential entry centrifugal separator” or whirlpool to make 100% that the wash down diesel was as clean as I could make it, and a month long trip to help several owners fix their issues as far away as Melbourne, {a very cool trip in itself} after the freight contract was lost and I became unemployed by choice to get it done
 The end result is an outfit that gets up and boogies, the motor itself is exceptionally quiet and the ride is vibrationless and an absolute joy to behold,

It’s taken a bloody long time to do, just over 3 years with everything that happens in life, but it,s done,
There is one thing left that I’m not happy with, and that’s that the head gasket itself seems to be leaking,  common line of thought is that the oil is tracing between the fibre and the centre metal plate, not between the head and gasket, not that uncommon talking to Mal and a few others that build a lot of engines




Thanks to everyone for phone calls support through the times it was going to be bought by me and thrown in the back of the shed, and all other calls getting shit sorted, 
I’m taking a break now, it’ll be ages before I do another build like this, Evs’ will be next one, Ashlees has gone home to her place, your personal confidence takes an absolute flogging when nothing goes right, and you wonder what the hell you’re doing, 

[steptoe]

Whilst we were waiting for our hearts to settle from the horriblele noises the motor was creating,  and trying to work up the courage to pull it apart and take a look, I pulled the back wheel off and we gave it a bit of love

[steptoe]

Oh dear oh bloody dear,, does this look familiar

      It ran for exactly 3 minutes before being turned off, with a really unhealthy grinding noise,
I didn,t even have time to properly sort the idle,
       Trick for young players, when using blast media for surface prep, wash and wash and rewash said blasted components, one section of one journal that feeds the main shaft support end bearing cap off the crank had media left in it, the oil pushed the media into the bearing destroying  the carrier and then THANKFULLY dropped onto the sump floor.
 
                                I DODGED A REALLY BIG BULLET

       There is no damage anywhere else in the motor, it will be a wash,rinse re-assemble job from here, BUT FIRST,,,,,,,
       I,ll be re-designing my wash basin { a whole new story}to capture and remove suspended solids from the fluid and from the drum {catch can}so I always have clean liquid to wash with, before I go ahead and wash Generals motor

[steptoe]

The motor has now been painted, as luck would have it, it is now curing due to other commitments, then to clean off the fins and other bits, 

[steptoe]

Re-read post 29, has been amended re stud material

[Jonesy :-)]

Ok, less chance of galling then. Stainless on stainless would be bad

[steptoe]

Origididgeinal nuts used, just s/s studs

[Jonesy :-)]

Nice work steptoe, gotta be careful with stainless, galling is as good as welding and a pita to get undone, personally i would go back to oem nuts

[steptoe]

We are getting close to the end, engine is together at last after a couple of embarrassing moments {rookie mistakes a kindy student would’ve picked} put the ex valve in the in and tried to measure clearance, mmmm couldn’t get it so out came the valve and topped it, still didn’t pick up on it then, or the second time or the third,, until I’d topped it to the collets then had the o shit moment, put it the right possie and have just a wee bit to much clearance now,, like about 6mm {not quiet that bad} so a new one has been set and cleared

I have to say the special hardened steel head bolts are an absolute pleasure to work with, torqued straight to the number, no flex, no bite then slide, just done up and finished

Starter motor has been pulled apart cleaned and resembled, as has the oil pump, just need to fit pump and sump then I can paint,
Carbs still have to be stripped and diaphragms installed, have cleaned these thoroughly previously so a lot of time won,t need to be spent on them

Videos are still waiting to be put up, but we are nearly at the end of this project

[steptoe]

Once again I must apologise for my absence,
Eennie hoo, more work has been done on the motor, it's back in 1 whole now,
I was about to start installing all the new special hardened steel head bolts when I figured out it'd be easier to install pistons first
I do have to admit the gudgeon pin clips have stopped play for these days off, couldn't for the life of me get them to go in, and I wasn't about to scratch the crap out of the sides bumbling through, so a fresh set of eyes, hands and fingers next days off should see most of the build done,
I've made a couple of videos also whilst moving through different stages of the build, and they'll be up shortly

I hope this post shows up, don't know if I doing something wrong or not.

[SCARFEY]

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[steptoe]

The head came up a treat, all valves re-cut with plenty of meat left
Brand new bearings are in,
       using the original colours as a start point, we plasti-gauged and as fortune would have it they all came in so close to right, one journal may have to go up a colour for exacting purposes, but that's the crank done,
       The Conrods original bearings are 2/10 of 1 thou from minimum clearance
Bible states 1.3 thou, these are 1.5, maximum being 2.2 so there's no point wasting if there isn't a need
       Brand new chains are going in, hypo and cam
All we're waiting on now are crank end seals, obviously we can't get the stepped anymore so I've ordered the seals to be a depth of 8mm instead of the readily available 6mm, the wiper is still in the same spot on the crank, the 8mm will be for a far larger seating surface (shouldn't be so wobbly where the step is in the case) is about the only reason.

[steptoe]

Jeff,
     absolutely no chance of wrong positioning on the valves, was all segregated and 1 through to 4?ed at the time of strip down,, all went back zachery same spots, they just looked suss at first glance and a lap just didn?t do it
Jonesy,
           Bearings came from speed and sport in the states, have bookmarked your info you sent for down the track