One of my favorite tools. I'm glad I went for the 9 quart model, despite the cost.

 

July 15th 2021 Moving along with the piston cleanup. Meanwhile, the block paint has been curing for almost three weeks. Both the Bill Hirsh engine paint and the Glyptal insulating paint will benefit from heat treatment prior to running the engine. With that in mind, I rooted around in the dark recesses of the BillyBob shop until I found my Powder coating curing lamp. Went about setting the lamp up to bake the Glyptal paint at about 260 degrees F for 2 hrs. This process takes awhile as you have to move the engine block from time to time to concentrate the infrared rays on different areas. Beer of the day was Nebraska Brewing Company's Brunette Nut Brown Ale.

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July 19th 2021 Nailhead piston assembly operations continue. This is cleaned assembly two compared to untouched assembly three. Something else to observe about these two assemblies is that the "ears" just above the crankshaft end of rod three are almost ground away whereas there is still plenty of meat in the ears of rod two. Rod three also has a beefier cap than two which might account for some of this. I'll weigh things down the road to see what's what.

I've got three and a half assemblies cleaned at this point and I've modified the procedure as well. The procedure was revised to clean the piston top carbon. Scotchbrite cookies were too aggressive and Dremel buffs didn't cut it alone. A brass wire wheel in an electric die grinder did the trick. Dad's ancient groove cleaning tool tortured me more than it tortured the ring grooves. I got better results with using a broken ring as a cleaning tool. The ultrasonic cleaning session leaves aluminum dull and ferrous metal slightly rusty so the Evapo-Rust dip was moved to the last step before lightly oiling with Marvel Mystery oil. and the piston gets a shine up with wire wheel again. Background music was Steve Miller Band's Sailor.

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Yes, they are all like the one on the right except for that one.

 

Yes, I am and I'll report on it when I do.

 

August 2nd 2021 Took longer than I thought it would to clean the eight nailhead piston assemblies but I've always been over optimistic regarding deadlines. The piston assemblies are now clean and will be set aside. Updated the procedure for the nailhead piston assembly cleanup along the way for future reference.

1) Remove the rings; 2) Disassemble piston assembly; 3) Submerge all parts in Oileater parts washer for an hour; 4) Submerge piston in Chem-Dip for thirty minutes; 5) Remove remaining carbon on piston top with brass wire wheel in electric die grinder; 6) Go over rest of piston with the Scotchbrite buffs in the Dremel tool; 7) Clean ring grooves; 8) Submerge all parts in an ultrasonic cleaner session, 99 minutes 80 degrees C; 9) Submerge rod, cap, wrist pin and bolts in Evapo-Rust for up to twenty-four hours; 10) Shine up the piston again with another, shorter, wire wheel and Scotchbrite buff session; 11) Give all parts a light coating of Marvel Mystery Oil and reassemble loosely.

Beer of the day was Madtree Brewing Company's Happy Amber amber ale. Background music was Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band's Live on.

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August 3rd 2021 Crankshaft, main bearings and caps are next on the to-do list. Cleaning is first, then measuring what we have. I'm in deep ponder mode and taking some YouTube continuing education courses. Beer of the day is Nebraska Brewing Company's Nebraska PILS Pilsner Lager and background music was Cream of Clapton.

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August 4th 2021 Started with the main bearing caps, using an abbreviated procedure that I used to clean the rods. All these caps are stamped with a number and arrow so I can batch clean them without worrying about mixing them up. Segments of the rear seal were still in the sides of the rear main cap so, I have to dig that out first.

My friend, David Kerry, a professional performance engine builder and fabricator, had several concerns after viewing the pic of the crank and mains.

"That crank needs micro polishing, the oil holes need chamfering please tell me you are not using those old bearings ? The wear pattern indicates the block needs line honing."

I'm gonna try to address those concerns but probably not to everybody's satisfaction, 'cept mine. Easiest first. When I got back to the shop, I located and blew the dust off my Starrett straightedge along with my thinnest feeler gauge (0.0015"). Tried to slip the feeler gauge under the straightedge in four places (both sides, front and back) of each main bearing journal, It didn't go under anywhere. I'm happy with that result.

Chamfering the oil holes was under my radar. I hadn't thought about chamfering the oil holes so, I'm researching that now but polishing my crank was always part to the program. The jury's still out on the bearings, both mains and rods.

Beer of the day was Madtree Brewing Company's Lift Crisp Golden Ale. Background music was Duane Allman An Anthology.

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Another friend, Matt Martin, who builds nailhead engines, day in, day out, every day says chamfering and line honing are not needed, especially since I am not going for a high RPM barn burner build. I am in the middle of polishing operations currently.

As you'll see in an upcoming log entry, the bearings look even worse after a dip in the ultrasonic cleaner and the consensus among my friends is to get new bearings if I can find them and that's the direction I'm going at this point.

 

August 9th 2021 Main bearing caps and bolts were submerged in the Oileater parts washer soup for an hour. That revealed paint overspray and rear seal remnants still in the rear cap so they were dug out and wire wheeled with the Dremel tool, then another session in the parts washer. The bearings themselves got an hour's session in 100% Oileater, not the Oileater/water mix in the parts washer.

Then, the the caps and bolts got a session in the Ultrasonic cleaner at 80 degrees C for 99 minutes and that was followed by a dip in Evapo-Rust for the caps. No rust on the bolts and they were set aside.

The bearings also got a separate Ultrasonic cleaner session. They came out of the Ultrasonic the worse for wear, not looking as good as when they went in. I lightly buffed one of the thrust bearing halves and took it with me, along with the unbuffed half to the Sunday morning coffee cruise-in. The consensus among my fellow Senile and Surly Club members was that the bearings were serviceable, but new ones would be better if available. I lightly buffed the remaining bearings and put them aside with the main caps which got a light coating of Marvel Mystery Oil.

Beer of the day is Fulton Brewing's Lonely Blonde American Blonde Ale. Background music was Glenn Miller Chattanooga Choo Choo The #1 hits.

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August 10th 2021 Went over the nailhead crankshaft with Oileater. A couple of the counterbalances had red and yellow paint marks. Found a shard on one of the counterbalances from machining that almost drew blood. Looks like both the machinist and the builder missed it. I took it off.

Decided to take the rust off the crankshaft by submerging it in Evapo-Rust so, I cleaned up my tire leak testing tub that is just the right size for this job. Required 12 gallons to submerge the crankshaft.

Beer of the day is Hamburg Brewing Company's Two Two Mango Mangolicious Ale. Background music was Rolling Stones Exiles on Main Street.

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August 13th 2021 Pulled the crankshaft from the Evapo-Rust dip after twenty-four hours, misted it with Marvel Mystery Oil and started setting up to polish the journals. Cut sheets of 800 and 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper into strips as wide as the journals and cannibalized my oldest pair of PF Flyers for shoestrings to provide motive power for the polishing. WD-40 to wet the paper and Blue Magic polish for the finish.

Got Dad's '59 Chilton Manual out to check the specs for main and rod journals and commenced measuring the crank journals with a 3" micrometer. I was confused by my initial readings as my precision measurement Kung Fu is not strong. I will recalibrate the mic and go again.

Beer of the day is Fulton Brewing's 300 IPA Hop Royalty. Background music was Always in my Heart Classic WWII Songs Volume Two.

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August 16th 2021 Was a little bit under the weather over the weekend, probably due to barometric changes of Fred passing by and blowin' the stink off us. I relapsed into lazy for most of the weekend. I did get started with the nailhead crankshaft polishing and ran into pitting of the rear main seal surface. Spent some time pondering the best approach to fixing that problem.

Beer of the day is Hamburg Brewing Company's Southtown American Style Stout. Background music was LeAnn Rimes Blue.

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All possibilities but I'm not there yet. If, after all measurements, I determine I have to find a machine shop, they can fix it by welding and turning or even spray tech but, if I decide to go DYI, I will sand the pitting out and use a rope seal. If, down the road, when I fire it up and run it on the test stand and it smokes and leaks more than it's geezer builder, it will come apart again.

 

With this log entry, we are up to date. Future log entries will be posted on the day I write them up, typically one or two a week.

August 19th 2021 Polishing the nailhead crank journals is taking some time. Ops went a little faster once I established a rhythm. Almost finished with the first pass of 800 grit paper.

My friend, Dave Kerry, asked about run out and offered that he had the v-blocks and precision dial indicator to check it. Decided to take a timeout from the polishing tedium and do an initial check myself.

Since I don't have v-blocks to support the crankshaft, I oiled main journal one and five bearing halves and installed them in the block, then the crankshaft followed, touching only the two bearing halves. I set up my dial indicator to measure the run out at main journal three. First time I've used the dial indicator and I fumbled around a bit setting it up. It didn't come with instructions.

Measuring the journal, front and back, resulted in readings of .009 and .0085 inches between low and high points. I haven't researched run out yet and my WAG is that some of this could be due to journal out-of-round. My next step, after polishing operations are complete will be to check all main journals for run out and to mic the high and low points to check out-of-round.

Beer of the day is Uinta Brewing Company's Sum'r Ale. Background music was Johnny Winter Lone Star Shootout.

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