Bowen Island Paint Job

[edwardc]

...Any info on how long the Moyer Marine paint lasts? (not that I can get that in Canada)

Anyone painted their engine and have it rust free/no peeling 15 years later? ...

1 year down, 14 to go!

[Marty Levenson]

Started putting paint to metal...

...and it feels great to begin the next stage. Today I began with the oil pan. It had been caustic tanked last week, came out beautiful, but grew tiny bits of rust as it sat. It took little time to remove that with my angle grinder and a wire brush. Here's what I did after that:
1. I masked all the gasket faces with artists contact paper and tape.
2. sprayed brake cleaner
3. blew dry immediately with compressed air
4. suited up with heavy rubber gloves, coat, respirator, face shield. Garage fan on, windows open.
5. sprayed yellow zinc chromate primer. Had a hard time deciding between that and yellow zinc phosphate primer, but internet search and discussion with a local boat guy who has been accurate in the past decided me. VERY toxic and carcinogenic, but is sometimes called cold galvanizing. He had long lasting good results on two different projects. Can says "industrial use only" so that was a plus. Sprayed three light coats. Used a heat gun in between as it was a little on the cool side.
6. sprayed a medium gray engine enamel: three medium coats, heat gun in between again.

Pictures below: #1- stripped (glare makes it look mottled). #2 - masked. #3 - primed. #4 - painted (3/4" oil plug will come out for the Indigo oil filter kit.) #5 - bit of overspray snuck under the masking...it slipped a little when I turned the pan over to spray the top of the flange.

More masking later today, spray those parts tomorrow. When my gasket shows up I'll reinstall the pan, flip over the engine and do the same to the block and head. Feel a little unsure about using that primer on the manifold: might use a contrasting colour high heat paint without primer for that.

-Marty

[Loki9]

Looks great. Nothing like a clean freshly painted engine. So much easier to love.

[67c&ccorv]

I have had very good success with electroless nickel (E3) coatings on many components of my motorcycles over the years.

It is an easily applied finish that will cover aluminum or steel parts and offers a very good base for paint of many types.

If I ever tear down my 1967 A-4 E3 will be applied to as many components of the engine as I can afford.

[Marty Levenson]

Tdc

I'm wondering if there is a precise way to mark top dead center before I put the pan on again? Should I be able to figure out which is the compression stroke by looking at the cam shaft? Is there a way to mark the spot on the oil pump pulley?

Thanks!

[Marty Levenson]

oil pan install

Is there a torque setting for the oil pan screws, or is it just good and tight?

I have new grade 5 black metal hex bolts with new lock washers - good enough?


Thanks!

[Marty Levenson]

Trouble in paradise

Cleaning up the newly painted pan, threading screws in all the holes to make sure they are clear. On the face of the pan that screws into the coupler (naming screw holes as though the pan were right side up) the 3 holes at approx 3, 6 and 9 are fine, but the 2 holes at 5 and 7 o'clock won't accept a bolt. The odd thing is that there were bolts there that I removed to drop the pan, and nothing was done to the pan except "hot tanking". They were masked and never painted. Did a bit of scraping and sanding on that face to remove the worst of the gasket before tanking, but I'm pretty careful.

I don't understand what happened, and am not sure what to do next. Perhaps there was a problem that I didn't notice as I removed the bolts. I was told by the previous owner that the pan leaked oil at that end. The bottom screw was missing, and the gasket was folded. Initially i though that screw hole had a broken bolt in it, and was relieved to see it was a gasket problem. Maybe that's all relevant, but maybe not.

Its late, but I briefly tried a tap to see if that might clear a freaky thread, but it wouldn't start easily in either hole. As these two holes go right through to the interior of the pan, I tried threading in a bolt from the inside. Same result. Is it possible they are a different thread or size than the other three?

I have almost no experience drilling and tapping. If I can't find a thread size to fit, should I fill the hole with JB weld, re-drill and re-tap? Drill a larger hole and tap that (would need to make the hole in the back plates larger too. Or?

Any advice or suggestions much appreciated!

Thanks,
Marty

[jpian0923]

I tightened my oil pan bolts "Good and tight."

Those are mystery holes. The flange gasket will seal it. Use Permatek Aviation to seal both sides of that gasket and the lower 3 bolts. Use brass washers on at least the lower 3 bolts.

[Loki9]

Those holes don't get bolts. They might be oil return holes?

[Marty Levenson]

gotta solve it

Thanks for the thoughts....and the "just good and tight" info.

For sure they aren't oil return holes: I had new bolts hand tight in them as I was planning everything before taking the pan off. Those are two of the bottom three holes! The two new gaskets have holes there, and I understand this is a leak-prone spot (hence the brass washers).

All I can think is that I or the hot tanking damaged the outer threads somehow? But it seems odd that I can't thread from the inside either.

Thanks!

[Marty Levenson]

False alarm

I feel foolish.

The engine is on a stand, and I put the pan on just now (no gasket) to see if that might help me figure this out, or at least align the bolts perfectly 90 degrees. Well, Jim was correct in a way I initially didn't understand: those are "mystery holes". The other three holes (with good threads) are the ones that are the bottom three: the two "problem holes" don't go anywhere!

Many thanks for bearing with my confused post.

-Marty

[Marty Levenson]

pipe tape etc

When I put the oil sensor brass pipes back in the block, should I use teflon tape or what?

When I install exhaust manifold pipes, same question!

Many thanks,
Marty

[Mo]

Generally, pipe threads do not need teflon and the thread itself is designed to bind and seal. I have seen it written on here not to use teflon on the oil sending unit as the possibility exists to get debris interfering with it's operation.

FWIW I rebuilt my hot exhaust Sept 2010 and used the pipe thread paste on it. It did leak initially as I had not tightened it enough. The trick to that was that it had to be tight...took a few minutes to rectify. Have to take into account that it will be hot also, so it just may burn away.

[ILikeRust]

I didn't know it was pinned!

There are two pins, for alignment. Shown below by the badly-drawn blue arrows (the engine is upside-down):







The pins can easily be driven out with a punch and a small hammer. Just tap, tap, tap them out. I found it easier to put the gasket and pan back on with the engine upside-down. That way, you put the pins in, which help align the gaskets, and you can just lay the gaskets down along the mating surface. Then it's easy to lay the pan down, using the aligning pins. Plus most of the screws come in from the bottom anyhow, so this makes it easier to get at them and tighten them down.

[ndutton]

I recommend steel or stainless steel rather than brass for the oil sender pipe. The combination of pipe length, oil sender weight and engine vibration applies considerable force at the engine block end. Brass is awfully soft for this application. A break can destroy your engine before you realize there's a problem.

I had three senders on mine so for the same reason I didn't even trust steel. I relocated my sender array to a bulkhead and connected it with a pressure rated flexible hose.