Diving into my 1st A4 rebuild!

[alcodiesel]

Breath takingly beautiful.

[romantic comedy]

Is it a boy or a girl?

Wife says it looks like a cake!

Love the paint scheme...

[Ram41662]

OMG! That is so spoiled lil' princess it's scary!

FYI, it's also the color scheme my youngest picked for her bedroom. It stayed that way until she moved out.

[Launchpad McQ]

I can't explain it but I suddenly have an intense craving for some Pez candy and a Crystal Pepsi

[Launchpad McQ]

...And for those wondering if you can check a bare engine block as baggage, the answer is yes. And no I'm not even a little bit kidding. That's my stripped-down engine block in the rolling Craftsman tote. I'll leave the story of that for later in my "Catalina 30 Saga" thread

[wristwister]

OK, quick show of hands. How many of you have completely assembled your A4s, only to see zero oil pressure and realize you forgot to install this block off screw next to the oil pump. Come on now, get those hands up, be honest. Don't make me feel like the only moron in this group!

[CajunSpike]

As painful as it is, at least you have a fixable answer.
:-)

[ndutton]

On one hand, you're not the first. On the other, didn't we discuss this a month ago? There are three of those plugs.

http://www.moyermarineforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=111245

[wristwister]

IT'S ALIVE!

She fired right up! A little tweaking on the distributor, adjustment of oil pressure, and she's purring like a kitten (a very large and angry kitten on steroids ... no muffler). Got her up to temp, she settled out at ~160 and stayed there. No leaks, no weird noises, no strange vibrations. I'm STOKED!

... but of course the world isn't completely rosey. Per the manual I re-torqued all the head nuts after it was up to temp, and sure enough, one of them stripped out of the block. Oh well, stud repair kit on order from Moyer.

Thanks so much to all of you for your advice and support. And a BIG thanks to Ken at Moyer, who patiently answered my dumb questions and talked me out of getting myself in trouble several times.

Heading down to my daughter's boat in a couple weeks to drop her in!

[wristwister]

So ... I can now tie a nice bow around this whole saga. Just got back from our California road trip where I spent most of the week removing my daughters old engine and installing the new engine. Everything ended up great, her Tartan now has a sweet, fresh A4 that will hopefully carry the boat for the next 42 years.

But ... it certainly didn't start that way. On Day 1 I attempted to remove the old engine, however the prop shaft flange and engine flange were so fused together I couldn't even find the dividing line between the two, just one big blob of metal. The 3 bolts were basically mummified blobs that no wrench in the world could grip. And access to that coupling is very difficult in the Tartan 30. On Day 1, I decided there was no way that coupling was coming apart, so I worked all day on disassembling the reversing gear and housing, thinking I might be able to just leave it fused together while I bolt the tranny to the new motor (which I needed to do anyway). No dice, there was no way I could move the rest of the engine forward and up enough to do that. So I went home, very depressed. I couldn't handle the idea of letting my little girl down. I was a wreck that night.

Then on Day 2 I said "phuggit, violence is the answer". I sawz-all'd and grinded the 3 bolt-like blobs away, and went to town with the hammer, chisel and PB Blaster. It took ample cussing, a little blood, and all day, but finally a crack between the couplings developed. More beating, cussing and blood and I finally got the 2 halves apart. Then the challenge was getting the bolt stubs out of the engine coupling, but my stud extractor and more PB Blaster final got that done.

Installing the new engine then went smoothly. I enlisted the help of a couple strapping young lads to winch the motor into the cabin using the boom, then forward into position (in the T30 the engine is up against the mast). I labeled everything so hookup was a snap. First touch of the key and she fired right up and sounded lovely. The week culminated with my daughter and I taking the old tub out for a couple sails on the bay.

So that's it, DONE. If anyone's interested in the whole story, I put together a detailed journal covering every part of the rebuild, PM me and I'll send it to you.

[Captain Crunch]

Hi Wrist,

Are you still able to send your rebuild journal?

CC