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Well, thankfully I am now back at home, having spent the day yesterday flying home from L.A.
After getting some good sleep and laying about for a little while this morning, I of course went right back to work on the engine.
Tom (thatch) suggested that he thought I might have forgotten to install the oil galley plug behind the camshaft gear. I was 99.9999% sure I had put that one in. But, in the hopes that he was right (because that theoretically would require removal of only the rear cover), I went about it.
The depressing thing is how much dis-assembly is required to get at the oil galley plugs.
Of course, in removing the rear cover, the oil pan gaskets both tore off, and the rear circular cover gasket also tore, so there goes any hope of getting the engine back together and running this weekend. I'll order new gaskets on Monday and expect them here by the end of the day Tuesday.
Anyhow, I opened her up, and what do I spy with my little eye?
Well Tom, I guess it was worth a shot.
So then I open up the Moyer Manual (RTFM!) and find the section on the oil galley plugs. It says there are three of them: one on the front end of the block, one on the rear end of the block (the one shown above), and one under where the oil pressure regulating valve is.
Hmmm...
I had noticed back when I first put the oil pan back on the engine, before I put the rear cover on, that a little oil had seeped out and soaked the oil pan gasket right at that area. I assumed it was just a few drops that had run down and dripped on it or something.
And then after I had assembled the whole thing, and we were cranking the engine, I noticed a slight weep of oil right there. I assumed it was just because that is a trouble area - Ken had told me that area, where the block, rear cover and pan all come together, sometimes is difficult to fully seal, and you can get an oil weep there. So I figured that was what was going on.
But now I'm thinking I bet I missed that plug. It goes right under here:
I have to drop the oil pan to get at it, but I have to do that anyway, since I need to replace the gaskets anyhow. Once I get the pan off, we'll see... I should have it off by the end of the day today - just waiting for my neighbor to come back from running some errands and lend me a hand lifting the engine out of the cradle I built. Right now there's no way to get at the oil pan bolts, because they come up from underneath, and the engine is sitting on the oil pan flange.
Which reminds me - there's a fantastic thread over on the Wooden Boat Forum in which a guy is building a very cool wooden boat. He and his son are rebuilding a 2-cylinder Michigan Marine Motor Company marine-converted Hercules engine. What is quite interesting is how similar that engine is to the Atomic 4 in its layout. It even uses the same Paragon reversing gear.
You can see the engine and what they're doing with it starting here.
One thing I noted, which makes excellent sense to me, is that when reassembling, they attached the reversing gear cover to the block BEFORE the oil pan, turned the whole thing upside-down, dropped in the reversing gear, and then dropped the oil pan on the whole assembly. See:
Now this definitely is easier to do with an engine stand, as they are using. But it also would be doable with a little grunting and brute strength on a bench.
But (and yes, this may get me branded as a heretic to say) this approach, in at least one respect, makes more sense to me than the one advised in the Moyer Manual. The Manual says to lay the block updside-down, put the gaskets on the block, set and set the pan on the block. Then turn the assembly over, drop in the reversing gear, and install the rear housing.
The first issue with that approach is that when you lay the oil pan gaskets on the bottom of the upside-down block, the back half of the gaskets are just flopping around in space. So they don't want to stay put while you're trying to get the oil pan on and trying to keep all the holes aligned.
The second issue is that you have to do a little fiddling to keep the shifting yoke properly aligned with the collar on the tail end of the reversing gear while you drop the rear cover on, all the while making sure not to tear or mess up the oil pan gasket. You have two mating surfaces to deal with, and they are at 90 degrees to each other.
If you instead assemble it upside down and put the reversing gear housing on first, you have only one mating surface to deal with in attaching the housing (between the housing and the back end of the block). Then you drop the reversing gear into the housing and onto the shifting yoke, then lay the oil pan gaskets along the entire assembly - so the gaskets are fully supported along their entire length - then lay the oil pan down on the whole assembly.
Add to that the fact that the oil pan bolts for the block come up from underneath. With it upside-down, it is then easy to put them all in. Then turn it over and put in the ones that hold the rear housing on to the oil pan.
I might try something like this when it comes time to put this whole mess back together.
I will note, however, that they did put the flywheel housing on before putting the oil pan on - that creates the situation again of having to deal with two perpendicular mating surfaces. I put the flywheel housing on last.
After getting some good sleep and laying about for a little while this morning, I of course went right back to work on the engine.
Tom (thatch) suggested that he thought I might have forgotten to install the oil galley plug behind the camshaft gear. I was 99.9999% sure I had put that one in. But, in the hopes that he was right (because that theoretically would require removal of only the rear cover), I went about it.
The depressing thing is how much dis-assembly is required to get at the oil galley plugs.
Of course, in removing the rear cover, the oil pan gaskets both tore off, and the rear circular cover gasket also tore, so there goes any hope of getting the engine back together and running this weekend. I'll order new gaskets on Monday and expect them here by the end of the day Tuesday.
Anyhow, I opened her up, and what do I spy with my little eye?
Well Tom, I guess it was worth a shot.
So then I open up the Moyer Manual (RTFM!) and find the section on the oil galley plugs. It says there are three of them: one on the front end of the block, one on the rear end of the block (the one shown above), and one under where the oil pressure regulating valve is.
Hmmm...
I had noticed back when I first put the oil pan back on the engine, before I put the rear cover on, that a little oil had seeped out and soaked the oil pan gasket right at that area. I assumed it was just a few drops that had run down and dripped on it or something.
And then after I had assembled the whole thing, and we were cranking the engine, I noticed a slight weep of oil right there. I assumed it was just because that is a trouble area - Ken had told me that area, where the block, rear cover and pan all come together, sometimes is difficult to fully seal, and you can get an oil weep there. So I figured that was what was going on.
But now I'm thinking I bet I missed that plug. It goes right under here:
I have to drop the oil pan to get at it, but I have to do that anyway, since I need to replace the gaskets anyhow. Once I get the pan off, we'll see... I should have it off by the end of the day today - just waiting for my neighbor to come back from running some errands and lend me a hand lifting the engine out of the cradle I built. Right now there's no way to get at the oil pan bolts, because they come up from underneath, and the engine is sitting on the oil pan flange.
Which reminds me - there's a fantastic thread over on the Wooden Boat Forum in which a guy is building a very cool wooden boat. He and his son are rebuilding a 2-cylinder Michigan Marine Motor Company marine-converted Hercules engine. What is quite interesting is how similar that engine is to the Atomic 4 in its layout. It even uses the same Paragon reversing gear.
You can see the engine and what they're doing with it starting here.
One thing I noted, which makes excellent sense to me, is that when reassembling, they attached the reversing gear cover to the block BEFORE the oil pan, turned the whole thing upside-down, dropped in the reversing gear, and then dropped the oil pan on the whole assembly. See:
Now this definitely is easier to do with an engine stand, as they are using. But it also would be doable with a little grunting and brute strength on a bench.
But (and yes, this may get me branded as a heretic to say) this approach, in at least one respect, makes more sense to me than the one advised in the Moyer Manual. The Manual says to lay the block updside-down, put the gaskets on the block, set and set the pan on the block. Then turn the assembly over, drop in the reversing gear, and install the rear housing.
The first issue with that approach is that when you lay the oil pan gaskets on the bottom of the upside-down block, the back half of the gaskets are just flopping around in space. So they don't want to stay put while you're trying to get the oil pan on and trying to keep all the holes aligned.
The second issue is that you have to do a little fiddling to keep the shifting yoke properly aligned with the collar on the tail end of the reversing gear while you drop the rear cover on, all the while making sure not to tear or mess up the oil pan gasket. You have two mating surfaces to deal with, and they are at 90 degrees to each other.
If you instead assemble it upside down and put the reversing gear housing on first, you have only one mating surface to deal with in attaching the housing (between the housing and the back end of the block). Then you drop the reversing gear into the housing and onto the shifting yoke, then lay the oil pan gaskets along the entire assembly - so the gaskets are fully supported along their entire length - then lay the oil pan down on the whole assembly.
Add to that the fact that the oil pan bolts for the block come up from underneath. With it upside-down, it is then easy to put them all in. Then turn it over and put in the ones that hold the rear housing on to the oil pan.
I might try something like this when it comes time to put this whole mess back together.
I will note, however, that they did put the flywheel housing on before putting the oil pan on - that creates the situation again of having to deal with two perpendicular mating surfaces. I put the flywheel housing on last.
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