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  #76   IP: 74.110.198.83
Old 01-29-2011, 08:44 PM
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But overall, everything actually looks to be in excellent condition, considering it's a 27 year-old, raw water-cooled engine. But I think it spent several years on the hard and actually has not had a whole lot of use, relatively speaking.









Thankfully, the cylinders look to be in very good condition - no holes or anything!

Continued...
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Old 01-29-2011, 08:45 PM
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Here's how it looked by 2:30 in the afternoon, at which point I had to stop, because we were going out with some friends.







I plan on continuing tomorrow. I'll borrow an engine stand from my neighbor and hang it up so I can flip it over and take the oil pan off, etc.
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Old 01-30-2011, 12:17 AM
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Great Job and Documentation

Great job on getting her started apart, and Great Pics of the process. I am right behind you on the same path, so I truly appreciate the documentation. I will follow thru the same way when I get mine out of the boat.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Sincerely
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Old 01-30-2011, 12:25 AM
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Motor looks in great shape - glad to see they used a sling to lift it rather than the lifting eye!

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Old 01-30-2011, 07:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 67c&ccorv View Post
Motor looks in great shape - glad to see they used a sling to lift it rather than the lifting eye!
Weeellllll.... that was because the "lifting eye", such as it may be on my engine, was not there. I had taken it off weeks ago.

I talked to the guy about that, and mentioned to him the concerns about lifting by that eye and possible potential damage to the head.

He's an ABYC certified boat mechanic (dunno exactly what certifications he's got) and he told me he's been working in high-volume boat yards for many years - he told me he's lifted hundreds of engines out of hundreds of boats - mine was the third that day, and it was only 1:00 in the afternoon.

He basically indicated his opinion that the concern was silly nonsense. He had never seen a single case of any engine damaged by being lifted by the lifting eye. He said something like, "that's what it's for - why else did the manufacturer put it there?"

On my engine, there really isn't an "eye" - it's just an alternator mounting bracket. I am considering whether to fabricate a bracket that goes across four head bolts and has a nice eye in the middle for lifting. It would make things much easier getting the engine back in.
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Old 01-30-2011, 08:16 AM
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Does it look to you as though that engine was repainted ?

Regarding the lifting eye , earlier discussion on this forum has made me quite wary of that structure. I do not like the fact that it is pinned on just 2 head studs , and the lifting point is offset from those studs. I'll be a slinger , too.
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Last edited by Laker; 01-30-2011 at 08:22 AM.
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Old 01-30-2011, 09:01 AM
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1. Yes, the previous owner told me that to keep up with the deteriorating original paint, whenever a little rust showed up, he would hit it with a wire brush and a shot of spray paint. There is overspray all over the place. And the color he was using is more of a gold - you can clearly see the distinction between that and the original bronze color, which is much more red.

I'm going to strip back to bare castings and totally repaint with new engine paint. I don't know what he was using, but I think it was just Rustoleum, and it's no longer adhering at all - every time I touch something, the paint just flakes right off.

2. Yes, I'm wary of the 2-stud bracket also, which is why I'm considering fabricating one that would straddle the head and engage 4 studs. I have a couple buddies who are metal-head machinist types with access to all kinds of serious metal-working machinery, so it wouldn't be any big thing to get a hunk of 1/4" plate steel bent into a U shape with a few holes drilled in it.
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Old 01-30-2011, 11:53 AM
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Tom's at it again

On behalf of Thatch, he's modified the design of the lifting eye to spread the load.

Name:  Lifting eye.jpg
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Last edited by ndutton; 01-30-2011 at 12:05 PM. Reason: Cropped the picture
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Old 01-30-2011, 11:56 AM
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Gracias

Neil,
Thank's
Tom
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Old 01-30-2011, 09:18 PM
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So the work continued today.

First I figured I'd lighten the load up a bit by removing the reversing gear housing and the reversing gear.





Once the cover is off, the whole reversing gear assembly lifts right out.



I set the assembly aside in a box for safe keeping.



Continued...
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Old 01-30-2011, 09:19 PM
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I borrowed one of my neighbor's engine stands and he helped me get the block mounted on the stand.





That made it much easier to remove the oil pan (that's a big heavy sucker, too!).



Which left the engine with a naked bottom!



Continued...
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Old 01-30-2011, 09:21 PM
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The really nice thing about the engine stand is how it allows you to easily flip the engine over.



Which made it easy to remove the valves.



I ran out to WalMart today and bought a bunch of cheap Glad containers to keep everything organized.



I'm also putting small parts (like all the nuts and bolts and stuff) into Ziploc bags and writing on them with a Sharpie to identify where they go.
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Old 01-30-2011, 09:21 PM
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I call this picture "Four Singing Frogs."



Can you see what's wrong here? I didn't notice it at first until I started working on cleaning it up a little bit.

Maybe this will help:



Several of the water passages were completely plugged. And certain areas of the jacket (particularly behind cylinders 3 and 4) were packed with a stinky, greasy, gritty, cruddy gunk. YEcccchh.. I'm amazed any water at all could flow through the engine. This really makes the case for fresh water cooling, I think.

I poked a long, skinny screwdriver through the small holes and dug around to try to scrape out some of the gunk, and blew compressed air in there to blow it out.

I opened up those holes and it started to look slightly better. A lot of crud came out.



Here is just a fraction of what came out of the water jacket:



I think I'm going to have to use some chemicals - I'm thinking maybe dribble some muriatic acid in there to try to dissolve some of the crud; maybe some kind of solvent. I dribbled some mineral spirits in there at the end of the day and left it in there to try to thin the stuff out - it's pretty wet and greasy.

I also figure that once I completely strip everything out of the block, I'll pressure wash it in my driveway and see if I can't blast more of that crud out.

All I have left to remove is the crank, cam, pistons and oil pump. Then I'll have a naked block.
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Old 01-30-2011, 09:28 PM
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I don't recall, had you done an acid flush before this teardown? Ever?
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Old 01-30-2011, 09:31 PM
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My neighbor restores and races antique Italian cars - he specializes in Abarth, Alfa Romeo and Fiat. He's been doing it for something like 30 years or more and estimates he's done about 75 cars over the years. He's had some pretty rare cars, including an Abarth that he sold for $125,000. He just found a rare Osca engine that he sold for something like $25,000 - and it wasn't even complete!

He was digging on the A4 engine, but was also impressed with its beefy construction. Most of the engines in his cars are similar bore, stroke and displacement, but with an aluminum block and oil pan, overhead valves and much higher revs. He's got a Bertone X-1/9 that he's converted into a wicked race car that puts out 140 hp. The car weighs only about 1600 lbs. He just finished building it a month or two ago and took it for the first test drive. He said, "with a little more horsepower, this thing would be truly scary. So now I'm looking for a little more horsepower." Apparently, he won't be satisfied until it scares him.

Anyhow, he was looking at the A4 and I told him not only did it weigh three times as much as his engines of similar displacement do, it puts out only 30 hp. He said, "you need to put a supercharger on it."

HA!

I told him about the unsupported crank, and he said, "well there goes your supercharger."
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Old 01-30-2011, 09:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ndutton View Post
I don't recall, had you done an acid flush before this teardown? Ever?
I've owned the boat only since August.

The previous owner did an acid wash in December 2003, according to his little log book that he gave me.

Yeah, it was (is) pretty crudded up in there. I'm glad I'm doing this. I really think I'm going to go ahead and spend the $$ for the FWC kit.
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Old 01-31-2011, 12:24 AM
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I love the four singing frogs

Looks like you're doin it right.

cheers,
Russ
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Old 01-31-2011, 11:10 AM
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Bill,
Excellent photo work. One of the signs of a well maintained A4 is the condition of the oil pickup screen, which in your case is quite clean. The conversation about building more horsepower comes up occasionally around here and dies out about as quickly when the "missing center main" is mentioned. The biggest threat to the demise of the A4 is water passage deterioration so I would strongly recommend adding FWC as soon as possible.
Tom
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Old 02-01-2011, 09:17 PM
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Bill, thanks for posting all the photos... I can only imagine what your camera looks like! Looks like you're doing everything right and I was really interested in the condition of the water passages and your consideration of FWC. I'm thinking of doing the same thing.

Please keep the pictures coming. It's great to see the process play out in photos!
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Old 02-06-2011, 07:54 AM
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Continuing where we left off last weekend... I started in that section of the Moyer Manual that says you will end up with the crankshaft in your hands. Which I did.

First I pulled out the camshaft and lifters.

For some reason, I forgot to get pictures of those.

Anyhow, next came the pistons:



Then out came the crank main bearings:





Continued...
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Old 02-06-2011, 07:55 AM
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And then the crank itself:



It really was just that quick and easy.

Leaving me with a mostly nekkid block:







Everything looks to be in excellent condition. The only damage of any kind that I found was this small area in one of the crank main bearings:



Continued...
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Old 02-06-2011, 07:55 AM
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I decided to start cleaning something, so I grabbed whatever was the closest dirty part. Which happened to be the bolts that hold on the side valve cover. Here's a before and after:




The exhaust valves all had a big goiter of crud hanging off the heads:



Again, I didn't get an "after" picture, but a little brass wire wheel action took care of that.

The intake valves were also pretty dirty, but not as bad as the exhaust valves. Some are slightly pitted, but I think a good lapping should take care of it.

I had to start somewhere with cleaning for repainting, so I figured I would just grab the starter motor. In order to properly clean and paint it, I had to separate the solenoid from the motor. Which is off the map, as far as the Moyer Manual goes. Here there be monsters!



As you can see, I cleaned the casting that houses the Bendix gear.

Continued...
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Old 02-06-2011, 07:56 AM
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The bolt that goes in this hole snapped off, so I had to drill it out (carefully!)



And here is the $64,000 question: is it supposed to go all the way through?



If not, it does now.
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Old 02-06-2011, 09:00 AM
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Bill,

What size prop were you running?

The question may seem out there but your bearing damage is identical to that found on another thread where an incorrect prop size has been suggested as the culprit. Yours would help support or debunk the suggestion.
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Old 02-06-2011, 09:33 AM
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Yeah, one thing the surveyor noted was the inability of the engine to get above about 1700 rpm while underway at WOT. The seller said he had done the whole timing thing and even had a professional mechanic look at it. I said it probably was the prop, and the surveyor agreed. The seller said it was the same prop that was on the boat when he got it, and he always assumed it was the right one.

I dunno what the prop diameter or pitch is, but I'm thinking it probably isn't quite right. I was planning on plonking down the geeter for the Indigo prop.
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