Yard is a verb

[sastanley]

off topic

[off topic]
Russ,
I left this thread up on the PC today, and my wife noticed your post(s) and signature. She was highly amused by your signature; 'Since when is napping doing nothing?'

At another forum my signature has a quote from my wife that says;
"You can sleep when you are dead!"

I'd much rather be napping than working!

[/off topic]

I am interested in your progress. I only used my neighbor's grinding wheel to polish my tiller hardware tonight..minimal progress. No engine work.

[rigspelt]

see the casting wire(arrow). not even rusted.

Aha! When I had my side plate off I could feel a wire there and further aft. Wondered what the heck they were. Mystery solved.

[lat 64]

nap time

The napping philosophy is my fathers. I actually make many discoveries and solve many problems while drifting off. This is consistent with being a sailboat restorer—you have to dream to realize.
I first heard “you can sleep when your dead” while on vacation in Italy. Our friends traveling with us had more energy than us, and wanted to get their money’s worth.

I’ll probably post to this tread or the "squeaky gears" thread off and on every week or so with progress. I have gleaned a lot of information from just reading about others projects and I hope this might be useful to someone else in the future. I’m taking pictures of everything.

About those little wires in the water passages; I used to find them mostly in AMC 258 ci. six cylinder heads. It looked to me like someone had left a coat hanger inside. I was told they held the cores for sand casting in place while the casting was poured.
I suppose they last because they are steel and resist rusting a little better than iron—just a guess.

I’m down to the crank and pistons and will take that apart today.

Ciao,
Russ

[lat 64]

poor rebuild

I,m Facing the reality that the PO just didn't get a very good rebuild on this engine.
With the whole thing apart I have found more problems.
The crankshaft is .010 under on the main bearings and standard on the rods. This is fine but the main bearing inserts seem standard size. They show very little wear, but have lots of clearance. I will double check this by reinstalling them, without the crank in the block, and measuring them.

Now for a quiz.
Can anyone spot the problem in the photo?

Clue: In the MMI manual, page P4-2, Don says to "please be careful..."

[msauntry]

That's easy!

There is an unfinished glass of beer perched precariosly on the engine. Bottoms up! And be more careful how you place you glass in the future... You're not to be trusted with red wine, I'm sure!

[lat 64]

Final answer

Wroooooong!.
Although the last guy to put this thing together might have been drunk

Clue #2: It has something to do with numbers.

Russ

PS: Don Moyer, anyone employed by Moyer Marine, or relatives of said persons are not eligible to play this game

[Dromo]

It,s hard to see .Is #3 piston rod where #4 should be? Journal end cap is backwards .
Cylinder # should face the cam shaft?
Rick

[lat 64]

the first shall be last

Ok, Dromo, you got close enough.
The pistons were installed backwards, flywheel end to timing gear end; 1,2,3 and 4.
The #4 piston is in #1's place but it is hidden down(up) in the block. You know, I didn't even check to see if the numbers were on the wrong side. Good call. I will check the manual. I read this can cause excessive oil consumption.
I took pictures of everything while tearing down the engine. It was only later when I learned that this is a common mistake that I went back through the pictures and discovered it.
If you don't have Don's manual, there is some info at

http://www.hessmarine.ca/atomicfourenginefaq.html

My camera got some greasy fingerprints on it but it was well worth taking the time to document the teardown. Who knew!

Russ
Update: Rick was very right. my piston were installed in the right order, but they were put it backwards. My photo shows the numbers opposite the cam;wrong. they should be on the same side. See this new thread http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2997

[Dromo]

Thanks for the info

Hi Russ ......... I'm glad you posted your little quiz. You're right about the pics. I took all kinds of them on my A4 tear down and now I have a little file folder I can refer to. I used it for your quiz. By referring me to page P4-2 in the MMI Manual, I did some rechecking of my engine and noticed that although all the rod #'s were in the right cylinder and facing towards the Cam, the piston arrows are pointing towards the fly wheel - Not the timing gear. So whoever did the overhaul before me made the mistake of thinking that the fly-wheel was the front of the engine. I would have done the same! Thank for making me think and I've printed off the A4 info from Hess to add to my file folder.
Regards Rick

[lat 64]

Hindsight is forward thinking

I called Ken and ordered the stuff I need for an overhaul today.
I told him about my engine and he has seen it more than once.

I think they should have stamped "AFT" or "STERN" on the pistons. or maybe just a whole sentence that goes: "If your boat is pointed East then this side of the piston should be pointed West"
Or maybe some obtuse thing like " the marine fitment of the piston shall be the reciprocal of accepted norms of terrestrial alignment” Anything instead of "front"

[tenders]

Good idea...but boats with V-drives have their A4's installed "backwards" (flywheel aft) so this would be incorrect!

[rigspelt]

"the marine fitment of the piston shall be the reciprocal of accepted norms of terrestrial alignment”

This is my favorite option. Applies to everything else, too.

[Administrator]

Hey Russ:

Over dinner last nite (all right, it was a wine tasting), Don and I got to talking about how pristine your water jacket looked. That led us to wonder whether that might be explained in part by the engine being exposed to extremely cold water. What do you think?

That in turn led us to wonder whether boats in your neck of the woods bother with bottom paint. Do they? What grows?

Eventually, we got around to wondering whether you'd ever heard of the TV series, "The Deadliest Catch." Have you?

Best regards from Lat 39 (give or take),

Bill

[lat 64]

it's back to "front"

Tenders,
You spoiler you. Ok so now I think they should use quote marks. ie. "front" .
We just have to remember that these are ironic quote marks, say..., like Bill's "dinner".

Rigs,
Yes, when on land you want drive to the shore. At sea you stay away from it.

Bill,
My 1968 boat was first purchased by a doctor in Seattle, sold and came north in '85. I think it has had antifreeze all it's life. They put rust inhibitors and stuff in auto antifreeze and this probably helped. I still broke off all the upper water jacket cover bolts because there was a drip from the deck on the engine right there, and it rusted just one side of the top of the head and slobbered down onto the cover. Cold does have an effect on chemical reaction so I think it may inhibit rust, but we sure still get lots of it. We still get grass and barnacles too, but I'm sure not much is growing right now(see first entry photo).
My boat has some blue antifouling paint (brand?) so it is clean.
The waters here are actually rich and teem with life, it's just cold water. There was a little Contessa 26 here that sat in the harbor for years. It had blades of kelp hanging on it that must have been ten feet long! (It is very nicely restored now)

Yes I've heard of the T.V. show but I have never seen it. I think it's on cable and I'm in the stone age. I just get free broadcast T.V.
About two weeks ago a crew member was lost off a crabber when he got tangled in lines and went overboard. My cousin died the same way. It is dangerous.
I have only worked one summer in the Bristol Bay gill-net salmon fishery. This is a coastal operation in the summer, but it can still get nautical sometimes. I take a healthy respect when I go down to the sea.

But now for something less sobering. Try Black Chook wine from Australia. It's a great twenty-dollar bottle of wine. I can't afford it all the time but it's yummy.
One thin cold water is good for; It makes your bilge nice and cold for beverages

chin chin

Russ

[sastanley]

offtopic!

hijack - Russ...do you have your analog to digital converter boxes?

Also, don't say that free broadcast is stone age. My broadcast TV comes in 720P or 1080i HD, over UHF (14-69) & hi-VHF (7-13). My only mistake so far was that I bought a special high-gain UHF antenna for channels 14-83, and I did not get a VHF band antenna or hybrid antenna. I hadn't read the fine print that some local D.C. channels will stay in Hi-VHF after the switch. (7 & 9 to be exact..their current HD feeds which are up in the UHF band somewhere now will move to where the 7 & 9 analog feeds are currently on Feb 17th)

I still have DirecTV, but I don't have to pay lots of $$ for HD content from them. NASCAR, NFL, and most of our 'regular' shows are on network TV, and in HD (at least in the one HDTV I own upstairs..I have two boxes for the other non ATSC TVs using my $40 gov't coupons.
- ok..end hijack.