So it all started two Saturdays ago. No wind, superflat seas, and a 3 hour motor trip ahead of me to visit my girlfriend on Martha's Vineyard.... What could go wrong?!?
My 1972 Atomic four in my Pearson 30 has been running great all season and I have some 230 hours on her since we launched in Mid-May (its early Sept when this happened). The engine is fresh water cooled and running at 180F at 1800 rpm and moving at 5.5 knots. I foolishly decided to get that up to 6 knots and brought the rpms up to 2000. Got right up to 6 and sounded fine. I usually didn't run her this hard and especially for an extended period of time, but given the extremely rare flat seas and zero wind we were having, I figured "What the heck!"
At this point, it struck me it was a good moment to use my phone to take a selfie video to send to Ken and Don for all their help supporting me in my endeavors at getting a 43 year old engine to provide me with so much fun these past two years. After the second take of the video, I put the camera down and tripped my foot on the throttle and knocked it up to 2300-2600 rpm for maybe 4 seconds before I reacted and brought the throttle back down to 1800 or so...
Within a few minutes I could hear a hissing with each stroke of the engine and quickly realized I had a real issue as the power output decreased substantially. I motored to a safe harbor 30 minutes away and immediately started me research... Good compression in 1 and 2 and barely any (and almost negative pressure at one point in the stroke) for valves 3 and 4.
I talk with Ken and Don and they say its a head gasket. I remove the head, take two days to clean off the awful green gasket and reassemble it all with a new head gasket.
The next part is my real problem... To torque the head studs I borrowed a torque wrench from AutoZone and also one from a friend who's son is big into customizing jeeps. The autozone one was in inch lbs and broke pretty quickly. Then the two foot long one I got from my friends son, when turned way down to 25lbs, didnt click at the torque setting and I ended up going way past what I should have... Stupid me, I know
Four studs ended up spinning and running the threads in the block... So I have to do a stud repair kit on those.
However, the piece de resistance in those whole disaster is this broken stud that is still in the block...
I need advice on how to get this broken stud out of the block. I have minimal overhead access, just enough to take the pictures you have seen and in my mind I still have six weeks left in my season and I'd like to not have to rely on sails only for that time. My pride is dreading the embarrassment of calling SeaTow to bring me to the ramp for my haul out.
I have two friends who fix cars, have some training and have lots of tools. So far, all Dremmel attachments we found were not strong enough the score the bolt and now we are thinking of tungsten bits but getting it to go in straight is a different problem. I would like to bring them a plan of attack that is informed by the greater A4 community and the body of knowledge you all have.
Thank you in advance!
(This shows the clearance I have in getting in the engine, the broken stud is #2 in the manuals tightening sequence and we as of now have the other studs in front of the broken one all removed for access.)
My 1972 Atomic four in my Pearson 30 has been running great all season and I have some 230 hours on her since we launched in Mid-May (its early Sept when this happened). The engine is fresh water cooled and running at 180F at 1800 rpm and moving at 5.5 knots. I foolishly decided to get that up to 6 knots and brought the rpms up to 2000. Got right up to 6 and sounded fine. I usually didn't run her this hard and especially for an extended period of time, but given the extremely rare flat seas and zero wind we were having, I figured "What the heck!"
At this point, it struck me it was a good moment to use my phone to take a selfie video to send to Ken and Don for all their help supporting me in my endeavors at getting a 43 year old engine to provide me with so much fun these past two years. After the second take of the video, I put the camera down and tripped my foot on the throttle and knocked it up to 2300-2600 rpm for maybe 4 seconds before I reacted and brought the throttle back down to 1800 or so...
Within a few minutes I could hear a hissing with each stroke of the engine and quickly realized I had a real issue as the power output decreased substantially. I motored to a safe harbor 30 minutes away and immediately started me research... Good compression in 1 and 2 and barely any (and almost negative pressure at one point in the stroke) for valves 3 and 4.
I talk with Ken and Don and they say its a head gasket. I remove the head, take two days to clean off the awful green gasket and reassemble it all with a new head gasket.
The next part is my real problem... To torque the head studs I borrowed a torque wrench from AutoZone and also one from a friend who's son is big into customizing jeeps. The autozone one was in inch lbs and broke pretty quickly. Then the two foot long one I got from my friends son, when turned way down to 25lbs, didnt click at the torque setting and I ended up going way past what I should have... Stupid me, I know
Four studs ended up spinning and running the threads in the block... So I have to do a stud repair kit on those.
However, the piece de resistance in those whole disaster is this broken stud that is still in the block...
I need advice on how to get this broken stud out of the block. I have minimal overhead access, just enough to take the pictures you have seen and in my mind I still have six weeks left in my season and I'd like to not have to rely on sails only for that time. My pride is dreading the embarrassment of calling SeaTow to bring me to the ramp for my haul out.
I have two friends who fix cars, have some training and have lots of tools. So far, all Dremmel attachments we found were not strong enough the score the bolt and now we are thinking of tungsten bits but getting it to go in straight is a different problem. I would like to bring them a plan of attack that is informed by the greater A4 community and the body of knowledge you all have.
Thank you in advance!
(This shows the clearance I have in getting in the engine, the broken stud is #2 in the manuals tightening sequence and we as of now have the other studs in front of the broken one all removed for access.)
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