A puzzle, finishing someone else's rebuild

[ronstory]

Installing the Oil Control Ring

Been away for a while, but need to finish up the engine. Crank is installed, the 3 oil internal oil plugs are in and now on to the piston assemblies. I'm looking at the new Hasting rings from MM and I'm puzzled on how to install the oil control ring.

The installation instructions from Hasting are for standard 3 piece spring spacer and an upper and lower ring. Since the A4 using a two piece spacer the spring leaves about an inch gap around the piston. With the T-shaped slot on the side does it matter where I leave the gap?

Any one have A4 specific installation instructions for these pesky rings?

[ronstory]

Ok nevermind. Google and MMF saved me. I found a few posts from IlikeRust rebuild. No need to worry about the position.

https://www.moyermarineforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5367

[ronstory]

OK, been making progress, but taking pics in the middle of assembly with the rather sticky Permatex assembly lube it just plain a PITA.

However, I did discover a good way to retain the connecting rod bolts during assembly, cheap ballpoint pen caps. They worked perfect and were thin enough to not hit the cylinder walls and rigid enough to help guide rod onto the crankshaft journal.

These are typical conference or hotel pens... and just break the pocket tab off the cap and you are good to go.

[ronstory]

A few notes and lessons from assembly

All—

After Bill’s (Ilikerust) rebuild chronicle, I don’t think I could add much to that level of detail. Bill’s rebuild did encourage me to check the 3 internal oil passage plugs at least 3 times before assembling the engine.

Based on the recommendations, I used Permatex #3 (aviation) for really the first time in my engine assembly experience. BTW, this is my 5th engine assembly, but first A4… all the rest has twice as many cylinders. ;^)

I ended up using a combination of Permatex 1, 2 and 3 plus a newer sealant called Permatex seal+lock. I used #1 on the head studs and things I generally expected not come apart again. I used #3 on most stuff, but it was rather gooey and a bit runny. It remained more flexible than #2 but I’m not sure it ever really dries. I used #2 on surface that were not pristine smooth (side cover plate) or gaskets that didn’t have a lot of support and would move around with #3 (valve cover). The S+L stuff was interesting in that it seemed to be the strength equivalent of blue Loctite but with better consistency (thicker) to stay put plus it’s rated for sealing versus the standard blue. I also discovered a new product call Permatex #27005 that is gel threadlocker, the strength of Red Loctite but without the mess. I used that on the mounting the studs into the carb body.

A few Ah-Ha moments during assembly that hopefully will help others.

Side clean-out plate - Used the MMI stud kit and two of the threaded holes had a bit of play in them, but simply set and sealed them all with Permatex #1. I placed the cover on them to keep them aligned and let them harden for 24 hours. When I put in the gasket with Permatex #3, the studs took the torque with no issue. Permatex #1 is your friend and has better chemical resistance to antifreeze than epoxy, even JB weld. Plus you can get them apart with some elbow grease.

Freeze/core plugs – Not a hard job, did them all in an hour start to finish. I used Permatex #1 in the seat before driving in the plug with a socket. I used a smaller socket to flatten the disc and they are surprisingly resistant to flattening. Now here is the unexpected benefit of replacing the core plugs, the hammer effect. I was amazed at the amount of rust/scale came out the head and manifold with even after aggressive coat hanger treatments, a long metal small round brush on a drill and a complete hot tank session. A ton of material came out after shaking, and I would not want that stuff in coolant system. So my recommendation is change your core plugs even it they look fine and you will be amazed what will fall out during the process, literally.

Marking TDC on the flywheel - I used a dial indicator to mark the 0.050” position of the piston on either side of #1 cylinder TDC. For the alignment point, I used a line between the center of the crankshaft and the center of flywheel cover bolt located at 1 o’clock. I twisted a piece of safety wire around the bolt and then used a straight edge to align with the center of the crank. I put blue tape for marking the two 0.050” locations of the crank and then bisected the difference for the true TDC and then scored the flywheel with a hardened scribe. Now when I want to zero-time the motor, I just need to pull the flywheel cover, fashion up a wire indicator on the 1 o’clock bolt that and adjust that with a straight edge to set TDC.

Out of curiosity, I then used the mark-one eyeball to check the position of the roller pin in the crank with the flywheel cover installed and found if I had used that a the sole indicator, the timing would have been advanced about 3-5 degrees. Maybe the PO could have abused the roller pin a bit turning the motor, but it did not look damaged or bent at all… but it was definitely off in CCW direction versus the measured TDC.

Installing the rear housing – I replaced the seals and also used the MMI stainless shifter shaft. Note that the seals have a some sort of coating on sides to help with sealing, but outside metal surface will need paint to protect it from corrosion. I tried to mimic the reverse of my removal, so I completely assembled the rear housing with the reversing gear installed. Then I loosened the band to point the slide bar would fall out and it slipped in with no drama. Took 30 seconds install after the noting the splines on the crank and did not require loosening the pan bolts in the block nor the wedges. The fun thing was once it was aligned, I could lift up the rear housing just enough to access the ¾” nut on the band adjustment with a ratchet and snug it up and not the laborious 1/6 of a turn adjustment with wench thru the cover plate access hole. It took a bit of patience to keep everything in place while I tightened it, but way easier than wedges.

I hope this helps others… now to get it run-in and installed.

[ronstory]

I forgot to post the pic of the swept-up junk that fell out of the head and manifold when I installed the new freeze/core plugs. This was after using a coathanger and the hot tank. The pine needles came from another source.

I would replace the core plugs for this reason alone, even if they looked great.