| A lot happened to
this engine. My brother and I had purchased the engine soon after
buying the car,
had it hot tanked and cam bearings installed. Nearly 20 years
later when I was ready to build the engine,
I had it dipped again and we found a nickel size hole from the right
rear exhaust port into the water jacket.
All these shots were taken after I had the hole brazed shut.
Before starting the motor for the first time,
I discovered water leaking around the brazed area. Being a WWII
tank or heavy equipment motor I tried
desperately to salvage it, eventually having it furnace welded.
That version of the motor ran about two weeks
before completely letting go. Head studs pulled the cylinder deck
up and of course allowed coolant into
the oil. By the time I caught it, which was really only a couple
of minutes, I had lost all the bearings, flattened the
cam and scored the pistons. It took several months, but I
eventually found another industrial motor, had the pistons
polished, bought new internals and reassembled the motor.
|
| Because of the aluminum heads, I tried the fiber head gaskets but they
just didn't work. They would give out
around the water passages and eventually break down enough to allow
coolant into the combustion chamber.
After replacing the gaskets with the standard copper versions, I have
driven it 36,000 trouble free miles, including a western states tour of
over 3,000 miles (see the blog from that trip). |
