Work continues on the carrier, one thing I learned from the military vehicle collectors is that there are a lot of pirates and down right thieving gits about ! There are very few people you can trust and I believe this is why the fraternity are very cloak and dagger ( as per my initial post here)
Here we have the engine from my carrier as purchased, this image was taken in Canada:-
It is a 1939 99T (A) motor it is the 100hp 24stud lump known as the merc unit (mercury). I was told at the time it had seized from standing. The motor came home and I noticed the heads had been off so I knew from there it would be a full strip and rebuild rather than a free off and start up. I poured automatic gearbox fluid down the bores as this oil has good penetrating properties and is good for rust busting. The engine was left to soak for months and months to no avail.
I found someone down south who offered to rebuild the engine along with three others that were getting done at the time, so I accepted and farmed the job out.... I fastened everything back on the unit and off it went. A few months past and I got a call to go collect the gearbox, however when I picked it up I noticed my war dated cast gearbox case had been swapped for a post war ford pilot gearbox (worth bupkis compared to my original) I challenged the chap in a nice way and the matter was put down to an honest mistake..... Meanwhile images were being sent back regarding my engine which I noticed had been pulled apart on the floor....a no no in my book, all the rods and caps were mixed up and overall the work was not what I would have done.... This made me rather uncomfortable and so the engine was rescued..... Well a pile of bits were rescued. My engine is missing a load of bits now, the internals from my carb missing, distributor missing.... The list goes on !
NO NO NO !!!!!!! Each to their own but I pull a rod put the cap back on and number it..... These all came back mixed up
Here is the stuck piston, block upside down direct onto the concrete.....sigh
Anyway I took a kicking and now I have a rebuild which the costs will shatter my kneecaps ! The mains and big ends are not to clever, the centre main is shot, so it's a crank re grind and new shells,
I managed to secure some new rings so there's a start I guess.
Any engine rebuild I have done in the past I always replace the head studs, for the A series stuff I used to replace them with ARP ones. So I set about removing the studs, unlike the chap who was going to rebuild the engine who I might add used mole grips on the studs, I prefer to use two nuts and then dial the stud out the block. Now this is my first v8 build and my first thoughts on the engine is that it's a hunk of S##*..... When they made the cast the drilled the stud holes right into the water jacket !!!!! Clowns !!!!! So I am sure you can imagine that stud plus water = rust ! The studs themselves are as soft as toffee and when I went to dial a number of them out they snapped down to the block. I took the remaining studs out with application of heat and paraffin wax with no incident, however I then had to put the studs back in and slide the head back on which I then used as a guide to drill out the snapped studs.
The block is sat on ply wood here
Once drilled out I had to tap the holes
Note the snapped stud above between the two pots....complete with snapped easy out.
Then I added the helicoil
I left the helicoil slightly low in case I need to deck the block.
And that was that, I now need to find somewhere to clean the block for me. Then I need to save up for all the missing bits
Carb
Distributor
Mains
Big ends
Crank re grind
Oil pump rebuild kit
New head studs
Gasket set
Two water pump rebuild kits
Fuel pump
Coil and generator.
I will no doubt need to get a loan as I won't save in time for the show in July 2014 which I want to the carrier to go to.
"You can screw a man down until he takes to drinking......take me to the fantastic place..."