After 6.5 years of slogging along (or making no progress at all for long periods), the engine is quickly coming together.
The governor tower is the one area that I’ve been most concerned about since taking it apart six years ago. It is complicated, my documentation is thin and my memory is worse. Luckily I had taken many pictures during disassembly and did a fair (but nowhere near perfect) job of labeling parts. It went together shockingly well. I only had to backtrack a couple of times. The engineering is really good. Things fit and work logically on the engine. I think that is one of the things that makes it beautiful!
I finished rebuilding the last water pump and installed those.
The last of the bearing tasks was to finish machining the rod bearings. We decided the best way to do this was on the big mill. It took over half a day but we got them done. I then had to radius the edges and cut the oil groves, which I was able to do on my own smaller mill. Can you tell I’m a former wood worker? I used a router bit in the boring bar to cut the radius. Not pretty but it worked.
Next up were the pistons.
And the heads.
The caps for the pre-combustion chamber are, like may parts on the engine, water cooled. I found gaskets with what seems like the correct properties at McMaster-Carr. I hope they work. The old ones are in tough shape.
I forgot how much plumbing is on the engine. Oil, fuel, water and compressed air. There were a few lines that needed repairs but most are in good condition. Again, I’m grateful for having the discipline to properly label all the plumbing lines.
This morning I attached the exhaust manifold. It’s heavy. I then was able to finish up the plumbing. There isn’t much left to do and I’m about out of parts. I’m rigging up a temporary fuel tank which must gravity feed the engine. The injection system then needs to be calibrated. I might be able to get the engine on a trailer and ready to run in the next week or two. It is a lot of fun to watch it come together.
