When we went to work on Don's Honda motor for his Pup last year we discovered there was no way to use the hoist to put the engine in my engine stand, the legs wouldn't clear. So when I wanted to use it to rebuild this Sprite motor I had the same issue - the only way I could use it was to take the wheels off the stand, lift the motor with the hoist, set the engine stand on the legs of the hoist then work the end of the attachment into the hole in the stand - it was a right PITA since now the hoist was always in the way. Today I decided to do something about that, I did some careful measuring and went to the metal supply store yesterday and bought some 1/8" plate, which they sheared into the exact right sizes for me. I also had them cut off some short lengths of 2" square tubing. Today I drilled a million holes in the plates (well 32 to be exact) and welded the tubes to the plates, then bolted the legs on. Perfect! Now the hoist legs will roll right under the engine stand and I can easily slide the tube into the holder. Small side benefit, the stand is now about 7" taller and easier to work with. One interesting note - I don't know how old this made in USA Blackhawk stand is - I've had it for more than 30 years - but the casters were bolted into the stand with metric bolts!
That there is a pretty weld Dave. Now that it is all fixed & easier on your back did you find yourself asking, why did I wait this long to do that.
Well, in the past I used a chain hoist to lift the engine, but I can't do that in this shop. But to answer your questions, yes - my back appreciates the higher stance and it sure makes it easier to use now that I can use the engine hoist to lift the engine and put it into the stand. Now I'll be able to pull one out of the engine stand and put it straight into the test bed. But I have to say, a chain hoist in the right place would be easier than pushing the lift around with it's long legs getting tangled in everything, since my shop is so small and crowded. I'm always surprised how well this little cheap welder will run a bead - I've had it for over 30 years too and all it needs is a good bottle of gas and a clean surface and it will lay down a pretty good weld. The duty cycle is pretty small but then I'm not using it to run 10ft long beads either - it's perfect for what I do. It wasn't exactly 32 holes, either, since I drilled a 1/4" pilot hole first, then went back with the 11/32", then chamfered each hole, on both sides! What does that come to - just short of a million?
Working on getting the rings installed this morning.....I thought I had these pistons all clean and ready but I noticed a LOT of very hard carbon in the top ring groove - but only about half way around each piston, so I'm having to clean them up again. First scrape all the carbon out, then use a feeler gauge to check and make sure there isn't excessive clearance in the ring groove, the wash them down again with solvent and blow everything dry. Once they're all clean again I'll put the bearing shells in then install the pistons in the block. Then I'll be ready to drop the head on and and it won't be long till it makes some noise. Clancy needs to being me a few parts first - distributor, starter and some oil. I have Penn Grade in stock but he uses VR1.
Made a lot of progress on this motor today, I got the rings on the pistons and the pistons in the bores, rods bolted up and torqued. These ARP bolts require that you use their lubricant (which looks for all the world just like moly lube) in order to torque - most bolts they want clean and dry to torque. I have some of their special lube in stock and use it religiously so no one can come back on me about it if something breaks. After I got the pistons in I used the dial indicator to find an accurate TDC and set the pointer on the scale so we can set the timing in the future - these engines have the factory timing scale on the bottom of the timing chain cover, so to time one of them you have to lay on the floor and shoot the light upward, while someone else revs it up - to heck with that noise! With that done I put the head studs in and dropped the gasket on, then the head and put the pushrods in, installed the 1.5 roller rocker set, put all the nuts and washers on and torqued the head down. I adjusted all the valve clearance - I'm going to start this one out at 17 thou to make sure we don't get any coil binding on the springs. It doesn't look like they will but I want to be sure - normal clearance with these is 15 but some engine builders say they get more power with them set a little bit looser. With all that done I installed the distributor and plug leads - the one that Clancy brought me was a rusted mess. Then I pulled it out of the engine build stand - I'm pleased to say that my engine stand new legs worked exactly as planned, so I could easily pull the engine off the stand and put it up on the bench so I could install the rear plate, flywheel and clutch assemblies. Clancy also brought me oil but forgot the starter. I'm not sure I can use this fancy schmancy adjustable oil pressure relief valve with a Sprite starter - it looks to me like it won't clear the top bolt and flange. I have a standard relief valve setup if that's the case that I can use while I run it in the engine stand, just as I have to use the Mini oil filter and housing since I don't have the oil cooler that he'll be running.
And it runs! I wasn't too sure how this one was going to turn out when I saw how terrible the head was, but it looks like it's going to live! In this video I only started it up and ran it up to 140*, then shut it down and retorqued the head and rechecked the valves. Since this one doesn't have an alternator I had to keep my battery charger on it while it ran to power the ignition and cooling fan. It made really nice oil pressure on the starter alone, and when running it bumps up to about 80, then back down to 60 at idle as it warms up. After retorquing the head I fired it up again and ran it for about 20 min - I didn't have to worry about bedding in the cam again as we reused it and the lifters. This was originally a MiniMania engine and it's running 1.5 roller rockers too. I'll retorque the head again in the morning after its cooled off all night, then I'll run it some more and try to bed the rings in a bit. Clancy is coming down Wed to see/hear it run, then he'll haul it off and I hope he has a car to put it in so they can fine tune it, preferably on Jess's dyno.
2nd test run today, after I retorqued the head and reset the valves.... VID 20210725 1544211 - YouTube
I drained out the extra quart of oil and ran the engine today for the owner and it didn't leak a drop! He was pleased, paid me and hauled it off. Another successful engine build project comes to an end. Next up, I need to build three straight cut gear Sprite transmissions, hopefully in time for the race at Grattan in 2 1/2 weeks.
Not quite as strong as I was hoping, but close - wound her up to 7500! The squeal at the end of the pull are the dyno brakes.
Today at Grattan he blew third gear in the transmission! The good news is I dropped off Clancy's straight cut gear rebuilt transmission just before they left, so it went in today and he'll be able to run tomorrow.
I think he said he didn't quite have it all the way into gear when he was pouring the coal to it and when it popped out it was done for. I haven't seen it yet to do a post mortem, but I finished his other box with the straight cut gears so I'm sure he'll bring it by.