Engine rebuild

[Paul Bouchard]

OK, the gloves are on, the bits have been gathered and the clock is ticking!

The 4A engine that I picked up a few weeks ago has been stripped, cleaned and honed. Now the fun part... putting it all back together.

I tore apart the engine in the Roadster soon after I purchased it, mostly since it did not work, and a desire to understand it. This time I spent a few dollars to have some of the major surfaces skimmed (head, block and manifold) as well as invest in some new rings. This was necessary since the old ones broke off when I was cleaning up the pistons.

Today I installed the pistons, crank, intermediate shaft, block-to-head oil line, oil pump, oil pan and head studs and the chains. I had to stop since I was getting tired, it was late and if I kept going I would go all night.

I think that I lucked out with the engine. Although in pieces, it did seem to be complete. The only defect that I found to date was a con rod that had been forced open at the big end. Seems that cylinder #3 was the culprit in a stuck crank when ithe engine was dismantled. Luckilly I had a few connecting rods so I managed to get one that fit. I hope that that was the only glitch that I will find. The true test will come when I try to get the thing started... which will not be for at least a month or two.

I intend on using the engine for the Super Ten that should be steeming its way to Halifax in a couple of weeks. The Ten, as you may know, looks complete with the exception of the engine & tranny.

More to follow...

[GeneA]

Paul: sounds like the engine rebuild is progressing nicely--congratulations and keep at it!

[Peter McKercher]

Paul
Nice to see things progressing. I hope everyone is taking advantage of one of the best springs we have had in a long time. It has certainly been a while since I've had the baby out so early. Some of our local folks have already started to organize fun runs.

[Paul Bouchard]

More done to the engine. The crank is in, the pistons (and new rings) installed and the chains have been added.

I learned something important: Reattach the oil lint to the head BEFORE installing the chains. I had to undo a whole bunch of stuff to redo from there.

Here is another photo...

[BRG]

Paul,

Look'in gooood!
BRG

[Paul Bouchard]

Engine stand... the correct answer is engine stand.

The question is: what makes an engine rebuild easier?

Oil pan gaskets now in place. I only glued them to the block and a good thing too... as I was attaching the chain to the intermediate gear, I dropped the link into the pan!! I will wait until tomorrow to take the pan off and retrieve it. Oops!

[Paul Bouchard]

Ok. Another day - another lesson learned.

I discovered one caveat with my new best tool (engine stand) that even with triple checking, if you do not take into consideration that the engine was flipped upside down... mistakes can be made.

Seems like I installed piston #3 backwards! I had no desire to take apart all that I had done (crank, etc). So I simply removed the big end of the con rod, and popped the piston through the top of the block. It was then a simple (?) process of removing a circlip and the grundgeon pin, rotating the piston 180 degrees and re-installing the above.

Great in theory... unless you break the circlip WHILE IT IS STILL IN THE PISTON!!! Lucky for me, I was able to get the circlip on other side off.

With piston (containing the now impossible to remove circlip) in hand I had a long think.

A very long think.

I tried with various pointy tools and such when I came upon an idea: These circlips are brittle when twisted (duh) so I figured a bit of longitudinal pressure delivered with a center punch might do the trick.

Voila!

One click of the automatic center punch cracked the remains of the clip into two. Another two "snaps" took care of the rest.

The piston went back in, now in its proper orientation.

The distributor/oil pump drive shaft was also installed. The slot at the top most end is cut off center. The "larger" side toeards the engine. This will ensure that the corresponding pin in the distributor dog lines up the rotor to its proper orientation.*

* with my luck that too will be off 180 degrees!

[Paul Bouchard]

Tonight (while listening to the Canadians lose to the Hurricanes) I assembled the valves, cam and rockers. I will tighten down the head tomorrow. When I had the head skimmed I made sure that the front plate of the head was attached. No sense haveing the head and front plate not match up!

[Paul Bouchard]

Head tightened and valve timimg done. I followed the torque settings suggested by Bill Haverly (30 foot pounds). For the two nasty "hidden" nuts, I used a 15mm crowfoot on a very small extension.

To set the initial valve timing I used the Smiley Face Method. To do this, I placed a level on the head to make sure that it was straight, and then on the required two screws on the cam to ensure that they were parallel.

[mikeyr]

WOW is all I have to say, keep the info and pictures coming

[Paul Bouchard]

There wan no use delaying it any longer... I had to paint the engine.

Problem is what colour?

Pre-war Singers featured black engines... better to camouflage the oil that kept the block from rusting(?)

Post war As and 4As (as well as 10s) were painted brown oxide.

Try to find brown oxide engine paint! I tracked down someone who woudl mix up a batch... for $275!!!! So another solution had to be found. Lucky for me, Mr. Avis (Pre-war Reg & NEWS Editor) had some spare 2-part epoxy for me to try out.

I mixed up a batch, actually less than a tin of Coke, and was able to paint the engine and transmission! The paint went on smooth and covered well. 4 hours after it was dry to the touch in most places, but with any 2 part paint (especially old stuff) I will give it 24 hours before taking another look.

I will add a photo, but the colours are a bit off. The engine looks red, but it is more of a brown with a hint of red.

The next step from here are the ancilliaries. Basic black, with a surprise or two perhaps?

Stay tuned.

Paul

[Paul Bouchard]

Not much has changed with the engine, it is still sitting in the garage waiting to fill the space in the engine compartment of the Ten.

In th emean time, I did promise something, well different.

Here it, they are:

[Paul Bouchard]

Work continues, but the "to do" list is getting shorter!

This time around I tackle the manifold and carb. The manifold is easy: Put the two pieces together and paint them. Well, it is not that easy. There was no need to separate the intake manifold from its partner the exhaust, but wanting to clean everything up, I did. The tricky thing is, that these two parts must be flush at the end where they meet the head, so if in doubt have them shaved so that they doi. I had this done at the same time as the head and block. Do remember to add the little tab for the accelerator retraction spring, you do not want to remember this after everything had been painted.

Speaking of painting, I go back to using the Por 15 High Temperature Coating. Manifold grey will do nicely here. I took the opportunity to paint the studs, nuts and the fancy "wings" (manifold bridge according to the parts book). The paint goes on pretty goopy. Having used it about 5+ years ago I had forgotten how it performed... or the paint had gone bad. Lucky for me, it was the former and it dried with smooth surface. Well, as smooth as a cast iron piece can be.

What a nice way to top a manifold than with a carburetor! The down draft SU does turn a few heads. At the Hudson British Car Day I overheard a few fellows discussing the Roadster's carburetor. From what they were saying, they thought that this was a modification and would probably not work. Tsk tsk tsk. Unfortunately I did not have the chance to educate them on the finer points of this British design.

I received a beautiful carb from Mr. Len Percey. He had gone to the trouble to get it prepped for me by blasting it with walnut shells and did a great job. Too bad it was the wrong size. As I prepared the carb for installation, I realised that although it looked like the right one, it did have some important differences. The flange to mount the carburetor to the manifold was 90 degrees from where it needed to be. Plus it was a full 1.5 inches taller and the throat was bigger. This would have led to a few fit problems with the air cleaner and possibly an interference isue with the bonnet.

What to do. What to do. The donor carb was in excelent shape, bigger, but excellent. Now, when I bought my Roadster in 1999, it included a myriad of bits and pieces. There were a few boxes, one contained a half full box of miscellaneous nails - rusted together. There were some carburetor parts, but since there was a complete carb on the engine, I paid it no mind, in fact I had forgotten about it! This was until I was until I was going through my parts bins looking for shocks for the Super Ten.

What I found was a fairly complete down draft carb. Lucky for me, the parts that it was missing were ones that I could transfer from the other! I needed to make a few modifications to the accelerator lever so that it could double as an attachment point for the spring, but that was a snap! Once I knew that I had everything I needed, I thought that it would be nice to polish up some of the bits. LAter I found a stamp on the mounting flange. Hard to read I made out "10HP". This had to have been the original carb for the 10 HP engine that is currently in the Roadster! More luck!

With everything to be polished polished, and the other bits cleaned up, I was ready to reassemble the carb. The trickyest part of all of this is ensuring that the needle is aligned properly with the hole in the shaft that is controled by the choke knob. Should these not be aligned then the needle will bind, or not seat completely creating a whole slew of problems.

I inserted the needle into the hole in the piston. The shoulders of the needle should line up flush with the face of the piston. With this done, I assembled the rest of the "bell" and attached it to the body of the carb. Be careful not to bend the needle, a bent one works worse than one that is not aligned.

Assemble the cork gland washers that form the jet portion of the carb. The way that the jet assembly works is that petrol from the carburetor bowl flows into the jet. The flow is controled by the needle which is controled by the piston which is controled by the vacuum produced by the engine which is controled by the butterfly valve which is attached to the accelerator peddle. The further back the needle is the more petrol flows. This is also how the choke mechanism works, by pulling the jet away from the needle, even more petrol is sent to the engine. The small cork gland washers ensure that the petrol flows only through the jet. If you noticed the old seals that you took out of the carb as you may have seen the two oblong washers. They are trapped by each and of the chamber and again by a dished brass washer held in tension by a spring. Hold the internal jet parts in by lightly screwing in the jet holding screw and large brass (or alloy) washer and cork packing washer. We have not aligned the jet yet, so do not tighten it too much. Now we add the spring and jet adjusting nut at the end of the jet. The jet adjusting nut controls the distance that the jet is from the needle in its normal position anf thereby the mixture. For an initial setting, you first turn the jet adjusting nut until it stops. Then back off seven flats (a turn and a flat).

Insert the jet into the assembly and then tighten jet holding screw. Once the jet assembly is in place the pressure on the washers to the cork gaskets makes them swell around the shaft of the jet. It is for this reason that we use a rebuild kit whenever we dismantle the jet. Check that the piston (and needle) operate smoothly and if it does not, then slacken off the jet screw and try again.

Assemble the rest of the carb by adding the choke cable holder and arm, the spring, and in my case the throttle advance.

Looks good, but the proof will have to come later.

By the way, to adjust the carburetor to the right fuel/air mixture you follow this procedure:

- Get the engine to its normal working temperature.
- with the engine idling at approximately 1500 RPM (higher than usual), move the piston 1/16 of an inch using a wire or small screw driver.

If the engine speeds up then the mixture is too rich and you should tighten up the jet adjusting nut.

If the engine quits then the mixture is too lean and you should loosten the jet adjusting nut.

If the engine continues to run but struggles then it is ok.

When making adjustments, turn the jet adjusting nut a flat at a time.

[Paul Bouchard]

Ok, I have left this long enough. Time to get some parts off the bench and on the engine!

With the Ten now in my garage, I have precious little space to play around with and have had it up to here (hand over my head) with tripping over stuff. This combined with the sudden awareness that there are shows in the near futur and a currently engineless car that I want to bring.

On to the topic at hand. There is no use having an engine without something for it to translate its energy into motion. Enter the clutch and gearbox.

My "bestest new tool" in the garage (aka engine stand) left me with one problem... I could not attach the flywheel with the engine onthe stand! I guess that more mods will need to be done for the next rebuild.

I maneuvred the engine onto a jack. This arrangemebt would also help later (I hope) with the installation into the car. For now it will suffice in letting me attach the flywheel, clutch and gearbox.

With the flywheel off the car, I took the opportunity to add a red highlight to the TOP and 1/4 marks to make them easier to see. I picked red since it is my favorite colour (the red is similar to the one used on pre-war Alfa 1750's).

Lining up the pins on the crank, the flywheel is put in place. I add the bushing in the end of the crank (for the pin end of the gearbox shaft). The 4 bolts and their 2 securing clips are installed and tightened... tightly!

To avoid spinning the flywheel while tightening the bolts, I insterted a chisel in the viewing hole on the side of the block.

[Paul Bouchard]

There is no use having a flywheel without the mechanism to connect it to the gearbox!

One tricky thing (for those who have never done this before) is aligning up the clutch plate with the pressure plate and the gearbox shaft. The first time I did this I used a wooden dowel wrapped up with tape! It worked... barely.

This time around I decided to use a better tool... barely. I obtained a universal clutch alignment tool. My first clue as to why it would not work as is was the key word "universal". As we have discovered, Singers are anything but universal, rather they are unique!

The idea here is to have the shaft of the tool to fit in the bushing in the back of the crankshaft. Another part of the tool then fits in the hole of the clutch plate and voila! aligned.

This simple idea was achieved after some milling of the smallest "bushing end" piece of the alignment tool to allow it to actually fit in the bushing.

With this done, and the clutch plate in place, the pressure plate could now be installed. Aligning pins ensure that the pressure plate is correctly oriented. Then the 6 bolts are installed. I proceeded to tighten the bolts, a few turns at a time cris-crossing as I proceeded so that the forces of the bolts would be evened out during this process.

With all this in place, the gearbox was installed and slid on with ease!

My next post will show me in the hospital after throwing out my back during the engine/gearbox installation process.