Vertical pony Teardown and rebuild tips and tricks

Hello all, I thought since I was starting in on this project some might find it helpful. This engine is from a RD6, unfortunately it got a good dose of water through the intake and seized the pistons.

I might take this opportunity to point out that if the drain in the intake manifold hadn’t been plugged, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened, check your drains!

After removing the head I was able to unstick the pistons with a block of UHMW and a hammer. One piston was near the top and the other near the bottom. The bore with the piston at the bottom looks pretty ugly

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Since I’m taking this engine down to the bare block, I start by getting the valves out. I like to take the guides and lifters out first. My valve spring compressor needs something to push on so I take the lifters out then put the guides back in. This way the compressor has something to push on but the springs won’t get hung up on the lifters.

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Last for today was taking the flywheel off. Now the books show hooking a puller inside the flywheel behind the splines. Personally, I’ve never had any luck that way. I find it’s much easier to first loosen but not remove the retaining nut. Then use two cruddy screw drivers 180 degrees apart between the flywheel and the case tap on them evenly but there’s no need to get crazy. A few taps and clunk, the taper is loosened and you can remove the flywheel.

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That’s all for today I’ll keep posting my progress if there is any interest.

Bruce P.

Bruce,
Please try and keep photo'ing and posting the project!
I am sure that there are many people who will benefit from the documenting of this project!
Thanks Again!
Jeff

Yes keep posting, perhaps this may also be considered for a possible magazine submission? I personally know several members that do not use computers that would enjoy some more technical content in the club magazine.

Ok I’ll keep on taking pictures and adding text as I go. If the magazine editors feel this would be useful they most certainly can use it. I would imagine it would be a multi part series?

Today I helped make sausage at my gunclub for our turkey shoot so I didn’t get any pony work done.


However here is a picture of the crud that settles in the pony water jacket.

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BP.

Bruce, thanks for sharing the repair journey, if you can, try and pressure test that cooling system because the old RD6 pilot motors seem to be notorious for weeping water from behind the valve push rods, I have one here that does it and heard others complain about it too, over the years I've tried small stainless steel patches attached with JB Weld in that area on numerous occasions as a repair only to find water still accumulating in the sump over time, the water jacket appears porous to me.
Good luck
Mike

Pete I’ll make sure I save all the pictures. Sometimes when I’m wrenching I do not take the best pictures, but I’ll make an effort to get them right.


Mike, I will check, thanks. Although I don’t see any evidence water in that area, I’ll give it a good look.
Thanks

BP.

[quote="Garlic Pete"]This is definitely a great candidate for a magazine article. We receive pretty regular requests for technical articles and information, although many fewer submissions of that type of content.

Bruce, after you've completed the process and have it well documented with photos and the post here, I'll help you adapt it to a magazine article. For publication they'll need copies of the original, high resolution photos. We generally will write the article then email the photos one at a time with caption information, or, I have a file transfer site we can also use. The main message is keep original, large format photos for all that you post organized somewhere easy to locate them so that we can use them for the article.

Pete.[/quote]

Pete, are there exact pic requirements for the mag? If so what are they?

Over the years as more of our customers moved to digital photos and acquired photoshop we found that when they submitted photos to us we most often had to ask for the original file.
The larger photos allow the publisher to crop the photo for best interest and optimum presentation.
If you feel the need to color correct, be sure to send the original photo along with the corrected one. Your computer displays in 3 “RGB” color and the print process is 4 “CMYK” color. What may look good on your screen can be pretty poor on press. Today’s press are much more forgiving and things usually come out OK.
Trust the prepress production team. They have a good eye.

Alright gang, sorry for the wait. I was able to get it torn down the rest of the way today.

First the timing cover came off.

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Since this engine is going to the machine shop I took all the head studs out. This also makes it easier to stand the engine up to take the lower case half off. I use my hoist to lift the case off, mostly because I’m lazy...

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Now it’s been said before but it’s worth mentioning again, there are (4) special spacers that go between the case halves. One for each main bearing stud. Their purpose is to keep the proper distance between the case halfs, if they’re not there the bearings get squeezed tight to the crank. They’re sometimes stuck to the lower case half and they blend in with the gasket. So as soon as you get the case split, stop, find the rascals and get them put where you won’t lose them.
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Once the case is split, it’s lots easier to get at the rod bearing caps. I use an old serpentine belt to lift the crank out. No one likes a scratched crank shaft so cover the rod bolts when removing.

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Once the crank was out, I could get the semi stuck pistons out. Then I went ahead and took the gears off the starter and mag shafts, that way you can change the seals and if necessary the bushings in the timing cover. A simple steering wheel puller will get the gears off, but be aware the gears are tight on the shafts.

That does it for the tear down, now I’ll take it down to my machine shop and let them work their magic.

BP.