Reply to Al Letts:
Good luck Jack, The project sounds more and more like it's about to happen. Hope to be out your way later this year.
Thanks for the offer, Josh, but it reproduced just fine from your post.
Good to hear from you, Al. After more than a year of hunting for engine parts, it does look like it's going to happen. It better; I've got over a thousand gallons of veg oil piled up around here right now and it's still coming!
The engine I wound up with has like-new cylinders and pistons, except for one piston. The valve guide split off and stuck in the top of a piston, pretty well wrecked it. The shop i bought it from is good for the spare parts, replaced the piston and a bent rod. The head had been rebuilt, shows no wear on the valves. Conclusion: engine ran a very few hours after rebuild before it crashed again and they junked it.
My advice to rebuilders: Mark things when you take them apart. I found the rods all installed backward. I found an intake valve in an exhaust port, shot but hadn't broken yet. It took some pretty severe heat treatment. In another engine I found tappet guides in cockeyed--dowel bolts in the wrong holes or none at all in some places. I found lock plates missing or improperly set. I found silicone rubber hanging in everything. I found cotter pins missing or way too small for the holes they were to serve in. The devil is in the details.
Would anybody be interested in step-by-step assembly of this power plant with pictures? Would it help avoid some of the B.S. I've seen in these machines? Anybody got a comment?
Jack