taildragging

Engine cylinders installed

2010-05-06T03:32:00.000-07:00

Cylinders installed with new orings and pushrod tube rubber covers. THANKS BRUCE!!! It is now looking like an engine.

New cylinder bores and pistons measured. Ring gaps and side clearances checked. all parts wiped clean and oiled. New hydraulic lifters checked, oiled and installed. Ordered four new engine rubber mounts and a seal for prop gov shaft.

Oil pump gears inspected.

2010-05-06T03:14:00.000-07:00

Oil pump gears in housing and in cover cleaned, inspected and measured. Gear teeth backlash also checked and all found within tolerances. Surprisingly no wear or scoring visable. Cover bolts torqued and safety wired. New tach seal installed.

Installation of gears in crankcase

2010-05-06T03:01:00.000-07:00

Camshaft positioned, crank and cam gears aligned, bolts torqued and safety wired.

Better on Top!!!

2009-12-12T15:46:00.001-08:00

2009-12-05T18:42:00.000-08:00

My son Chad paints a mural of my airplane over my living room wall. Is this kid talented or what!

Case halves sealed

2009-11-28T14:41:00.000-08:00

Today work was slow so I decided it was finally time once again! Final inspection was given to rod numbering and positions. Sealants and silk thread were applied to the case halves per the Continental SIL Letter. The nose seal cavity was preped with Locquic N primer and painted with 515 sealant. All thru stud orings were lightly oiled. Bearing surfaces were coated with lube. The 1-3-5 case half was layed on top of 2-4-6 and torqued to spec. One of the four tie bolts without thread/sealer recieved an oring under each front engine mount.

Almost election time

2008-10-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

Is it going to be McCain or Obama? Tuesday November 4th 2008 we will soon know for sure.

Meanwhile I am now back into my overhaul. I am in the habit of comparing old to new parts and low and behold the main bearings do not match. How could that be? Paper work included from Superior Air Parts as well as their 100% overhaul parts list says the bearings fit o-300 A, B and C models. I referanced the Cessna parts manual and indeed the part numbers differ. Apparently the B model bearing has oil holes and a groove for the oil-controlled prop, which I am not using. Unfortunately I could only find where TCM approved the A/C interchange but not for the B. I confirm this with a call to tech services at TCM. They also informed me that the 530516-U10 bearing set was not longer available thru them. I was able to locate the original new set thru Fresno Air Parts, thankfully. Seems they still have near 100 sets still in stock. Back to motorcycles until more parts come in.

Almost ready to assemble

2007-07-02T17:31:00.001-07:00

Six BRAND NEW Superior Millennium Cylinder assemblies will bring my compression back up and improve climb out.

I just recieved my cam follower bodies and hydraulic units back from Aircraft Specialties Services in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They inspected the bodies visually, dimensionally, and by magnetic particle method. Wear faces were reground to F.A.A approved design specifications.

The hydraulic units were cleaned, inspected and overhauled as needed. Also provided was assembly lube.

Quick Fix!

2007-01-07T18:02:00.000-08:00

Thats me waving! Thanks Mike Willey from Oakland, Maine. I have not flown in a little over one year and in one day I climbed in and flew in your Rans S7, a Kitfox and then a 1946 Taylor Craft. All draggers and all great airplanes, although I am partial to the Rans. I will be building one when I have complete the 170 upgrades.

Parts back from Nicksons

2007-01-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

Crankcase halves arrived looking fresh out of the foundry. Release paper work states: Clean, inspect, Zyglo, machined mating surfaces, alignbored main and cam bores. The camshaft and crank gear arrived with partial maintenance releases. Clean and mag gear. The camshaft was cleaned, inspected, polished and parkerized.

Here are the connecting rods along with FAA Form 8130-3. Rod details are: Clean, inspect, mag, rebush and pin fit.

The crankshaft, gear, crankcase, rods, and camshaft have arrived back at my shop. These parts have been reconditioned and have arrived with Forms 8130-3 included. Crankshaft details are: clean, inspect, mag. Grind rod and main journals to -.010 and renitride. Plate flange. Rebush ctwt blades and counterweights. C/W M96-10, ultrasonic inspection.

I checked mains and pins and found at mid std specs. The crank appears factory new and I am very pleased with the work.

The Damage

2006-10-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

The disassembly was straight forward. The only specialty tools needed were a couple 90 degree thin wall box end wrenches to access the cylinder nuts behind the pushrod tubes. The entire process took a day. The time could have been reduced had I not photographed everything I handled. I found two bad pistons and a .010 undersized crankshaft which measured at service limits on one crank pin. This was the immediately obvious damage but not the least of it I am sure. It would not be worth overhauling this engine with a crankshaft already at service limit. I began my search to locate a rare 8-bolt crank. Having eventually secured a core crank to machine, I packaged the rods, crankcases and camshaft and shipped to Nicksons Machine shop to perform the nessesary reconditioning and inspections.

The 1948 C170 airframe

2006-10-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken on a pond where some sleds were racing. I spend a lot of time off the pavement with this plane. Hopefully my insurance company does not see this. I had solid axles installed and was going to put skis on but tires have worked well on hard packed snowmobile trails.

Overhauling my airplane engine

2006-10-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

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