Posted by David Sherman on Friday, July 04, 2003 at 9:27PM :
In Reply to: Re: Bearing journals and reconditioned rods posted by Gordon Maney on Friday, July 04, 2003 at 8:02PM :
Yes, it is a wet sleeve engine. When it quit by seizing up, I also thought maybe one of the sleeves cracked, which was not only jamming the piston but blowing the water out. However, when it was overheating, it didn't seem to blow water out. It just boiled it out as if the water wasn't circulating. The temperature and oil pressure gages have never moved very much so I don't think they were telling me anything. I've had this machine for several years but was just getting it moved from where it was stored to my place so I could start using it. I have some new gages for it, but hadn't put them in yet.
There's no obvious cracks in anything except an old crack down at the bottom of the crankcase that was welded up years ago and appears to be okay, at least within the weld. I'll have to clean it up and dust it and see if the crack has grown. The sides of the crankcase come down several inches below the crank in this engine. The cast-iron oil pan is fairly shallow. There was no water in the oil or vice versa. If the water pump looks okay when I take it apart, (i.e. the impeller is intact and is still attached to the pulley) and I don't see any serious gunk in any other parts of the cooling system, I'll have to investigate the cooling issue further. I don't want to throw a lot of money into this engine until I know for sure why it failed, which includes figuring out why it overheated and why that one rod bearing didn't get oiled.