guys:
my point is simply, to get things as clean as possible,, yes it is true there will always be some crap that we all miss.
but if you make a fairly serious effort to get it clean you will dramatically reduce the chances of any significant amount of crap
that will only aid in a more rapid wear of your engine.
i saw this play out many times over the years, i worked with guys who would take cylinder kits out of the box and rinse them in solvent
and assemble them in the engine.
the difference in breakin time is significant as is the oil consumption of the finished engine,
when i adopted these procedures i routinely had engines that would run twice as many miles to a gallon of oil (hd truck diesels) and in some
cases 3 times the mileage.
after going to a few schools (detroit, cummins, cat and IH) and in particular watching a film from cummins where they ran a test
in a lab to see just how much dust it takes to kill an engine, it not only became painfully clear but amazingly apparent that very little dust
can cause dramatic reduction in engine lifespan.
the amazing part was it doesnt make much difference how the dust gets in,, down the intake, in with the oil at changes, in the fuel
and yes even at overhaul. and it don't make any difference if it goes in all at once or over time, the same amount of dust in grams
results in the same reduction in useful hours of runtime whether it is admitted at assembly, or a bit at a time in the oil
or dumped down the intake all at once!
very little dust just play's hell on things.
for instance the crosshatch of a honed cylinder can hold the fine abrasives from the hone, deep down inside the tiny little grooves,
which under magnification look like canyons and hold what appears to be boulders!
what takes place when the engine is working to break in, there will be some oil bypassing the rings and it will pick up these fine abrasives
and combine with them to make a fine lapping compound.
while this might at first appear to aid in breakin, what the reality is you have worn a bunch of the useful life out of the liner and off the rings.
once this lapping compound gets into the rings, between them and into the lands it takes along time to either be blown out the exhaust or work its way
past the rings and into the oil (where it will work to wear out other parts in the basement), or
it stays in the ring lands where they wear out and then the rings start to flutter and there goes your compression and oil control.
i would rather err on the side of exageration, and aid in folks doing a better job and the result being a better and longer lived engine, than
to sit back and say nothing.
the bottom line is perhaps not everyone has alot of experience building engines, or alot of specialized tooling, but
everyone can learn to clean things up properly, it only takes knowing how and the time to do so.
we all have heard the horror stories of engines coming from the sand pits of india, being put into use and worn out in a few hundred hours
and then we also hear of folks that take the time to go thru and carefully detail all the parts, clean them properly and find them running thousands of
hours.
if by using my suggestions for cleaning allow the engine to run only an extra 100 hrs, would it not be worth the extra couple hours to thoroughly clean it to start with?
odds are the extra run time will far exceed the 100hours of extra run time, but i think the point has been made.
just be thankful most of you are working in fairly clean environments, and only have to control the components of a one or two cylinder engine.
you haven't lived till you have to control the environment for 6, 8, 12 or 16 cylinder kits and all the related components in a windy, dusty outside
environment.
bob g
