Greetings,
This is my first post but I feel like I know some of your personalities as I've spent a lot of time reading many posts in this forum and reading through files on a popular CD in the last few months.
I recently bought a new PS 6/1 that was originally purchased in 2005 from a guy who was a part of this forum years ago. It was never run other than at the "factory" and that was obviously the truth. It had all kinds of oil in it that resembled cosmoline which was good as it did protect the parts from rust inside but bad because it contained abrasive sand. Anyhow, I'm told it was "made by" JKSON but find nothing on the engine that would tell me that. Under the crankcase it says "TF" (means Too Funny) who must be the foundry and the cylinder block says "SC" (means Same Chump). I have the engine completely torn down and am cleaning up the sand (found little bits in several places of the crankcase, especially on webbing, the worst though was under the piston). I'm going through everything. The main conn rod bearing is trashed and there are marks on the crank journal but they can be cleaned very easily. The cylinder block was extremely rusty inside (the coolant area) and the liner was pitted (from the test run water) so I took a lot of time soaking it down the homebrew penetrant and finally got the liner out and cleaned up. The flats in the cylinder block weren't pitted at all so the o-rings have a nice surface to seal against. I was worried I'd get it together and have the o-rings leak due to pitting. I have been taking a lot of photos so I can post later. Overall, I think I have a lot of good parts to work with.
When I took the cylinder off, the conn rod out, and the tappets out I checked the backlash on my ferrous idler gear. I put a dial indicator on a tooth of the idler and rocked it back and forth as it "clanked" on both ends. I got .010" of idler tooth movement between the idler hitting the crank gear until the idler hit the cam gear. I know I read in one post .005" is the limit but most listeroids have had .025-.045" Should I worry about .010" backlash? I'm an aircraft mechanic and have worked on diesels for over 20 years outside of aviation. The aircraft mechanic side of me says it's out of spec so fix it but the fact it will never fly says it might just be OK. I have two new bronze gears and a new ferrous one (I got a ton of parts with the engine). It sounded like the the bronze was helping the symptoms but not fixing the problem. Does anyone know if the offset idler bolts cured the idler gear breakage? Mine doesn't have any stamped marks other than the pin pricks from a spring loaded center punch when I marked it before removal. I will try out the other ferrous one to see if it's less than .010".
Also, when going back together what do I put at the top end of the cylinder block (or top end of the liner) to keep coolant from seeping up between the liner and block? Do I use silicone just below the lip? I thought there'd be an o-ring groove 1/4" or so under where the lip is but none was found and no place to put one. It just seems like coolant will leak up there. The lip sticks up proud between .007-.008" above the block with no o-rings. What do I lube the o-rings with? KY jelly is good to rubber :-)
Since the engine had sandy oil the liner is glazed inside. Yes, I can still see hatching but it's smooth as glass. I'll hone it. If the ring end gap is good can I rejuvenate the rings with 1000 grit paper? It seems I need to scuff them up. I don't think I will need new rings as these ones just have half an hour on them or so (with bad oil).
Thanks,
JD