OK, so a wee bit of report back on how things are going with the state of how things currently stand...
Yesterday I changed the oil in the sump... looked good, with a small amount of sludge, maybe about 20ml of condensate water in the lowest reaches.. not bad at all considering the amount of water I am putting through it... comments please.
I found the strainer on the pump inlet was FUBAR... I have replaced it with a strainer of finer mesh and much larger size... it just fits into the apron and lies about 20mm below the weir... it should give me a much better filtering of the pickup oil and due to its vastly larger surface area, a good margin of safety between oil changes... comments please.
I ran the engine for about 2 hrs pre changing the oil, it was up to normal temp before dumping the oil, I noticed that the bottom end was much cooler than the top (obviously) but the bottom end was just slightly warmer than a comfortable hand heat for me, probs around 60 C or so, a bit low I would reckon... Comments please.
While draining the oil, I made a decent dipstick assy for the apron, as mine had none, only the weir dipstick. It was made from an old Ford dipstick, some hydraulic pipe that fitted, a hydraulic elbow and a bit of creative machining... to drop the oil in the future, all I need do is remove the dipstick tube and spin the elbow 180 deg to drop into a catch tray without drooling it over the front of the sump like it used to.... Anybody wanting a pic of the mod, let me know.
I installed a magnet on the front of the apron at last oil change, this picked up less than 1/2cc of very fine metal dust, I reckon that is reasonable for a 500 hr interval... comments?
I also retarded the timing 2 flats on the timing tappet, she has got a bit knocky lately, much improved now... any idea how many degrees that is approwimately?
Here's a kicker... after the oil change I sat around listening and looking the motor over while it did the first post service run. I noticed some bubbles coming up into the radiator overflow bottle, a problem that initially reared its head just after I put it into service, the problem was sorted after I retorqued the head first time round. I checked and pulled the head down a little more, but this time with no difference. I reckon its finally time to pull the lid off and put a new head gasket in. I am considering replacing the gasket with a copper one, this one looks like a 3 piece composite from the one piece I can see. Its about 1100 hours in, so I reckon its a fairly reasonable lifespan. One of the major motivations for going to a mono copper gasket is the absolutely cr@p after sales service of the supplier I got this engine from. I can get a copper one laser cut in way less than the 3 months it has been for the supplier to not come back to me about some queries I sent him... Alternatively, do any of ye learned lads out there know of or have a gasket to spare to a 12/1 Opex 1000rpm idi engine? (Not having had the lid off, I can't say whether its sleeved or not) .... Comments please.
I can finally say that my 220v motor friction starter mod is successful, anybody wanting pics of it, I will take some and post them here, its still unpainted and looking scrappy, the idea was to install, test, debug and finish... well, so much for painting it, I really like and use it, so much so, that I don't even want to take it off to paint it!
Still running fuel oil around the 40w mark... Warm weather so I don't even preheat it, a little smoke now and then, 12 or more hours a day runtime! (Uses about 15l a day of fuel)...
Enough of my rambling, time to get some trigger time in I reckon.... Always find it relaxing, almost as good as tinkering with big, smelly, oily, green engines!
Regds
Ed