ENGINE SAGA CONTINUES : it wasn't the push rods! NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR POLITICAL VIEWS EXPRESSED

[bob mitchell]

          As I mentioned in last post, my current engine, a ford 192, (hull 113, 1967) was installed new in 1977 and supposedly rebuilt in 1999. When I inherited it two years ago it was way out of time - in fact I think my first post was a shot of me timing the engine. I let the engine project sit for two winters while I built a new helmstation and rewired it with the fundamental wiring. Now I have started on the engine - and a loud metallic slapping is really bothering me. So I pulled the valve cover and found some bent push rods and replaced them,(see post) but that did not stop the noise. So I called in a good old boy (literally, he is 75 and wears bib overalls) with a regional reputation for diesel repair - mostly tractors, but that is exactly what the Ford 172 and 192 were. He is such a great guy. Anyway, we sat and listened and messed for about an hour. We located the noise in the number 1 cylinder by listening to the tappets through a garden hose (see photo -Going right to left, you see the fuel injector pump, the two red throttle control cables, the edge of the engine where valve cover sits (with red gasket material), the fuel return line, the hexagonal tappets to adjust the valves, the rocker and rocker arms with the valves stem tops (not visible) underneath them on the far left. In the lower right you can get a good view of the top of the fuel injector, connected to the brass fitting of the fuel return line, and beyond that to the right the actual fuel line going to the injection pump - do not bend these lines, loosen both ends.

Then we loosened no. 1 fuel injection line and listened to the impact it had on how the engine ran. We tightened it back and loosened another one. It was clear that loosening no. 1 did not have much impact on how the engine ran, compared to the other cylinders, so that comfirmed the location of the problem.

That was also the one rocker arm tappet thread that was not holding the tappet in place ( I had added an extra nut to lock it in place) so it was clear that some physical event had ocurred. So Ray told me the next step was to pull the fuel injector (which I would have never considered without his encouragement) and take it to a diesel repair up on Sand Mountain, in Henegar, Alabama, and Jerry, his friend, would check it out while I waited. "Tell him Ray sent you".  Anyway I pulled the injector today, and took a few pictures - here are some ideas. But before I do that, I want to say how grateful I am to have stumbled into a network of good old boys in backwoods Alabama that have managed to avoid the incompetence that is sweeping across america today. Coastal Maine villages or backwoods Alabama - there are competent individuals all over America that are passing away without coveying their life time of skills because dumbasses walk around all day twittering in oblivion. The country will be dysfunctional and unable to provide for itself when the good old boys are gone. The ever present wall street crooks and Washington politicians (one and the same) who shake a bag and have more money come out will not be quite so cocky when there is no one honest and competent in real life skills to provide for them. 

 

"Tennessee River, and a mountain man.

we get together, whenever we can"

(song from ALABAMA, quite a few years,decades, back)

 

Sand Mountain in background forms southern boundary of river in the Scottsboro area. Geologically it is part of the Cumberland Plateau, a sandstone formation from the Pennsylvanian Era, capping the fossil rich limestone of the Missisipian Era.  This is the view from the end of my dock, looking across a slough.The river is on the other side of the hill in the foreground.

         So back to the number one cylinder injector. First thing I did was take a wire brush, and a small regular paint brush, and clean the whole side of the engine around the number 1 (N1 from now on) fuel injector line - really critical that no dirt or grime is involved in this operation. White material below is to absorb diesel fuel I used to clean with. Then I took out the return fuel line - diesels have a return fuel line to return the excess uninjected fuel to the tank - recall that the previous owner had this line crack under the valve cover and fill the crankcase with diesel, which is probably the source of all my problems).

So now you no longer see the silver fuel return line, but you can see the copper washers where the return line fit on the injectors, so the injectors are below. These are soft copper washers that are ubiquitous in the injector system, and should not be reused. Almost dead center you can see one I dropped and it almost went down the push rod gallery -BE CAREFUL! not to loose them.

When reassembling a dab of grease will help them stay in place (There is one on top and bottom of bolt, so it can be a challenge) (Thank you for the tip Ray) Next ever so carefully pry the injector out -WAIT-before that disconnect the fuel line to the injector -loosen both ends - and plug/cover to keep dirt out, and then on the Ford 192 I had to loosen the tappets for the two valves of the number one cylinder so I could slide the rocker arms left and right to remove the push rods (stuff a towel or something in the wholes to prevent dropping washers, etc. down into the vacant holes)  and get to the injector bolts, and disconnect the throtle control cables as well.  Once again - I am an amateur, and only because Ray told me to am I going ever deeper into unknown waters - but if not now when - out at sea? I am incredibly IMPRESSED with the low tech nature of this engine and will have no other, I will say that. So, with no more introduction, WALLAH, the number one fuel injector. 

If you look at the tip you can see the carbon on it - a real mess, so I was sure I had found the problem, so off up Sand Mt. to Jerry I went. He cleaned it up and tested the spray pattern, and declared the injector good (much to my dismay) - not only good but so good that it indicated the engine had very few hours on it. Back to the boat, reinstall, and the slapping metallic noise is still there. The engine does run much better, with the number 1 cylinder supplying its share of power (comparison of individual cylinder performance by line disconnect test) So the injector carbonization is only a symptom of something else going on in the number one cylinder.

The siren calls ever more, deeper, deeper - come closer, into my bowels. Next step - pull the head and somehow figure out how to get to the number one piston with the engine in the boat - I feel an engine rebuild coming on........... h....e.....l.....p............