Still working.....

SPARE.1500.ENGINE.jpeg

I got back to my spare BMC 'B' series 1500C.C. engine to-day, the bearing journals look pretty good, the bearing shells show so little wear it's possible this was a good engine I ruined by leaving out in the weather .

I soaked the pistons with KROIL and let them soak as I undid the cam chain and sprockets, removed the front and rear engine cover plates and undid two of the connecting rods .

Then I used a sledge hammer to shock #'s 1 & 4 pistons until they moved a little bit, reinstalled the front crankshaft bolt and gently worked the crankshaft back and forth as the pistons freed up and slid in their bores, allowing me to turn the crank and access to the # 1 & 4 connecting rod caps .

These engines use very clever engineering to get maximum power out of a tiny displacement they reducing friction : only THREE main bearings ! .

To prevent breaking or bending of the cast iron crankshafts they have *very* large and sturdy main bearings and the bearing caps are precision fit to the cylinder block instead of sitting proud like in most engines .

The flip side is : they're hard to slide out, BMC drilled and tapped a 9/16" threaded hole in each main bearing cap so you could use their special factory tool sort of a big "C" shaped thing that straddled the main bearing and used a bolt to draw the tight fitting bearing cap perfectly straight out of the block .

Not surprisingly, I don't have this factory special tool, it took me a while and a slightly smashed finger to get the crank out, in the second picture you can see the brownish residue of a decade or more of oil on the crank's bearing journals .

I'll try to wire brush them clean then mike the journals to see if it's a standard or undersized .

I also bashed my head, then when I smashed my finger I realized it was time to stop after only 1/2 day, I was able to get the crank inside out of the weather (it's supposed to begin raining before sun up) and all the tools put up before collapsing in my pain chair in the back yard and napping a while in the sun with my B-Dog in my lap .

When the cloud cover rolled in and it cooled off, I felt it safe to take a shower with out fear of falling .

I'm going to try and give the cylinder block away, I know someone needs it desperately but I don't want to hold onto it any longer .
SPARE.1500.CRANK.jpeg

With a little luck this will be a standard, unground crank I can clean up and use in the little red car.....

I did check it for cracks ~ it rings like a bell so no worries there .


I see PeachParts is still banning me from adding images, too bad .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better