Well last week was a thing with the site acting weird and I nearly forgot to update this. So hopefully this actually works the first time this time.
The following morning found Ruby sitting on one of the empty benches sipping her coffee waiting for Weiss to show up. When Weiss came in Ruby smiled and passed Weiss the sixty-four ounce coffee that she had got for her that morning. Weiss looked at the size of the coffee and raised an eyebrow. "Care to explain why you don't want me to sleep for the next two days?" Ruby grinned that grin that made Weiss feel like she had just asked a stupid question. "Trust me you will need it along with these." She then held up a bottle of migraine medication. Weiss' other eyebrow rose at that. "Lord help me."
They walked over to the stand that held the block and Ruby removed the head bolds and laid the head off the side. Weiss saw where the sealant had expanded a little and seeped out some more. Ruby then passed Weiss a razor blade and got one for herself. They spent a couple minutes peeling all the excess sealant off everything. "Alrighty now Weiss before we go any farther we need to flip the block over and install the new cam bearings." Ruby turned the block over and Weiss could see where a little sealant from the liners had seeped out of the bottom. Ruby then laid three boxes out beside them along with the bearing driver kit, digital calipers, a hammer, and a custom made handle for the driver kit. "To do this Weiss we start at the back bearing and work our way forward while also making sure that the holes in the bearings for the oil journals are lined up as much as possible." Ruby then opened up the kit and selected the appropriate driver. She then slid the custom handle through the block until the end was in the right place to attach the driver to it. After that, she handed Weiss one of the boxes. When Weiss opened the box, she pulled out the new bearing. She didn't find anything special to note about it. She rotated it until it lined up with the hole in the block for the oil journal and wiggled it a little bit so it would stay on its own. She still couldn't figure out why Ruby had laid out the calipers though.
"Ruby, why do we need the calipers don't the bearings just drive in flush with the edge?"
"Ruby chuckled "Not exactly the back bearing here has to be exactly one quarter inch from the rear edge of the block or the oil pump will not fit."
"Makes since I guess let's get started."
Weiss held the bearing while Ruby lightly tapped it into place. Weiss then measured to make sure that it was right. They were a little over so Ruby tapped it again which cured that problem.
"Now for the middle bearing Weiss here you go." Ruby passed her another box with a bearing in it.
"Same deal as before Weiss except instead of one quarter inch this one extends one sixteenth of an inch on each side." Ruby then started tapping it into place once Weiss had lined up the hole for the oil journal. Once Weiss was satisfied that it was correctly in place. They moved on to the last cam bearing. Ruby removed the custom handle for the driver and used the one that came with the kit for this bearing since it was the easiest of the three.
"So Ruby, how is this one suppose to be set?"
Ruby laughed a little. "This is the easy one. I'll let you do it by yourself. It just has to be driven flush with the surface on the front side of the block."
Weiss smiled since there was something actually simple. She then lined up and drove the bearing in place. "Now what Ruby?
"Since that is done next comes the crank."
Ruby then set out a larger box that Weiss assumed that held the main bearings and Ruby unwrapped the crank and set it down Weiss noticed that the wick was gone out of the end of the crank and noticed Ruby hadn't laid out a new one.
"Ruby where is the wick at?"
"That's right I forgot to tell you Weiss since I had to have the crank turned I told them not to damage the wick but they did anyway. So now what we are going to do is fill the hole in with more copper sealant after we get it set in the block." Weiss nodded and took out all the halves of the bearings that they needed for the block side of the mains. Ruby then took the bottle of assembly lube and put a big drop in each bearing and then wiped it around with her finger. After that, she picked up the crank and gently set it in place. "Now Weiss here comes the fun part! I'll place the bearings in the caps and cut the plastigauge to length for it. If everything is truly right, one piece of .008" shim stock under each end of the caps will make the plastigauge read .002" on the mark. So Weiss what you have to do is put a drop of lube, lay the plastigauge on it, then torque the bolts to 80 foot pounds. Then remove the bolts and if the plastigauge reads right then clean off the wax and re torque the bolts. Spin the crank afterwards to get a feel for it." Weiss stared at Ruby for a second and then took a large sip of coffee.
For the next forty minutes, that is exactly what they did. They only had one issue with the last bearing because it was too tight. When that came up Ruby showed Weiss another trick. Ruby wiped off the wax and set the cap back on it and torque it down. She then set a small hammer on top of the cap and took a five-pound shop hammer and hit it. "Ok Weiss check it again with the plastigauge." Weiss looked at the girl weird for a second and put some more plastigauge on it and torque it down and removed it again. Surprisingly to her it was reading right now. "Care to explain?"
"Well if you are doing this and happen to be .001 or less off turning it until it gets tight and then hitting it will deform the bearings just enough that it will put it in tolerances. Now torque it back and spin it." Weiss did and found that it spun smooth as silk. It impressed her that she had never thought of doing something like that before.
Weiss took another sip of coffee. "Now what?"
Ruby smiled. "We install the rings on the pistons and drop them one at a time. You get to play with the plastigauge some more because they shim out .008' too like the mains but they only torque to 35 foot pounds instead of eighty."
Weiss sighed "Very well I'm starting to see why you got the coffee and medication for me."
Ruby blushed a little "Yeah well I can't have my best apprentice passing out on me or something."
Weiss stared at her for a second "Ruby I'm your only apprentice."
"L-Like I said I can't have you passing out on me."
Ruby then ran over to the bench and opened up one of the pouches of rings and unfolded it. "Alright Weiss as you can see this is pretty much foolproof just follow the pictures on the pouch and everything will be fine. They place the rings in the pouches so that whatever side is facing you when you slide it out is the side that goes up. Any questions?"
"None that I can think of Ruby."
"Great here is the expander and the other three pouches. Just be careful not to break them."
"I know Ruby I know."
Weiss sat there and installed all the rings in order and checked to make sure that all the ring end gaps were turned right. About the time that she finished Ruby set the assembly lube and ring compressor that they needed down next to her. "Ok Weiss now all that is left is to insert the upper half of the rod bearing in one of the rods and we can drop that one in." Ruby passed Weiss the new rod bearing and laid the old shims off to the side. Then came the ring compressor which Weiss found was a little on the touchy side. She thought that it had latched once she had tightened it down but as soon as she let go of the handle it sprung apart and Ruby laughed about it. On the second attempt, she got it and Ruby passed her the pieces of gas line to slip over the rod bolts to keep from scratching the liners.
"Now Weiss, here is what you have to pay attention to when dropping the pistons in on this engine. Notice how the rods have an offset to them?" Weiss nodded. "Well since this is going to be number one the offset will point away from the front main bearing. Then when we place, number two it will face away from the center main and point towards number one. The reason for this is this engine doesn't have an entirely pressurized oil gallery. Where the cam is hollow, I'm sure you noticed the pinholes along it between the lobes. Well if you look at the top of the rods, you'll see those little cups in them. What happens is the cam is filled with oil and as it spins it slings oil into those cups which oils the rod bearings. That oil being tossed around also oils the wrist pins and cylinders so it is pretty important to get this right." Weiss nodded "I was wondering what the deal was with that. Seems hard to believe that it will run like that."
Ruby chuckled. "It just does, it hurts my head to question it so I don't. Also before I forget, smear some lube in all of the liners."
They then started the process of installing the pistons Weiss would push them in while Ruby would guide the connecting rod in to place on the crank and then flip the engine over so that Weiss could check it to see if it had the proper clearance of .002". After each piston was installed, Ruby would have Weiss turn the crank to make sure everything was all-good. Halfway through Weiss stopped to take some of the migraine medication and down some more coffee. After about an hour and a half they had finally finished installing all the pistons. Ruby turned the crank and smiled. "Perfect! Not a single tight spot in a full rotation looks like everything is going to go smoothly." Weiss smiled "I was beginning to worry you acted like this was going to be a total nightmare." Ruby looked away for a second "Yeah well when you don't have anyone to help you with something like this it is a lot harder." Weiss blushed and turned around. " Don't get me wrong Ruby this is still hard work, it's just turned out more pleasant than I thought it would be." Ruby just nodded and walked over to the bench and grabbed the lifters and passed them to Weiss. "Alright you pulled these out care to do the honors?" Weiss held back a laugh. "It would be my pleasure." She then started one by one, applied a drop of lube and dropped them in their holes in the block. Then to finish them she added one drop to the face of them where they rode the cam. Ruby had gone and retrieved the cam and gentle slide the cam into the block and stopped just before the cam gear meshed with the crank gear. She then turned the crank until the timing mark was pointed at the cam. She rotated the cam until it's mark lined up the crank and pushed it the rest of the way home. Weiss nodded happily the whole time. It looked like they were finally making some real progress.
Ruby stood up and turned around grinning. "Alright Weiss we can finally install the head permanently this time." Weiss was now grinning like Ruby. Ruby walked over to the gaskets and grabbed the head gasket off the makeshift bench and looked it over. Once she figured out which side was supposed to be up (numbers always go up) She turned to Weiss. "Weiss it's time to play with your favorite bottle of cleaner again!" Weiss groaned so much for her happy mood. "I need you to wipe down the top of the block and the bottom of the head to make sure that there is no oil left on them." Weiss did as she was asked and Ruby placed the head gasket on the block and very gently set the head in place making sure that the gasket didn't shift on her in the process. Once it was in place she grabbed a can of anti seize. "Alright Weiss what I want you to do now is hold the bolts out so I can put some anti seize on the threads and place them in the head. Screw them in a couple turns by hand to make sure that they are not cross threaded or anything. Once all of them are in you can torque them." It took just a couple minutes to do since there were only twelve bolts. "Alright Weiss the head bolts torque to sixty foot pounds but you cannot do that in one go. What I want you to do is start at twenty then do forty then finally sixty. Don't worry about having to look at the book for the torque sequence they start at the center and work their way out in a counterclockwise circle to help I'll take some chalk and mark the order for you" Weiss nodded "Would you care to remind me why you are having me use this antique beam torque wrench?" Ruby smiled "Well isn't it obvious that is all there was eighty years ago when this tractor was built. It makes it things easier if you are using era correct tools for the most part." Weiss shrugged it made sense so why argue about it. After a few minutes, Weiss was shaking her arm having lost filling in it after going around the head three times.
Ruby popped up beside Weiss causing her to nearly throw the torque wrench at her. Ruby caught it before she could. "Relax Weiss there is just one more thing to do before we can call it a day. I guess I should have remembered it before we put the head on it so it wouldn't be so aggravating to roll the engine over. Remember all that wire I had you cut out of the rods and main bearing caps. Well we have to put the wire back in the main bearing caps and the rod bolts are actually supposed to have cotter keys in them instead of the wire that was in it." Weiss frowned, remembering the sharp wire she had rammed under her fingernail, removing that mess. Ruby pulled the safety pin on the stand and flipped the engine over so they could put in the keys and wire. Ruby ran off to retrieve the right kind of wire and a box of cotter keys. When she came back, she gave Weiss a smirk. "Alright Weiss since you cut the wires out you get to put them back. I'll do one for you so you have an example to follow." Weiss nodded and watched as Ruby ran the wire through the holes in the bolt heads and instead of tying it so it was a loop like she cut out Ruby crossed it over the other side so that the wire made a X between the bolts and then twisted it together with pliers so that the wire was really tight. Weiss then repeated it with the other two main bearing caps. She then put the wire off to the side out of the way since Ruby said that the connecting rods called for cotter keys instead. "Nice work Weiss I know that you know that putting cotter keys in something like this means that if the holes don't line up you have to tighten the nuts tighter so that you can't back them off or that the key has to fit as tight as possible in the hole. Because if they are loose the shaking and vibration will cause them to wear in two and fall out." Weiss nodded "Of course."
They each did two of the connecting rods. Ruby looked over Weiss' work and was satisfied with how it looked. "Alright Weiss tomorrow we can try to finish up the block so that we will be ready to install it back on the tractor. See you tomorrow."