A10 engine noise

[Pecon]

Hi Peter

   I'm glad to hear that you are making progress on the model 18. I look forward to seeing some more photos of your progress soon.

  The A10 is now starting to look like a giant construction set. I have pulled off the barrels and found that in addition to the play in the crankshaft bush I found two deep scores in the left cylinder caused by a circlip becoming detatched from the piston but remaining in place in the pin. There is some damage to the circlip slot in the piston also so it looks as though a rebore is also on the cards. The strange thing is that there was no sign of smoke from the cylinder although there was some oil being blown from the breather onto the rear chain which I suspect might be caused by blow past the rings?. I also notice that the rivets on the plate over the oil seal behind the clutch have worn away leaving the seal cover loose.  At least the head seems OK 

[peter]

Hi Peter,
by my BSA comes oil of the breather too,It has some threads about this breatherproblem in this forum.I think it`s not the rings.I do not write English well,you should read the treads on the breather problems.
In my case I have a Oil line valve installed and mounted below the motor  a small oil-collecting tank, in tis tank leads the breathertube.I wish you success in your repairs.
Peter

[Pecon]

  While continuing with my strip down I noticed something odd when I checked the head gasket. The one I removed seemed very thick and on further examination it turned out that somebody had fitted two copper gaskets..!!. I have yet to check the head for warping but with an iron head I would think it unlikely that this would be a problem. For the life of me I cannot think why a previous owner might think it a good idea to do this. Does anybody have any thoughts on the subject?.

 Peter

[Topdad]

Peter ,the only thing this feeble mind could come up with is that the previous owner felt that reducing the compression ratio would be desirable ,can't think why ,unless of course the engine hasn't been down for over 40 yrs and at that time  it was poor quality fuel then and the engine needed some help.  cheers BobH

[Pecon]

Well Bob, the same thought occured to me but how much difference would the thickness of a gasket make and I can see indications of work being done in the past, although some of this was done with a basic tool kit, lump hammer and vice grips. 

[duTch]

Maybe just lost count after the first one?
 
 I have a set of barrels from my first effort ('70's)that have the same circlip gouge, it's about 3mm deep!! A good thing to double check.

  Cheers and good luck with it, can't offer any other ideas 'bout the head but does sound familiar- except have you checked that the head hasn't been shaved at some stage??
 cheers

[Pecon]

Just an update on my engine woes.

  I did as John suggested and removed the engine and started doing some of the stripping myself. When I got as far as removing the head and barrels and discovered that the bore was badly scored along with the play in the bush I decided that the best course was a trip to SRM in Wales for a full check. Unfortunately the news was not good. in addition to the casing being damaged in transit I have a crankshaft which had been cut down from a large journal one to small presumably to match the existing con rods. So its a replacement crankshaft, (unfortunately the only one available is a small journal one) con rods, pistons, rebore and new bushes and bearings. The estimates are starting to turn my hair gray  but from the telephone discussions I have had with Geoff Dewhurst these guys do seem to know their stuff and I feel confident that I will have an engine which will outlast me..!!.

[chaterlea25]

Hi Peter
That sounds very like the "tales of woe" that I find seemingly with every rebuild I take on
With the exchange rate between the Euro and Sterling at the moment and for the what looks like for some time to come  this adds considerably to the costs

It may be worth asking here to see if any usable big lumps are available  which might help reduce the costs??
or keep checking OBM and similar even Ebay??


Regards
John

[Pecon]

       
Hi John


   You're right about the weak Euro, it's adding about 26% to the cost. I did think about a replacement but I'm afraid I might end up with somebody else?s reject and be back to square one so I bit the bullet and paid the deposit.

Peter