Conrod removal

[Zetomagneto]

Whilst taking nothing away from the silicone gasket, I have no leakages on three of my Sevens fitted with paper ones. Careful assembly all round is the key.
The one where I do have a leak is my 65, the block takes such a beating from the sports cam. At present however I'm too lazy to strip it all down and fit a silicone!

Chris, when you strip it down you probably know that fitting a mild cam with help preserve the all important crankcase.

[David Witton]

For that reason, I too removed the sports cam from my 65 as it was too aggressive, cracking the case and causing leaks. I replaced it with a Bonewell cam.

[fatcatvera]

@ John - that's a bit of lateral thinking that I hadn't had! Removing the block/head assy with pistons still in place is a genius idea - no faffing around down a dark hole trying to get pair of pistons back in their bores putting the thing back together.

[Chris Garner]

Zeto' and David.
It gets worse.  I'm running an original case with original crank and rods!

[Robert Leigh]

Thanks for that.

Thinking about it a little more..all I want to do is replace a little end pinch bolt in #1 rod. The reason being when I replaced teh rings/honed the block I noticed #1 pinch bolt was broken and I didn't have another bolt to suit so made a bolt - but it wasn't high tensile. So now I have night sweats thinking it might come loose, fall out, make a hole in the crankcase and let the gudgeon pin damage the bore.

So, I'm wondering if I can get to this from below with just the sump and gauze removed?

Zeto' and David.
It gets worse.  I'm running an original case with original crank and rods!

Your concern about the non-high tensile bolt is very valid: I had the head come off a new high tensile bolt in our Ulsteroid engine. I only checked after my wife said it was noisy. At that stage the rod was cracked as well.
Robert Leigh

[Zetomagneto]

Zeto' and David.
It gets worse.  I'm running an original case with original crank and rods!

Quick, put a spare engine in unless you enjoy the nailbiting

[John Mason]

Re silicon gaskets. I have never had the need for them. A paper gasket with the correct non hardening gasket sealant works for me no leaks. I use aviation quality sealant which is spirit based paint it on type then wait for the spirit to evaporate which leaves a non hardening sticky sealant. Then bolt together for a no leak mating job.

John Mason

["Slack Alice" Simon]

As an experiment I put this engine together with silicon gaskets everywhere except the head, the two exhaust gaskets, and the valve chest.

Not a drop of leakage for a couple of hundred miles, then a little to remind me to check all the fastenings,
which I will do and see what happens.

[fatcatvera]

So today I got round to having a go at installing a proper little end pinch bolt.

Lucky for me the lumps had been previously filed off the big end and the piston and rod assy fitted upwards through the barrel once the head was removed. All done without too much fuss. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

Ray

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Great news FatCat!