I got up Saturday morning, January 21, 2006 with the intention of extracting my crankshaft from my engine so I could box it up and send it to be Nitrided. I had a brief conversation with William Wynne the night before to discuss what I should do. He was very patient and talked me through the entire process.
I have to admit I was a little discouraged when I found out I would have to take my engine apart and go to all the trouble of reassembling it. Once I made up my mind to do it, I found it was not such a big deal after all. It was a four-hour job to get the crankshaft pulled and boxed up. Below is a photo journal of my experience.
Monday, January 23rd: My crankshaft has shipped to:
_______________________> Nitron, Inc.
_______________________> 26 Wellman St.
_______________________> Lowell, MA 01851-5110
_______________________> Phone: 978.458.3030
_______________________> Cost so far:
_______________________> Payment to Nitron, Inc: $150 + $54 for shipping both ways
_______________________> Cost to check for straight and polish (Local machine shop): $40
_______________________> Cost for new gaskets (Clarks): $36
_______________________> Cost for new lifters (Clarks): $50
Wednesday, March 1st: Crankshaft arrived back from Nitron, Inc. The nitriding process took 36 days.
The next step is to get it checked for straightness and polished. Back to the machine shop.
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The Re-assembly Process (in reverse order)
(March 1, 2006)
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Almost ready to be re-installed on the engine mount. I want to do a little work on the alt. mount first
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Getting ready to install the rear case.
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All the valves adjusted and ready for valve cover installation.
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I had the crank checked and it is less than .001" off straight. I also had it polished. (March 7, 2006)
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Here's my crankshaft not as shiny as it was before.
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The box is back! (March 1st, 2006)
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The Tear-Down Process
(Jan. 21, 2006)
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Saturday Morning, Jan. 21st. - here's the state my engine was in. I thought I was nearing completion.
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After a few minutes the prop hub, starter, flywheel and one head is off. I had to take it off pieces at a time since I can't lift the engine by myself.
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Here's where I got a little stuck. I called William and he answered the phone on the first try. He said to take a piece of aluminum and tap the rod bolts if the caps won't come off. I and to put the flywheel back on so I could turn the engine. See the next picture.
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It seemed impossible to coax the rod caps off so I called William and got the scoop. If you tap the top bolt using an aluminum bar and let it vibrate a little it will line up and separate. It worked on all six cylinders.
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Here it is with nothing but the crank. It spins freely now and it's kind of neat to watch the alternator spin with the crankshaft. Now I can lift the whole assembly and put it back on the workbench.
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Back on the workbench. I used the same holes to mount it with two bolts from when I adjusted the valves. William says the lifters can be drained so the I can adjust the valves again without buying new lifters.
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With the oil pan off it's time to pull the harmonic balancer with a puller.
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On another tip from William I removed the oil pump drive gear and fuel pump wobbly. I came off just like William said it would.
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Pay dirt! It all came apart pretty easily and now I'm back to where I started several months ago.
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LocTite is good stuff. I couldn't make these studs budge when the crank was on the engine. I didn't want to heat up the crank flange with the seal so close so I waited until it was off. The torch did the trick.
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It was the same story with the safety shaft. LocTite will be going back here.
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After it was all cleaned up I wrapped up the crankshaft in plastic like a cocoon.
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I wrapped up the crankshaft with several layers of wall foam, then cut out some wood with my table saw to make a box.
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Shazzaam, it's a box! I put some notes on the box so they would know to open it from the scres on the top.
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Done. 32 lbs including the box and foam. I'll send it out Monday and post more pictures when it comes back.
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