Years ago, when I was a mere whippersnapper lad in England, my grandfather
told me about engines. He used tricks that no-one even thinks of now. As
he used to say,
"there were no machine shops available when we were fighting
a war with the Germans in France!"
He was a tank and truck mechanic in the Army during the second world war.
Anyway, he showed me once how to get valve guides into a head without
pressing them in. Place the valve guides in the freezer for about half an
hour, warm the head up with a blowlamp, (blowtorch), and presto, they
fall in easily.
But, here's the best story. He often said that never presume that an
engine is totally ruined if it runs out of oil or coolant while running. As
long as it will turn over, and you cannot see or hear any broken parts,
it may start. Now, you may have to get a large wrench on the front
crankshaft nut to free an engine, but that's understandable since the
bearings have probably spot-welded themselves to the crankshaft. But,
when an engine cools these sometimes break on contraction.
A friend of mine recently ran out of oil at about 70 mph in a water cooled
VW van, caused by a defective oil cooler seal. I convinced him to try and
free the engine and start it.
It wouldn't rotate with the starter, but he un-jammed it with a wrench.
He filled it with oil, and tried to start it with its own battery and jumper
cables, and, guess what, it started! He let it run at idle for about two
hours to smooth off any high spots, (to "run it in"), and then drove it
around town below thirty mph for two weeks.
He now drives it at highway speeds for three hours to Colorado Springs
every weekend!
Now I know that many of you are gonna say that this is not an option in many
cases, since our engines are more valuable, but in his case, the shop was
prepared to strip and rebuild an engine that already had over 100,000
miles on it for about $2000!! Since this was not an option for him, he
didn't have much to lose.
So, this comes back to my Grandfather's comments.
They didn't have the luxury of "running" a tank or truck engine in,
it had to be fired up and moving the second after the last bolt was
tightened up, and they would do anything to get a vehicle operational.
The risks of an engine disintegrating were far outweighed by the strong
possibility of being killed.....
Nick D. Benson
Dept. of Industrial Sciences
Colorado State University
Fort Collins CO
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