Hey Pete- I was talking about you the other day! All good things, don?t worry. Like to see some pictures of the ride!
Hi John, I didn't feel my ears burning, so alls good ..lol. As mentioned, the foundation (where I work) shut down mid-March,(I'm very fortunate that I still get a full paycheck!!!!). Before I get into the picture thing. I want to start with a little story....
Now I had some time to work on the bug. Now mind you, I haven't started the engine in about 5 years. So. in the first week of the covid thing, I was anxious to get the engine started. I wired up all the gizmos for the Megasquirt, installed a temporary gas tank, and started the engine. It sounded great. I shut it down to hook up a remote start, so I can set things up on the computer. When I restarted the engine it ran for about ten seconds and then shut down. I thought I ran out of gas, but, instead the engine seized on me :( There was oil, but, I should have primed the pump :(
It gets better, I had put the body back on the chassis with the engine installed. So now that the engine has to come out, it can't because the type 4 is slightly longer than a type 1 engine. So I had to remove the rear apron to get the engine out.
So after I removed the engine, tore it down, and inspected the damage, I kinda lucked out. The crank was good, just the #3 bearing smeared a small bit. Any marks on the crank were quickly polished out. Then when I was inspecting the cylinders, I found one that had a nasty scour in it. I couldn't just replace it, as it was bored out for a 92mm pistons. I started to search the web for machine shops that would machine a cylinder, as I had a few type 4 cylinders in the basement.
I had 5 cylinders in the basement. They have been there for about 9-10 years. I brought them out to the garage to pick out the best one for machining. Then I noticed a couple of then looked different. Would you believe it...two of the pistons were already bored for my 92mm pistons. Then I remembered that when I had the pistons done, they shipped back a set with two cylinders with damaged fins. I sent them another set and they machined them at no cost. So I had two extra cylinders laying about for close to 9-10 years and didn't know it ....old age ..lol.
Anyway, long story short, The engine has been put together it started right up. This time I installed a pressure gauge in the engine compartment...just in case...lol