Engine Overhaul Kama 554

[3RRL]

Then I started to lap the new valves in.
That went pretty well after I cut my lapping tool in half and turned a shank that would fit my drill motor. I got the new valves lapped in with a nice finish. I checked after lapping with blue and the band around the shut off was nice and even. I pushed the valve home by hand then tapped it a little with a nylon hammer. (less pressure than the valve springs I believe). Even without tapping, I could see a witness all around the valve seat bead, so I'm confident they were lapped properly.



I also lapped the old valves to be certain they were seated and fit properly.
After thoroughly cleaning everything off, all lapping grit and blue, I re-assembled the valve springs. Tomorrow I'll do that kerosene test as described in the manual. That means pouring kerosene into the intake and exhaust ports to see if any leaks out through the valve seating bead.

 

[3RRL]

Tomorrow I will install the new sleeve liners.
I'm going to paper the engine block first, where the "O" rings slide in so they don't shear. Then I can pretty much start re-assembling the tractor. That is after I help Loretta get the rest of the chain link fence around her garden.

Below are some of the new components for this rebuild.
Not shown is the new piston(1) for #3 cylinder. Then new valves(8), new sleeve liners(4), new journal bearings for the connecting rods(4 sets), new "O" rings(8), new set of rings(12) for 4 cylinders, all new gaskets. If my math is right, I spent approximately $150 bucks buying some of those items last year. Adding in the new stuff I bought this month, the total is under $500 bucks for everything.
Rob-

 

[Bob Rooks]

Rob, great job.
For anyone else that's interested in the three-angled grind there is this series:

YouTube - valve grind 3

 

[Diamondpilot]

I love it Rob. Nice job. This speaks volumes for all those that say you can not get parts for Chinese Tractors. If that were my Ford you were working on it would have cost twice as much. I bet Chip had those parts in stock and out to you in less than a week.

Chris

 

[IH3444]

Rob, you may want to mic the crankshaft rod journals while the rods are removed. Check for "oval" wear. The rod journal being worn more on one side that the other. Measure where rod is positioned as if the piston is at TDC, then of course when the rod journal is at about 90 degrees. If the wear is under0.002", perfer under 0.0015 you'll good to go. The power pulse the crankshaft rod journals see for a diesel engine are greater than for a gas engine. Even with rod bearing, there is sometimes slight rod journal wear.

Don't forget to micropolish the connecting rod journals also. Be sure to squirt carb cleaner through crankshaft oil holes to clean.

The valves turned out as I suspected......

Great job, and it will run sweeter than before.

 

[dieselsmoke1]

Lots of good info in this thread. You're never too old to learn.

First class job with the execution and documentation on the rebuild, Rob. It's going to feel so good when she comes back to life.

 

[3RRL]

Thank you guys! Oh man I'm exited now.
Of course that is only the head, so I still have a lot of work to do. Plus I need to check it for leaks this morning yet. The leak test consists of pouring in Kerosene and determining how much leaks out (if any) over a given period of time. I have to check my manual to see exactly what to do and what is acceptable.
There is a tolerance, so I sure hope it's lapped well enough so it doesn't just pour out.

IH3444, since it's pretty hard to get a mic inside there, I was going to use a lot of Plasti-gage many places to check for wear and roundness...just to see where things are. But pretty much I've decided to use the crankshaft "as is" since I'm doing an "in frame" rebuild. At this point, I'm just not prepared to take the crank shaft out and have it ground, so I'm hoping the rod journals check out decently within a couple thousands. If it is really bad (which I doubt, lol...I hope) I'll reconsider.
I will share when I find out.

Chris, you are correct too.
Chip had every component I needed except the "O" rings. So he measured the "O" ring groove and I was able to buy them when I was down South. In fact, I bought 2 sizes just in case.

I got them from a supplier which I use for my plastic injection mold making.
I have an entire Parco book with all the sizes they make. It was interesting since I do all my machining and tolerancing in inches and never looked up a Metric "O" ring. When I looked up the Metric equivalents, the Metric size is given next to the inch size. So the "O" rings are still a regular inch size call out which fits the Metric groove size. Mine turned out to be prp2-240 or prp2-241.
I tried them both and the 2-240 fits best.

I'm not sure when I'll have the next update.
Loretta wants to get her garden fence up today because at this time of year, the deer are really looking for food of any kind. Then I go down South early Sunday for my 2 day a week job (4 hour drive each way) and return Tuesday night...then back down for Christmas with all the kids and grand kids. BTW, when I'm down there I stay with my Ex at her house.
So in the mean time, Merry Christmas to ya'll and thanks again for contributing to this thread.
Rob-

 

[IH3444]

Rob, I believe I read in pass post that you were using Mobil 1 engine oil. If my memory serves me correctly then the rod journals are most likely fine.

 

[SPIKER]

Thank you guys!
I'm not sure when I'll have the next update.
Loretta wants to get her garden fence up today because at this time of year, the deer are really looking for food of any kind. Then I go down South early Sunday for my 2 day a week job (4 hour drive each way) and return Tuesday night...then back down for Christmas with all the kids and grand kids. BTW, when I'm down there I stay with my Ex at her house.
So in the mean time, Merry Christmas to ya'll and thanks again for contributing to this thread.
Rob-

When ever ya do get the next update I'll be reading up on it... Staying with the EX, What does Loretta have to say about that? Heheh
Merry Christmas to you & all as well. Good luck on the jobs ya got going on.

Mark

 

[3RRL]

Rob, I believe I read in pass post that you were using Mobil 1 engine oil. If my memory serves me correctly then the rod journals are most likely fine.

Yes, I use Mobil Diesel Oil.
I think it's called Mobil Delvac 1300(?) or something like that ...15w40 Diesel oil. I think it should be alright, but I'll be checking with the plasti-gage to be sure.



Mark, I see you caught that about staying with the Ex.
Loretta is alright with that. Sometimes when she comes down we both stay there. They have become very good friends. We (the Ex and I) have 7 kids together and Wes, the youngest is only 13. Our kids range from 36 to 13 and we have 10 grand kids. So a long time ago, when Loretta and I married, we discussed how important it was for me and the Ex to have a great relationship. We spend most major holidays together either at her place or ours or one of the kids' place. It's a great time because all the kids and grandkids get together with all their "parents". My Ex's first Ex also comes to all the get-togethers when he's in town. Loretta's only son is also in on all the fun every chance he gets.
You know, the alternative could be a lot worse!

 

[3RRL]

Well, in fact I do have an update for you. I performed the leak test early this morning.
The 2 new valves passed the test 100%. The test is to pour kerosene (I used diesel) into the intake and exhaust ports .. fill them up and watch the valves for leaks. The valves should not leak for a minimum of 3 minutes. I tried to take some photos to show the fluid in the ports along with the valves. There was no leakage or seepage at all on the new valves so they passed with flying colors!
First photo is the new intake valve and second one is the exhaust valve.



Sorry to say only one of the old valves passed the test (barely 2 min 45 seconds).
The others leaked within 45 seconds. I decided to use the rest of the new valves including replacing the marginal one. That meant starting over taking all the valve springs off again, and of course all that meticulous cleaning to do after lapping and bluing every one of them off, let alone the extra leak tests. Anyway, I figure I had a better chance of lapping them in correctly than chasing the old valves.
Plus the all the new valves seated within that depth tolerance better.

After I got the all the new valves completed and installed, I re-checked them with the leak test. Guess what, 2 intake valves still did not make the 3 minutes. I had to remove them ( a couple times) until I got all of them to pass the 3 minute no leak test. I'm glad I did and I'm proud of myself for taking the extra time to change them out even though I was tempted to say ... "ok, that's good enough". Especially after re-lapping and bluing those intake valves several times until they sealed 100%. Now I KNOW for certain they are all leak proof. But I also smell like a diesel fuel truck.
Photos below show leak if you look close, and second one of all the new valves installed.

 

[SPIKER]

We spend most major holidays together either at her place or ours or one of the kids' place. It's a great time because all the kids and grandkids get together with all their "parents". My Ex's first Ex also comes to all the get-togethers when he's in town. Loretta's only son is also in on all the fun every chance he gets.
You know, the alternative could be a lot worse!

That is really great to be able to have friends & family all together!

Merry Christmas and happy new year, You will have that Kama back together real soo to help keep the GRIN on you face going!

Mark

 

[3RRL]

Thanks Mark,
I called the Ex and the kids to let them know I would not be coming down for work this week. I took a couple days off so I could finish up fencing Loretta's garden (again) and also to do a little more work on the Kama.

I was pretty excited about the valve job coming out so good.
Next was to check the crankshaft journals and connecting rod bearings for roundness and proper clearance. It took me a little while attaching them and taking them off again, but it was worth doing to be sure they were not shot. I got some red and green Plasti-gage. The green is .025-.076mm(.001"-.003" and the red is .051 to .152mm(.002"-.006"). I also installed the new journal bearings onto the connecting rod. Shown are old ones out and new ones in.

 

[3RRL]

Regarding the journal bearings...
The photo of my manual shows the clearance needs to be between .04~.098mm(.0015"~.0038").



I used the green hoping to fall within the acceptable clearance written in my manual.
I put a length of Plasti-gage diagonal (with a dab of grease to hold it) on top of the journal and inside the connecting rod cap. To read the plasti-gage scale, you compare the squished width (after tightening) to the scale on the paper package. Whatever width matches up is the amount of clearance you have. I had to crawl underneath and tighten the bearing cap while Loretta held the connecting rod in place.



After removing the connecting rod from the crankshaft, I could see the Plasti-gage on top of the journal had squished down a little wider than the .001" mark on the scale, but I think it moved a little upon removal. So I think it's abut as wide as the .001" mark. The bottom side was right at the .001" width but no pic of that because it was too hard to get a photo upside down.



So I figure I have a total of .002" clearance or less in those journal bearings.
Looks like I'm right in the middle of the clearance tolerance. Next on the agenda is to prepare the new sleeve liners for installation into the engine block.

 

[IH3444]

Good to go......you'll be firing that puppy up shortly.

 

[3RRL]

Man, I hope so!
But before reinstalling everything I have to clean it up really good, so that takes a little time. When I took it apart I just took the parts and laid them on a bench.

Today I focused on installing the new sleeve liners.
Before doing so I wanted to be sure that the bore in the engine had a nice lead in so the "O" rings would slide over without shearing. When I removed the old sleeves, I saw several had sheared so I wanted to avoid doing the same thing. I took a little dremel flapper wheel and ground a 45 degree lead in on it. I went into the bores and smoothed out the rough sharp edges. Then took some 320 wet and dry and hand worked it. Sorry, the bottom of the bore didn't come out so good in this photo below.



After that I started to measure the counter bores to see if they were all the same.
I also mic'ed the head thickness on each sleeve. Then I measured the step above the head. What I was trying to do was make sure all the steps would sit the same distance above the engine block. I don't know how good the head gasket will seal if they are different heights so I thought it was a good thing to do...maybe it was unnecessary?, but when I build molds that have counter bores and inserts with heads like that, I grind them all alike or one will keep the others from shutting off.

 

[3RRL]

What I found was interesting.
One of the counter bores in the engine was .009" shallower than the other three. Well, that cant' be good?
The head thickness on the sleeves were all identical so that was good. But on one of them, the little step was .003" taller than the rest.

What I wanted to do was to reduce the head thickness by .009" on the one sleeve to fit that shallow counter bore.
That way, the top of the sleeve would end up the same height as the others. Then reduce the little step to be equal in height as the others.

I figured there was nothing in the bottom holding the sleeve from dropping into the crankcase, so the heads are what keep the sleeves from sinking deeper. But when I set up the on sleeve in my lathe, I couldn't get both the diameter and the face (of the head) to come in to zero. So I decided that the diameter was more important, since that's what fits the bores in the block. I indicated it in to zero and machined the head concentric and parallel to diameter. That meant kissing the underside of the head first, then cutting the top of it to establish the new head thickness. You can see the dykem (red) that was partially machined when I took a kiss pass on it.
Then I machined it to the new head thickness.

 

[3RRL]

When I finished checking size, I added some chamfers before unchucking it.
Took it over to the surface plate to check the little step and it was right on the money.



So now all the sleeves will (should) protrude above the engine the same amount...and they did.
The head gasket will have a better chance to seal properly and evenly. When I put the sleeves into the bores, the "O" rings went past the top part easily, but they were pretty tight going into the bottom part where they seal off. I had polished that lead in and also greased the "O" rings so they would "slide" past that point. I can see how the original ones got sheared.

Instead of pounding the soft cast sleeves in, I actually took the head itself and placed it gently on top of them all. I used the head bolts to seat the sleeves by evenly tightening them until the sleeve heads hit the counter bores.

There was no way I was gonna take the engine block and machine that one counter bore deeper! I presume they all should have been the same depth, right?
BTW, what do you guys do with the head gasket?
Do you put a gasket sealer on both sides of the gasket? Or is it not necessary? I was going to add a gasket sealer on both sides of it.

 

[3RRL]

Before I stopped for the day, I fit the rings into the new sleeves.
I wanted to check the ring gap to be sure it was within tolerance. I measured the gap with a feeler gage. An .011" went in and a .012" did not. The tolerance for the top ring is 0.30mm~0.45mm which is .0118" ~ .0177", so the top rings were at the low end of the clearance. The other rings were toleranced 0.25~0.40mm which is .0098"~ .0157". The .011" feeler gage went in those as well.

After checking, I then installed the rings onto the pistons.
They are ready to go back into the engine tomorrow. The new piston is on it's connecting rod. I had to heat the piston up to slide the wrist pin in. And all of the connecting rods have new journal bearing in them now.

I'd still like to know about using gasket sealer on the head gasket, or not.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Your work is amazing Rob. I would give Chip a call on the gasket. Some require sealant and some do not. Many of the Chinese gaskets also take a sort of shalack called something like "Indiana Head". Maybe Greg G will know?

Chris