Another addition to the fleet

[superk226]

I have a set of 0.080 oversize pistons for that engine that I would sell for $200 dollars plus shipping.

[Gordie]

Does it run?

I never heard it run but Rudy said that it was a good engine.  It has been stored in my garage for about five years.  It is complete and not disassembled minus starter and generator etc.   If you want to pick it up and try to start it before purchase you are welcome to do that.

[joefrazer]

So, I'm about to pull the engine in the Darrin since it needs rebuilt. Does anyone have any words of advice...any step or steps to follow to make the job a bit easier? I've pull many a Kaiser and Henry J engine, but never one from a Darrin. Since it poses its own set of unique challenges...not being able to pull the doghouse for example...I thought I'd ask before I dig in.

By the way, I decided to have this one rebuilt. There's little to no ridge and no scoring of the cylinder walls and the head is in good shape so I figured I'd go the route of a rebuild.

[Terry T]

Have you considered a timing gear without the fiber coating?

[darrin502]

Hi
I would be interested in the engine have you turned it with a breaker bar? does it have the flywheel or bell housing?
Let me know
Thanks
Lee

[warren]

I am in the middle of an F-Head rebuild. Words of advice; Magnaflux everything block and head flywheel, etc, most all of these old cast iron pieces have some cracks. My original head had at least 6 major cracks and was not usable, thanks to Mark on this group I got a replacement head that has minor cracks but is usable.  Depending on where the cracks are they may still be usable. I needed to sleeve one cylinder, a second cylinder already has a sleeve.  Cracks around several valve seats in both head and block means I am having new valve seats installed. Deep scratches on the crank means I had to have the journals ground .020 under and polished. Cam is being polished, it looks like I don't need a re-ground cam, that is a good thing.

I would be surprised that it is possible to bore this engine .080 over. That may have been a typo, but maybe not. It would seem the wall thickness would be getting pretty thin and are .080 pistons and rings available? That would be a nice bump in displacement and HP, I would think.

Pulling the engine is very easy, there is a lot of room. I pulled the engine after separating the transmission and bell-housing, however I think I will try to install them after mating them. Getting one of the bell-housing bolts was difficult because how close it was to the firewall.

[joefrazer]

Thanks for the info. I plan to pull both the engine and trans together because reassembly in the car is very difficult - been there and done that with a Henry J. My engine doesn't look bad and was never open so it should clean up with minor machining, but one never knows until the work actually begins. 

[MarkH]

I'm also in the middle of an ongoing F-head rebuild. Told the machinist to take his time & do a nice job and I think that equated into fill in work between other work.
I requested magnafluxing & haven't heard about any cracks so if there were any I'm guessing they were minor issues. Crank went .010 under, cylinder bores went .030 under mainly due to the bottoms being out of round. Rod big ends were machined true & re-bored round. Cam good, push rods good, lifters good. Getting hardened seats installed as well as all new valves, springs & guides. New cam gear. Flywheel resurfaced, never heard if it got magnafluxed.
One thing I noticed is that Egge's pistons don't have the heat dam groove near the top but it seems every other parts supplier's pistons do. I questioned them before ordering and they said it wasn't needed and they ran a more modern ring pack. I talked to my machinist and he said that was good and he never liked the heat dam pistons.
The other thing that jumped out at me when the parts arrived is the upper portion of Egge's pistons are turned down a few thousandths rather than being full diameter all the way to the top. Once again the machinist approved, said it was for expansion and he's had good results with their pistons.
Out of sheer fate, turns out this machinist used to do the machine work for the last remaining Willys dealer in this region and is familiar with the engine so I'm hoping for a good build.

[joefrazer]

I plan to use Egge's parts as well so that's good to know. I spent some time today looking more closely at the cylinder walls and only one has scoring, and what's there is very minor. I think an .030 cleanup will do it.

Unfortunately, I can't ask the previous owner what happened to the engine - he passed away many years ago. My guess is that something like sand or something larger like a nut got down inside and rattled around. The valves all appear good, albeit very carbon caked, and the oil that came out of the crankcase didn't look bad, so I guess I'll never know.

[MarkH]

Don't know if you're replacing valves but I learned something today in a visit to the machine shop. Egge's exhaust valves needed to have 50 thousandths machined off the ends of the stems to allow for proper adjustment. They were fine in every other way.

[joefrazer]

Now that the dust has settled from our move, I got back to working on the Darrin. The engine has been removed, it came out with no trouble and my work is now before me...clean and paint the engine bay and do the same for the transmission. Speaking of the latter, it's proving to be more trouble trying to separate it from the engine than removing the entire unit from the car. Everything is original so I'm guessing a liberal application of WD40 is in order.

Lee - your suggestion to drop the cross member helped a lot. Thanks!

[darrin502]

Happy to help. Good luck with the build.
Call me if you need any more information.
Lee

[joefrazer]

After plenty of WD40, some heat from the torch and work from the pry bar, the engine and transmission have finally been separated. It looks like the clutch and related parts are original which would explain why they didn't want to come apart. The next step, off to the rebuilder!

[pjkaiser]

Isn't that cast iron bell housing heavy!!!

[joefrazer]

I dropped the Darrin engine off at the rebuilder today and as we were chatting he pointed to a workbench and mentioned that he was in the middle of work on another f-head six. As rare as these engines are, what are the chances of having two of the same engine at a rebuilder in a small town in north central Ohio?! I was surprised!