Bob's 414-8

The donor motor is coming off of a 314H with very low hours.  It was brought in yesterday, all taken apart, the motor is loose and sitting on the frame to get steam cleaned.  

I put Bob's tractor on the lift this morning and the old motor is on the bench and mostly taken apart.  All of the best parts between the two will be blasted, painted and put on the tractor when done.  It will prob get a lot of gaskets replaced and the PTO side main seal while it's all apart to make sure it's like new even though it's got low hours.  Time takes it's toll as well...

I'm not sure if this was mentioned before, but after the last go around we found an impossible to see oil leak until after all of the other problems were fixed and the engine was run at high RPM.  It is a tiny pin hole between the front and rear cooling fins about center of the block on the piston side where the casting seam is.  It's in a spot impossible to get to and fix.  It's just an imperfection in the block and something no one would ever expect.  The original motor is clean inside and has no other leaks but to fix the block problem we have to change the motor.

One of the front Tach-a-Matic hitches made here came in handy to weight the front end while the motor was off.  Between that and the crane on the bench this job went really well.  The crankshaft drive belt pulley has to be moved to the other tractor because the other tractor is a hydro and the pulley is much larger.  The toughest part so far was getting the original engine pulley off.  I had to get a fine thread bolt out and put it in the lathe to make a center divot so the puller would stay straight and wouldn't walk to get it off.  You can see in the pic it was pretty rusty under there but it's now off and I have a new useful tool to make things quicker and easier as well.  

 

First pic here is the best pic I can get of the oil leak in the block that was mentioned in the last post.  It's easy to see in person but I can't get a good pic with the camera.

These pics are just more disassembly pics.  Since the lathe was already set up I got out another smaller size fine thread bolt that fit to pull the flywheel.  It sure does make things go quicker when all you have to do is pull and not have to worry about the puller bolt walking.  I should have done this a long time ago but at least they're done now and in the puller case for later.  You can never go wrong having all the special tools possible..   

Saturday is looking really good to steam clean under the motor of the tractor and do the new engine going on it.

 

Talked to Bob today and we'll be blasting + painting the rims on the tractor.  I got the worst one done today but it took awhile to get it really nice but in the end it looks really good.  

You can see in the last pic it's got a few dents in one spot, and 2 half circle looking dents in it.  After looking at the other one closely it has the same exact dents in it.  I think it was done by the machine that pressed and welded the center in from the factory, or the tooling that made the center so I think they've always been that way.  It's easy to see imperfections after blasting with aluminum shot and won't be that noticeable after they're painted.  

 

Bob's tractor is steam cleaned under the engine and the 314H tractor + motor is also steamed cleaned.  I ran the steamer around 225 degrees and got a lot of paint off of the new motor to make it easier to finish the clean up on the bench and get ready for paint.  

The other rear wheel and muffler is also blasted but I didn't get pics of them yet, will do that next week.  I plan on getting the 314H motor on the bench Monday morning then putting it back together and outside.  There are peeps coming in sometime Monday and I need the forklift free, not sure how much work will get done on this one Monday but we'll see.  

 

The peeps coming in today called this morning couldn't make it for a few more days so I got to work on Bob's all day.

Most of what I call the hard work was finished today.  Doing things manually like the block was done, especially in the nooks and crannies makes me appreciate the blaster more.  It took an enormous amount of time to get the block this clean but when painted it will look better than new considering it is a lot smoother than it was originally.     Of course a lot of it won't be seen and you'd have to be crazy to do work like this, but I do fit the bill.  I also see a few spots I missed under the starter, I'll do them tomorrow...  

After it was all apart the only problem found was the oil sensor in the new engine had a crack in it, pretty common in the second design so Bob's original one (first design) will be going back in it.  Never had much problems out of the first designs but a lot of problems with the second design sensors.  I got all the parts off of the donor 314H I wanted in the shop to clean up and put up later and it's back together enough to go back outside whenever the other peeps come in.  

 

A little painting and more blasting today.  It's coming along.  

 

This morning was busy but everything went pretty quiet after lunch.  Motor is bolted back on the tractor, all the wheels are blasted and deburred, and the main PTO side seal is in.  Every time I get a peek inside the motor it looks brand new, like looking at the main bearing with the seal out.  The bench crane made sure there's not a scratch on the new frame paint when putting the motor on.  It's one of the best things I ever bought, my back thinks so too...     

 

Sorry so late on the updates, end of last week was crazy and didn't get in Sat night till long after bedtime...  

I think everything is blasted and most everything for the motor was painted and ready to go back together last Friday.  Surfaces are all cleaned and milled including the carb, and new Kohler gaskets are out for everything.  I hope to get going on putting the motor back together today but Mondays are pretty unpredictable...  



 

I spent most of yesterday blasting and painting some final pieces, then putting things back together enough to get it running to make sure all was good before putting the shields back on.  Everything went good and the 1st run in is done and head retorqued.  I'll do the second run in and do a little more work on it tomorrow.  After the engine is done it will be time to work on some fancy wheels.   

The headlight circuit was rewired this morning to run off of the battery since it has a 15A charging system now vs the 3 amp it had originally.  No more dim headlights at idle that get brighter with RPM anymore, they're bright all the time.  

 

These pics are from yesterday with the engine finished up minus the air filter setup and wire tying up a few things.