13b diesel lifter bore issues - engineering assistance required! (1 Viewer)

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Sydney, Australia
Hi all
I have been trying to get my 13b diesel rebuilt for the last 6 months with drama after drama.
Preparing for a trip to cape York (northern most tip of oz) in August this year - so pulled the 13b diesel out for a rebuild in sept/ oct last year.
A diesel mechanic is doing the rebuild after hours for the right price - good guy but as it's for a very good price he is not "looking to hard for solutions" - which is what is to be expected as it's a job on the side for him.
Anyway - turns out I had 2 cracked cylinders in my original block - so I located a replacement block, which also had 2 cracked cylinders. As the second block was already at the machinists to put in the liners, we had the second block sleeved in the cylinders.
Diesel mechanic started to put the engine back together with a full rebuild kit from Engine Australia when he discovered two lifter bores were badly scored (most likely from lifters cracking up).
Since I had spent $800 sleeving this block I was pissed off to put it mildly - a simple check before machining the cylinder bores for sleeves could have prevented wasting my money - lesson learned.
I started to research lifter bore solutions and it sounded expensive - so I decided to take the hit and re sleeve the original block... Only to learn he had already scrapped it (since we decided to build the second block).
So - my options:
1) Overbore and sleeve the lifter bores to accept standard 13b lifters
2) bore and hone lifter bores only enough to clean up the burrs (leaving some scoring). Hopefully this will take the bore to less than 1.0mm oversize. Hardchrome standard lifters and grind to suit the oversize bores.
3) locate alternative lifters either larger or smaller diameter and sleeve/bore and hone to suit.

Option 1 is risky as the casting is quite thin - and to Overbore and press a sleeve in May result in cracking the block so I prefer not to do this.

Option 2 is do-able. Risk is over boring too much trying to clean up the bore. Hard chroming becomes very expensive the thicker you go and I understand the risk of flaking increases drastically after 0.5mm thickness is applied - hence trying to keep under 1.0mm overbore. Also, in order to grind the lifter to size I either need to get a Hardchromer with a centre less grinder or solder a rod to the lifter face to hold whilst grinding.

I'm closely interested in option 3 at the moment. Along with 8 new standard lifters I have bought two 2h lifters. These are 46mm long instead of 48mm. They are approx 22mm dia instead of 26.9mm which is perfect for a decent sleeve. However they have 2 oil bleed holes instead of 1. The 13b lifter internal diameter is about 22mm but steps down towards the base to a similar diameter to the 2h inner diameter. This suggests to me that pushrod diameters between both motors would be similar.

I'm throwing open for any and all advice. Happy for people to suggest different lifters especially if they have sizes and locations of oil bleed holes.
Happy for other solutions/options to be suggested.
I would like to know more about lifter design - especially the criticality of oil bleed hole size, number and location. If anyone can tell me standard pushrod diameter for 13b and 2h that'd be great (I do not have access to my motor as it is at the diesel mechanics place and my family and work do not allow me to get there easily).
Also, does anyone know the stroke of the lifter and if the slightly shorter length of the 2h lifter will be an issue - I'm guessing that the stroke will be cam lobe height. Not sure if it's the exhaust or intake lifters that are affected - can anyone tell me if the lifter face sits flush with the base of the bore at TDC of cam stroke? That along with the stroke will help me decide if 46mm vs 48mm is acceptable or not.
Material for sleeving the bore would be aluminium bronze.
If other lifters are suggested it would be good if they were approx 28.5mm diameter and 48mm long with only one oil hole approx 6mm dia at the base of the internal "seat" for the push rod. This way I can simply bore and hone the existing lifter bore to suit the new "oversize" lifter, hopefully fully clean up the damaged bore and not have to bother with making a sleeve.

Thanks for your help and advice!!!

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Looks like there's enuf material to sleeve. I'd leary of honing and installing new lifter.
 
G'day Unklwedy,
What's sleeve thickness do you recommend? I'm working off minimum 6 thou to 12 thou thick (1.5-3mm). I think the machinist is closer to 12 thou.
The casting does not appear to be even and seems thinner towards the base of the bore where the damage is. The machinist can't get in there to measure it.
What wall thickness of block do you think is safe before cracking may occur?
I'm assuming a thou or two interference fit which will also place strain in the block. Can freeze the sleeve and drop it in to reduce likelihood of cracking whilst inserting... But what about in service?
Thanks
 
A sleeve thickness of around 0.080" (2mm) would suffice imo, 0.001" - 0.002" interference fit and bore to size only after the sleeve is installed. You may also have to dowel the sleeves to prevent movement.

Just a reference to your measurements above,
Theres approx 40 thou in 1mm, so a sleeve thickness of 6 - 12 thou is only 0.15 - 0.30mm, which won't be thick enough.

I think the sleeving option will be the cheapest for you. Good luck
 
Hi - thanks for the reply!
Oops - out by a factor of 10! 80 thou sounds like a good compromise.
At a guess - I think the block wall thickness at it's minimum is about 5-6mm. By boring out 160 thou, the remaining thickness will end up at 3-4mm. Do you think that's sufficient to prevent cracking?
Not sure exactly how we could get in there to dowel. I'm assuming you'd need to get the dowel in at 90 deg to the bore..... I had suggested a scotch key to the machinist (as it would be parallel to the bore and possibly easier to do) but he didn't think he could get in to do that. It'd definitely be of benefit, mainly to hold the sleeve in place if the block did crack and the interference fit was lost.. Any suggestions?
 

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