Builds Old Landy: An HJ45 Story/Build Thread

[ceylonfj40nut]

Cowboy the engine had already been rebuilt when I purchased it so all it really needed was a good detailing. I spent several hours cleaning and painting (sometimes with a small detail brush) to get the engine where you see it in my thread.

We need to give it a good degreasing. Last time at the barn we slopped the block and head with diesel which softened most of it out. Heard good old oven cleaner works also. Anyone try it? Need to get it oil free so we can hit it with engine paint. Following degreasing we we most likely hit it with brake cleaner to get oily surface ready.

 

[dogfishlake]

Amazing indeed. Wow. You have major talent.

Beats the hand sketching the family did together at the dinner table in a couple of posts back where my boys learned the basics of technical drawing in perspective with protractor and 45/60 deg triangles. Way old school. It met our needs to get moving on this.

@Box Rocket did my 60 concept for me. I knew exactly what I wanted but still really liked the idea of seeing what it would really look like. Plus the motivator.

I'm motivated!

 

[dogfishlake]

We need to give it a good degreasing. Last time at the barn we slopped the block and head with diesel which softened most of it out. Heard good old oven cleaner works also. Anyone try it? Need to get it oil free so we can hit it with engine paint. Following degreasing we we most likely hit it with brake cleaner to get oily surface ready.

Oven cleaner may get it, worth a try. It is a very strong base. Another one I heard of when trying to get the carbon off of piston tops is injector cleaner. Might be worth it. Just using tons of paper towel and naptha or even laquer thinner will help a lot. Messy tho. Sometimes I use thinner in a squirt bottle and mop up with towel. Bounty brand is king for tough and cost effective.

 

[FJBen]

We need to give it a good degreasing. Last time at the barn we slopped the block and head with diesel which softened most of it out. Heard good old oven cleaner works also. Anyone try it? Need to get it oil free so we can hit it with engine paint. Following degreasing we we most likely hit it with brake cleaner to get oily surface ready.

Get ready...

You can soak it in brake cleaner or Oven cleaner, but be careful as oven cleaner is some bad stuff. Simple Green will work and isn't toxic, but it's not as caustic as Oven cleaner and the other stuff. It has to soak longer. I also have used plastic putty knives in different sizes to scrap off without scratching other stuff. Again, steel wool in various roughness helps getting stuff out of hard to reach places.

Also lacquer thinner works good. It's mostly just elbow grease.

 

[waiting for time]

Just make sure you wear the correct gloves, some of that stuff is taken in by skin contact and goes straight for the liver.

 

[Michael B]

You should avoid getting oven cleaner on aluminum like the timing cover, injection pump etc.

 

[Jdc1]

Hot water helps with degreasing as well.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Noted. Thanks! Loved the Miyagi moment. Lol. Also, It’s always safety first at the barn, no exceptions. Price of entry to work in the barn.

 

[Cowboy45]

Hey everyone we created a 2H rebuild thread!!
Old Landy 2H Rebuild

 

[Cowboy45]

Get ready...

You can soak it in brake cleaner or Oven cleaner, but be careful as oven cleaner is some bad stuff. Simple Green will work and isn't toxic, but it's not as caustic as Oven cleaner and the other stuff. It has to soak longer. I also have used plastic putty knives in different sizes to scrap off without scratching other stuff. Again, steel wool in various roughness helps getting stuff out of hard to reach places.

Also lacquer thinner works good. It's mostly just elbow grease.

Will scraping any gunk off with something like steel wool effect the bore in any way?

 

[Cowboy45]

^^^^^ I guess it would have to be deep gouges, but still just wondering.

 

[Michael B]

I would not put anything inside the cylinder except the proper tool for the job. There shouldn’t be any “gunk” inside the cylinder. There maybe a dirty ridge at the top of the cylinder for which a machinist will use a “ridge reamer”.

 

[FJBen]

Will scraping any gunk off with something like steel wool effect the bore in any way?

Correct, don’t scrape anything inside the bore . There shouldn’t be anything gunked or caked inside the cylinder.

I would use steel wool or scrapers on all outside surfaces to knock the funk off. I use 0000 fine steel wool for zinc plated parts but don’t go overboard or you can rub that finish off. It’s not fun work, but worth it. Clean engines are much more fun to work on and look at.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

@Cowboy45 and I have some tech Qs in the diesel section linked above. We will document the engine rebuild in this thread. It was a proud moment for me to have @Cowboy45 and his brother break down the engine and learn about how it works. They tore down the rocker arm and I cracked the head bolts. We followed the FSM procedure to a T. Boys understood the importance of “unloading” a cylinder head in the right sequence per FSM

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Head came off after leveraging a screwdriver on the front of the head per FSM. The boys did an initial clean of the cylinder head so that we could break it down further.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

As we tore it down we made sure to have every part for each cylinder (injectors, gloplugs, lifters, lifter rods, valves, springs, keepers) together.

Placeholder to add a pic.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

@Cowboy45 got a lesson in using a spring valve compression tool to remove the keepers, washer, and springs. A telescoping magnet helped with pulling the keepers off the spring washer. Worked very well. Have to make sure the compression tool jaws lock into the tool at the lowest helix possible and keep the jaw arms as parallel as possible while cranking down. Once fully cranked down, a stern push down pops the keepers free to allow the magnet to pull them out. Little did we know that we have a budding mechanic dog (Zeus) that watched keenly.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Valve stem seals looked intact but looked like a refresh would be good. These slide off with a quick twist of a pair of channel locks. Cool to see the TEQ logo on the block.

After removing the springs and stem seal guides we carefully checked the axial and radial play of each intake and exhaust valve.

None of the exhaust valves had any axial or radial play. Tight! The intake valves had a very very minor axial play but was consistent in all six cylinders. None of the valve stems were scored (finger nail test) not show any signs of glazing or wear.

This is a 300k mile motor!!! Amazing to see it in this good a shape.

We washed all the valves, springs, keepers in laquer thinner and they cleaned up nicely. Components were bagged separately for caliper measurements later.

Depending on measurements and comps with FSM tolerances we will determine the extend of the head rebuild. As of now looks like a valve seat grind, valve polish, and new stem seals are what appear to be needed. We will also clean the valve side of the cylinder head to evaluate for cracks in heads and precups.

@Cowboy45 has some homework to measure wear on valve stems, all springs, stem guide bushings, etc. He will share these when done together with pics of the valve side of the cylinder head.

Next was block inspection.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

I am adding pics for each cylinder. Sorry about pic overload. Cylinder one is at the fan side, six is at the firewall. We cleaned each cylinder bore and piston with laquer thinner which did a good job.

All cylinder bores were smooth. No carbon buildup on walls (except the a 1/2” band at the top). Finger nail test passed on all bores. I had @Cowboy45 take pics at 12/3/6/9 o’clock positions as best as possible for each cylinder.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Cylinder 1

Piston top is carbon build up which knocks down with plastic scraper.