There is a big cast iron strainer basket in the bottom of the crankcase. Somehow this got broken on the locomotive. One of the first things that I did when I started on the rebuild was to take the good basket out of the spare crankcase. Over the years the copper screen that surrounds the basket deteriorated probably because of acidic conditions in the crankcase. New screen was found and wrapped around the basket. When I went to put the basket in I found that the copper pipe to the oil pump was split. Whether that was what caused the engine to sieze or whether that happened after the engine siezed, I dont know. I spent a whole day just removing the good pipe and oil pump from the spare crankcase and installing the good pipe and new basket in the Whitcomb crankcase. I began to wonder, could the oil pump pull up the new oil when the copper pipe to the strainer basket had air in it. I thought of a way to prime the oil pump and fill the pipe with oil. I stuck a piece of plastic tubing up through the strainer into the pipe. It was downhill to the oil pump. I forced oil in the tube and filled the pipe with oil. I filled the crankcase with 15W40 oil and Lucas oil stabilizer.
