June 17,18,19

Hank and I went up to the museum to work on the Whitcomb. It rained all 3 days. Ray and Steve spiked down rail into some new ties, getting ready for a CSX engine to come for a fire exercise. Hank ground off the bolts on the radiator grill because they were too rusty to be unbolted. We also had to grind off some of the 16 bolts in the bottom tank. We bolted in 'C' channel brackets which will connect to the 1/4 plate we are putting on the bottom of the radiator to seal the ice crack. We laid the new steel plate in and measured for the bolt pattern. I mounted the governors, the 2 carburetors and the magneto. Hank made gaskets for the valve covers. We got soaked through to our underwear.

June 2,3,4

I put the reconditioned valves back in the air compressor. I took a passenger car battery which was new, to bulldog battery in Cleveland. They put battery acid in it and I took it back. Cyd helped me get it in the Whitcomb. I bought a 30 gallon drum to replace the gas tank. I put a 3/8 ball valve on it. I thought we might be able to close the split in the bottom of the radiator with a steel plate. I measured and drew plans for the fix. I bought 2 pieces of “C” channel and a piece of ¼ plate. Hank drilled it to match the bolt pattern on the bottom radiator tank.

Install the intake manifold

Hank and I went to the Museum Sunday May 24th to work on the Whitcomb engine. We had three objectives: mount the intake manifold, disassemble the air compressor head and build a frame to jack the hood up.
We worked on the water cooled intake manifold at home. The water jacket on the manifold was cracked due to freezing. I epoxied the cracks and Hank drilled out the rusted drain plug. The exhaust manifold has six connections to the exhaust ports, three connections for water cooling to the head, and four water connections to the intake manifold. The intake manifold has 4 water connections and connects to all three heads. Just about everything needed pried up, down or sideways to get the bolts started in. All connections had new gaskets. We noticed quite a bit of rust and scale in the water jacket of the exhaust manifold. We removed the stuck thermostat and tried to get as much rust out as possible.
Monday we took the cover off the air compressor valve chamber using instructions from Andy Szabo from Arizona Railway museum. The leather seal washer was hard and brittle. Two new ones were ordered. Hank spent quite a bit of time removing some black hard carbon like crap that was blocking about half of the exhaust port. All the valves were stuck and I could not get the exhaust valve out. The others will be disassembled and cleaned. I installed the Conrader unloader and cut a copper line to attach to the air compressor head.
Tuesday Hank and I sawed up some lumber to lift or support the hood while the radiator is repaired.

Exhaust manifold mounted

May 6,7,8. We got the water manifold, between the three blocks, on the right side of the engine on with neoprene gaskets. The water pump which drives the distributor and magneto was cleaned up at home and the timing was set. The water pump gear was carefully mated with the timing gear to have the spark occur at the correct time (20 degrees before top dead center we hope!). James was working on the 25 ton GE and Ryan showed up. They helped me get the 6 ft long exhaust manifold mounted on the engine. It is still loose because it has to line up, and bolt up to several other castings on the head and intake manifold. We are working on the intake manifold to drill out the pipe plugs and install ball valves to drain the water. The conrader unloader is being disassembled and cleaned.

Stuck in the engine

I went up to the museum to put the cotter pins in the connecting rods. You use a tire iron in the flywheel to turn the crankshaft until a connecting rod is accesable thru the hand hole cover. It was a tough job reach through the hand holes and turn the nuts one way or the other to line up the cotter pin hole and the castle nut slot. I often had to use a hand mirror to see the allignment. I was laying on my stomach on the running boards of the engine, with my head close to the crankcase and my arms inside the crancase. Someone droping off news papers told Steve there was a guy stuck in the engine compartment back there. I got them in but I am still working on the air compressor rod.

I decided to use the flat tappets instead of the roller tappets because the roller tappets froze up so fast. When we put the tappets in their holes we found out that there was a misallignment between the cylinder castings and the crankcase. Hank machined the tappets to fit. The machined tappets went right in and the pushrods went on. I bought 5/8 inch studs, cleaned the threads in the heads with a tap and installed the 18 new studs. I disconnected the pipes to the sand dome in preparation to removing the hood.

April 11 2009

We made 2 brake linkage pins from 1 1/4 inch bar stock. I made a clock, and an armrest to replace the rough old 2 x 4 bolted to the window. My son Dave came up to help lift the engine blocks. New base gaskets were cut out. We lifted the blocks to the walkway beside the engine. The rod caps were removed and the nuts put on to keep the shims from falling in the crankcase. The pistons were pushed to the top of the cylinders and the crankshaft turned until one of the two journals was at TDC. It took 3 guys to lift the blocks and put them on the crankcase. Steve helped us with the first one and James helped with the other two. The pistons were tapped down until the rod was on the crankshaft and the nuts were put on. They are not wired yet.
Hank and I put the last of the brake linkage together with the 2 new linkage pins. We had to use crow bars and jacks as the brake shoe and heavy linkage arms wanted to go every way but line up. Hank and I put the rebuilt heads on. I decided to go with newer type of tappets. They would not fit in the crankcase. Hank will machine them. much more work is needed. Donations are needed for hoses, belts, batteries etc. The radiator needs removed and the bottom tank welded.

March 15 2009 update

Hank and I worked on the Whitcomb for 3 days in March. The weather was great, temperture in the high 50's. We assembled the brake cylinders with new cups and spring. We reconnected the air supply lines, rigging and brake shoes. Two connecting pins will need to be made from 1 1/4 inch bar stock. We mounted the air compressor cylinder on the crankcase. The cylinder was from the spare engine and the air supply piping was slightly different. We finished painting the last corner of the cab floor.