What's wrong in this picture?

Mike Peters

Mike Peters

Well-known member
I pulled this engine apart today to inspect the internals. After removing the oil pan to clean it out, I noticed something terribly wrong. All four rods bearings were assembled this way. Quiz for the day, what is wrong here? Hint: You are looking at the right side of the engine.
 

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That highlights a beef I have had for a long time with those who write some of those "How To" instructions, including the vendors. Although I have told them, they have not changed their instructions. They say that the dippers should face the driver's side. WRONG!. I even made a point of it with Snyders and asked if they would pay for the damages if someone from a RHD country followed their directions. I received no reply and their directions have not been changed. Very frustrating when I was trying to help.
Here is the relevant part of Snydsers' instructions as they appear NOW:
Carefully install the connecting rod around the crankshaft journal with the numbers 15 on
both the rod and cap aligned and facing the driver’s side of the engine block. This will
ensure all the dippers are positioned in the correct direction.
Sheesh!
Maybe that engine was assembled in a RHD country by someone who followed the instructions.
 
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Its not Syder's fault if some people like to sit on the wrong side of the car when driving. :)
 
BINGO! Bill Lee is correct. Rod caps facing the WRONG way. This engine came this way to me some years ago and I thought it might me a good spare. I did pull one rod bearing and it doesn't appear that it has ever been run this way. Someone just reshimmed the rods. The open end of the rod dipper has to face into the dipper tray as the crankshaft revolves. Facing the front of the car, the crankshaft rotates clockwise.
 
The motor appears to have been run (verticle lines in the bore). What are the big end bearings like??
 
Synchro: The babbitt in the rod bearing looked OK. And it was nicely coated with oil. If it had been run with the dippers backwards, there wouldn't be any oil in the rod bearing? .040 pistons. No cylinder ridge at all. Plastigage showed about .002" rod bearing clearance. I don't know anything about the history of this engine.
I plan to reassemble and run it on a test stand before installing in a 30 pickup. Hopefully the test stand should tell the story. I knew you guys would figure this one out quickly. mike
 
Good plan and good luck. You will surely be glad you made the effort to pull the pan and check things out before you drove off into disaster like I would have done had my first A been done up wrong. The engine was fine and the second car I bought needed a newer engine so I found a rebuilt one from a "mechanic." He told me it was all rebuilt and he had done ur two for his boss, who then sold the car and he was stuck with the one I saw. I bought it and installed it and drove it for several thousands of miles before I finally pulled the pan. It had very few shims but had just been "fitted" and reassembled. Well worth the few bucks I paid for it, but surely not much of a rebuild. But it had been done correctly which was no thanks to anything I knew at the time.
 
Mike Peters said:
Synchro: The babbitt in the rod bearing looked OK. And it was nicely coated with oil. If it had been run with the dippers backwards, there wouldn't be any oil in the rod bearing? .040 pistons. No cylinder ridge at all. Plastigage showed about .002" rod bearing clearance. I don't know anything about the history of this engine.
I plan to reassemble and run it on a test stand before installing in a 30 pickup. Hopefully the test stand should tell the story. I knew you guys would figure this one out quickly. mike
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Will you have to remove the rod from the piston to make your reversal? I know some pistons are made to fit in one direction and are marked with an arrow. Or maybe the whole assembly is in backwards.
 
Franklin: Thanks for reminding me. I forgot to mention that last evening before I went to bed. I disconnected one rod at the crank, with crank in the far down position. Then pushed the piston up as far as I could without popping the rings loose, and carefully swiveled the rod and piston 180 degrees and pulled it back down to the crank and reassembled.
The only markings on the piston tops are .040. The top is perfectly flat. So today I turn the other three pistons 180 degrees in the same manner. I suppose there is a chance that the rings may become aligned at the ends, rather than staggered? I'm just trying to get this thing back together and running as quickly as possible so my 90 year old father in law can drive it a bit this summer. He dearly loves his 30 pickup.
 
Since the history is unknown is it possible it was a reverse rotating boat engine---- I was looking at removed engines at a closed marina, there were 2 a engines, set up the same, but different colors, out of same boat, was told that the red one was reversed, and they were not for sale
 
Kurt: When this motor came into my life a few years ago, I was told that it had been a spare engine for a Model A car. The owner had become very elderly and sold the car. After his passing, his children gave me the motor if I could haul it out of his basement, which I did.
Interesting though, I didn't know that a Model A engine could be run backwards?
 
Model T's had no dippers at all. Of course they also had a pan with a bottom "door" to adjust the bearings! Some Model A racers installed 'squirters" in the pan to insure rod oiling at high RPM's.
 
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