Thursday, August 2, 2012

Engine Redo

A couple weeks ago I left the office and started the car only to have it die on me.  I cranked and cranked and cranked but could not get it started again.  I hopped out of the car, opened the deck lid and removed the air cleaner only to find the carburetor was dripping gas into the engine.  This less than a week after rebuilding the stupid thing.  So I towed the car home and let it sit for a few days while I tried to decide what to do with it.  This was supposed to be a temporary motor so I was not interested in spending $200 on a new carburetor.
 
After a little shopping, I found a good set of used Kadrons for a reasonable price.  To put them on I had to pull the motor.  So I took the chance to paint all the tin right so it would match the car.  I started by stripping it all to bare metal.  Thanks Brian for the use of the basting cabinet.  Next I had to do a ton of metal work on the rear tin, cylinder tins and shroud.  The fresh air and heat riser holes needed to be filled in on the rear tin.  Then the edge that meats the seal had to be trimmed so it fits in the old 36HP engine bay. 

After painting all the tin and assembling the motor I'm reasonably happy with it.  I would like to adapt a hex bar linkage rather than the original Kadron crap I have now.  I would also like to replace the fuel pump with an electric so there is no evidence of fuel lines in the engine compartment.  Finally I would like to get a serpentine belt system with some nice looking pulleys.