Orings too big

[trbig]

No, it wasn't the O-rings, but had something to do with a gasket or something discontinued that used to be in the cam chain galley... I think? lol.

Boy, we sound smart, don't we?


Tod

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Ken,

Thanks for the vague memories! Looks like both of us have had great experience with NO oil leaks with NO O-rings! Yeah, Tod's right, it's the head gasket, the early models had a separate cam chain tunnel gasket, and it was eliminated/incorporated in the later years gaskets and can cause head damage if it's put in with the newer head gasket.

Now to really show my ignorance... Tod, you say the O-rings are to keep the oil from getting UP between the cylinder/sleeves and the aluminum jugs/housing? I know the jugs need to be heated to over 400 degrees to get the aluminum to expand enough to slide the cast iron sleeves out of them, but the fit is tight enough to keep/maintain engine compression against the head. I realize that the head gasket has the metal compression ring around the piston hole area which gets squeezed against the head to seal the piston chamber, so I guess there really isn't any gas pressures that get to the area between the sleeves and jugs, and since the oil that could leak up thru that area is not under any real pressure, it's probably not that easy for it to possibly leak up to the head gasket? And there's actually oil flowing down thru ports in the head and cylinders as it returns to the crankcase, again under low pressure, and so if the head gasket is well sealed and the head isn't warped, then there shouldn't be any worry about any oil getting up around the cylinder sleeves and jugs/cylinder aluminum housing....IMHO!
T.C.

[trbig]

Now TC,

You and I both know better than to second guess the little Godzilla loving guys in white lab coats from back then. Every motor I've had apart that far has had those things smashed up in there, so I ASSUME there's a reason for it.

But then again...these are the same litle guys that made the octopus for "Just in case..." I have a couple sets of them. If the ones in the jugs still look OK, then I take leave them there.

And... not exactly sure of the exact temps, but I was cooking some ceramic paint onto my cylinders in a 350 degree oven and set them in the oven resting on the base of the sleeves. After about 10 minutes, I heard a CRASH!!! I went to the oven, and all the sleeves had slipped out of the cylinder block, and they were standing there with the block at the bottom of them like they'd dropped their pants around their ankles. So it doesn't take 400 degrees... but the heat is coming from inside those cylinders and expanding them to the block under normal circumstances.. not the block heating up first.

The O-rings are there in the kits.. put the dang things in there! lol. I bet without them, oil will get up there and cook into a black mess that would never let you remove the sleeves if you wanted to... but I've been known to be wrong.


Tod