DLE-111 Three Year Inspection & Overhaul

[Capt.Roll]

Made it home from work this eveing and installed the Bowman rings and attached the pistons back on to the rods. I'll finish cleaning the cylinders tonight and get the jugs installed tomorrow evening. Hopefully I'll be able to start it up for a short run on Saturday and go flying Sunday and start seating the new rings.

Anyone know the torque spec for the 4 bolts that hold the jug to the crankcase?

 

[49dimes]

New Used Engines are wonderful! Hmn...NUE engines.

Just a little tip from my years of using "Neverdull". Like Jody suggested I would get new pistons
and some aluminum polish. Equal weight pistons that have been polished and of course the bowman ring will yield better compression(given with bowman) faster acceleration and less vibration as long as you keep the timing around 24-28 BTDC. People seeing these 32-40 timed engines has to be an anomaly. I think top fuel dragsters on methanol use 40 and the knock force is unreal because they are what they are...Top fuel dragsters.

 

[bobzilla]

Thx JediJody for explanation and will do that on all 4 of my DLE's. Capt. Roll, nice work and great thread!!

 

[49dimes]

As for torque it is normally recommended by the size and grade of the fastner. Torque charts can be found on the internet. I do not know what the grade of the 111 cylinder hex head is but it should be 5 mm in size. Just make sure the threads are clean and dry and show no signs of stress (shiny areas at the outer portion of threads). Inspect the threads inside the bores in the crankcase to see that there is no shavings or debris from over torqueing. Install the bolts dry. No need to use thread locker here. Tenshon will retain them fine.

Personally, I just hand tighten then torque with the feel I have developed using a hand hex driver. When you do torque, cross torque. It evenly pulls down the cylinder and prevent offset.

 

[orthobird]

Rex, i just saw your Avatar!! Is that Lily?? does she really show her teeth like that?

 

[Capt.Roll]

That is Spike, he was my first Chihuahua and that was his typical response to a stranger. Lilly is very docile and have never seen her show that behavior.

 

[orthobird]

I knew it, she is very sweet. I had never seen her do that., that is why i asked. I am glad spike never came to the IMAC contests!!! LOL!!!

 

[Capt.Roll]

Jugs look clean!! Everything reassembled very easily.

I haven't tightend down the jugs at this point; the four bolts are probably less than finger tight. I've turned the prop shaft by hand through several revolutions where the jugs can align themselves to the stroke before setting the bolt at their proper torque. The movement feels smooth, no unusual noises and the pistons are evenly aligned with each other. I didn't measure the ring gap at the groove pin with the Bowman rings but I can tell it is much tighter than the factory rings.

Is there a best place to have the pistons resting when I tighten down the jugs; top of stroke, bottom or in the center?

 

[49dimes]

Your attention to detail is really good. So I suppose you are going to start at mechanical bottom, cross torque, then gently rotate crank and feel for any resistance or binding. By the way your engine looks really good.

 

[Capt.Roll]

Thanks Dimes. I don't know anything about this stuff but I'm learning; things I try I've probably read on a forum somewhere. There is a lot of experienced pilots/mechanics out here and chances are someone has "been there; done that" before.

Doing minor mechanical work is a part of this hobby I enjoy. Not being an engine mechanic sometimes makes you wonder if you'll screw something up from trying something like this. It was actually very simple to do and hopefully this thread will help someone thinking of replacing a piston, installing a new ring(s), changing a wrist pin/bearing, etc. to go ahead and turn the wrench.

The big question though, how's it going to run??