I am in the process of rebuilding my engine after my water pump seal blew and my water temp went to 260 on the 10 minute flight back to the airport. The water pump was replaced and coolant topped off with no leaks on a cold engine. Started the engine and within 2 minutes temps went over 220. Shut it down and watched coolant flow out both exhaust pipes.
The engine was originally rebuilt with the factor O rings and I plan on using Tracy's teflon kit. When I was taking the engine apart I noticed one of the tension bolts was barely hand tight. The others were definitely not tight enough to meet torque specs. My question is do these bolts stretch and need replacing? Also do you still use the hylomar gasket sealer or is there something better?
Mike Perry
Long EZ
N981MP
The bolts are quite springy and stretch when torqued. That is why you have to keep going around the torque pattern several times when building.
I use nickle anti-sieze on the threads and under the heads. A spiral of silicone around the center of the bolt. Torque per the book up to the minimum number for your engine. Run the pattern 8 times. Let it sit over night. Torque it up again.
For your hot engine, measure the housing thickness between the plugs, and on the cold side across from the plugs. More than a.002" difference means the housings are scrap. Overheating crushed the hot section of the housing.
The chrome probably isn't flat anymore.
If it holds water after retorqueing and has compression it is probably OK. If you plan to fly that engine, get the air tools out and burn it down to a pile on the bench. Start at zero measuring everything.
I got one so hot that the engine would not shut off. No ignition, turned off the pumps, It was smoking real bad. Took a wrench out of another car right through the radiator. It was running on engine oil. Had the ever so alert driver put it in gear and let the clutch out to stop it. It smoked for an hour. Made awful noises. The clutch and distributor was OK. The rest was a paper weight.
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