Carlson Skunk Works

Well, even though it has been quite a while since my last post, things have been getting done on the plane.

The most progress has been made on the engine. I had two core engines that were both “stuck” and was trying to get at least one of them “un-stuck” to use as the base for the finished engine. Unfortunately, neither engine would give way on their own, so we had to resort to taking them apart the best we could while they were still frozen.

The engine that I had been working on the most is the one that was on my engine cart. I had pulled the valve covers, the rocker arms and push rods. Then I pulled the spark plugs and filled the cylinders with kerosene and let them soak for about three weeks. Still not luck with getting it to turn!

Well, a bunch of guys (about six) from church wanted to do something as a group project, so on Saturday, March 1st, they came over and we proceeded to tear down both engines. Between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm we got both engines completely torn down. Now I am going through the parts and selecting the best ones to build the new engine from.

When we pulled one head on the RL core about two cups of very fine sand poured out of one cylinder! No wonder we couldn’t get that engine to turn.

There was essentially no oil in either engine, so there was very limited mess during the disassembly process.

Out of 12 cylinder/piston assemblies there were 7 that were not frozen. The others are VERY rusted. I am hoping to clean up all 7 of the good cylinders and have them bored.

The crank in the RL core appears to be factory nitrided! This is good news if it is solid otherwise. It will still need to be magnafluxed to ensure that there are no cracks in it, then it will need to be evaluated to see if it needs to be reground. I am a bit concerned about this crank as some of the connecting rod end bearings look like they may have spun. This tag on this engine said it came from a car with a Power Glide transmission, but the bell housing was for a manual transmission and the pressure plate was still in place on the engine, so I don’t think that the crank had the 4 degree offset.

The cam shafts all looked good, but I will need to trade up to an OT-10 to get the proper performance.

I cut down one of the bell housings to make the front end cover for the new engine. I used a power scoll saw with a hacksaw blade in it for most of the cutting. This worked quite well, but the blade wore out before the job was completely done. I finished up with my hand hack saw. Now I need to do a bunch of filing to finish the edges the way I want them.

The cylinders are pretty rusty on the outside. I have started cleaning them up with a wire brush, but it will take a lot of brushing to get them ready to paint this way. I am going to make use of some of the stuck cylinders to experiment on ways to clean them up. I am thinking of trying sand blasting, naval jelly and electrolysis. And I might need to get a bench grinder and fit it with a wire wheel.

On the fuselage end of things I have been pulling staples from the ribs and looking for wood. Lowes in Lincoln has some very nice Douglas Fir but the longest lenght is 12 feet, so that would require scarfing every longeron for the fuselage and most of the really long pieces for the wing spars. I checked out both Menards and Builders Warehouse and came up with nothing. However, I just happened to stop at Foster Lumber and they can order anything that I want, so I am going to have them get me a quote for Douglas Fir in 16 foot lengths and Sitka Spruce as well. I can probably even have them deliver it to my house.

That about wraps it up for now. I don’t have any picture updates today.

Have a good one!