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When Disaster Strikes

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Old 12-09-2003 | 11:02 AM
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Well I was looking forward to a wonderful Bridge Port and rebuild when....







On the way to Judge Ito's shop to pick up the goods and I let it warm up and all I brought the revs up to about 4K and bang... instant lawn mower. I limped it back to the garage and started to tear down. I checked the seals through the exhaust ports. Cyl 1 all clear, Cyl 2 2 apex seals busted and I felt the edge of the seal groove and it feels kinda gouged. I'll assess the damage and post pics of the rebuild. I am trying to test out a new bridge Port design so I'll see what I can bring to the table in the form of R&D.



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Old 12-09-2003 | 12:02 PM
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Sorry to hear. Bridge port motor sounds good.
Old 12-09-2003 | 07:01 PM
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I had mentioned your 12A was sounding kind of tired.
Old 12-10-2003 | 01:00 AM
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Well I stripped it down as far as I could. I will be stopping in tomorrow with the short block. I need the special tools for the fly wheel, so I might as well just get it torn down so that we can get a damage report.



The pieces of apex seal I found appeared to be shorter than the minimum. It was just a matter of time.



BTW that was the original engine with 102,526 miles. Not bad for something most would call unreliable!



Well I wanted a rebuild anyway what a better motivation than this.



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Old 12-10-2003 | 07:39 PM
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Well today we found out just how tired the engine really was!
Attached Thumbnails When Disaster Strikes-10dec03_001.jpg  
Old 12-10-2003 | 07:40 PM
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Seargent Cales, post your 12A granade pics..
Old 12-10-2003 | 07:41 PM
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Problem number one was obviously the apex seals
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Old 12-10-2003 | 07:42 PM
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The size needs to be at least 7 mm tall... sorry for the fuzzy pic.
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Old 12-10-2003 | 07:44 PM
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Damage to the rotor
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Old 12-10-2003 | 07:46 PM
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The clearance from the side seals to the corner seals was about .5 mm...

WAY TOO MUCH! The corner seals themselves had no springyness to them. They were stuck in their in positions.



Also the coolant rings were falling apart like granola bars in my 7 year old son's lunchbox.
Attached Thumbnails When Disaster Strikes-10dec03_005.jpg  



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