<VV> Tear-down III (was Rebuild II)

[Stephen Upham]

Last night, I began tear-down III.

	I finally got the broken rocker cover bolt issue solved.  After 
carefully drilling out all of the old bolt, I was able to use a 
standard sized bolt (no re-threading or over sizing was necessary).  I 
attached a series of six super magnets in the deep oil pan and put 
another 65 lb. rated shop magnet on the end of the filter.  I put the 
oil in and used a drill attached to an old distributor shaft and placed 
hair driers (two) on the oil cooler and a curling iron between the 
cooler and the oil filter in order to heat the oil as much as possible 
in order to loosen as much of any hidden debris as possible.  I ran 
this setup for two hours. The oil cooler adaptor became hot to the 
touch. I was hoping to find that all was well, but that's not what 
happened.
	After I drained the oil, I ran a magnet through the oil.  It came up 
negative.  I then took off the oil pan and that's when I realized that 
all was not well.  I found flakes (very few, but then how many would 
you want?) on the magnets.  It was when I used carb cleaner to clean 
the oil pan and then ran the magnet through the collected runoff that I 
really knew I was going to take the engine apart for a third time.  The 
iron debris were extremely fine, but it clumped around the end of the 
magnet like a ball. Most likely the debris came from the replacement 
oil cooler that I bought.  I thought I had throughly cleaned it by 
having a radiator shop put engine cleaner in it and then blow it out 
with a pressure hose, and then I put paint thinner in it and immersed 
it in hot water which caused it to spit the thinner back out.  I did 
this probably six or seven times alternating putting thinner in the 
cooler and shaking it back and forth until there were no more debris 
coming out; about fifteen times.  I also hand cleaned the front case 
cover and all of the oil passages.  Perhaps it came from the top case 
cover.  	
	Regardless, I going to tear it down again and leave no stone unturned 
in removing every last bit of debris.

On the positive side, I am getting pretty good at a tear down and 
reassemble.  I've almost got the torque ratings memorized. ggg

Stephen Upham
Corvairium II