Firewall Forward - Engine

2005-04-03 - Engine clean-up. (10.0 Hrs).

Last week, I bought a sandblaster attachment, and quickly decided that I needed to build a sandblasting cabinet to go with it, so I did. I was finished too late to try it out, and it was too dark after work to use it, so I continued using various sanding devices to remove the rust from the oil pan. It's funny that the sandblaster has to live outside, but I seem to have no problem using a wire wheel, disk sander, flapper wheel, etc., to remove the paint and rust from parts, inside my garage. My garage is a mess from all of the dust flying around. When I was done, my face, arms, and legs were black--several nights. The worst part is the amount of dust in my lungs and nose. I would really suggest that you use some sort of mask when doing this kind of work. I'm going to pay for this later.

During the week, I bought some engine paint, and painted the oil pan. This weekend, I finally got to try out the sandblaster, and cleaned-up a few parts--works great. I, also, discovered a new cleaner--brake cleaner. Actually, I didn't discover it, I got it from John Slade's website (he built, and is flying, a Cozy MK IV with a turbo rotary engine). I had heard about brake cleaner before, but never tried it. John mentioned that Bruce Turrentine used it when he rebuilt John's engine, so I tried it. It works really good.

Oil pan is finally cleaned-up, outside...

...and inside. Actually, there is still a little paint which was too hard to get to. If I had been able to use the sandblaster, it would be completely bare.

Painted inside...

...and out.

Upon closer examination of the second set of rotors, I discovered what the damage was. The second engine ate an apex seal. Here is what the face of the rotor looks like. This cannot be used...

...or, can it? I was able to use a sanding disk to grind away the gouges. I just hope the balance is not messed-up, because the rotor looks pretty good.

More good news, it looks like I will be able to use the second rotor from the first engine. This is the rotor that had three side seals that looked like they were welded to the rotor. I was able to use a dremel tool with a cutting wheel to grind down the side seals enough to remove them. The side seals seemed to turn to powder pretty easily while the grove in the rotor was relatively untouched.

The top fuel rail has been blasted, the bottom one has not. The left injector has, the right one has not.

The sand blaster really took off the paint on the injector, but left the rust. This is before I discovered that I needed more sand in my container.

Both rails blasted. The two left injectors are the ones that were painted black. I used a wire wheel on them to remove the rust. The right two injectors did not have any paint, and were really rusted. You can see that if you have the blaster working right, it does a pretty good job.

Here's my high tech sand blasting cabinet. The box from Van's for my fuselage sat out in front of my garage for three months. My neighbors love me. I just can't throw anything away. Now, it is a sandblasting cabinet, so I guess it was good to save it.

	Oil pan is finally cleaned-up, outside...
	...and inside. Actually, there is still a little paint which was too hard to get to. If I had been able to use the sandblaster, it would be completely bare.
	Painted inside...
	...and out.
	Upon closer examination of the second set of rotors, I discovered what the damage was. The second engine ate an apex seal. Here is what the face of the rotor looks like. This cannot be used...
	...or, can it? I was able to use a sanding disk to grind away the gouges. I just hope the balance is not messed-up, because the rotor looks pretty good.
	More good news, it looks like I will be able to use the second rotor from the first engine. This is the rotor that had three side seals that looked like they were welded to the rotor. I was able to use a dremel tool with a cutting wheel to grind down the side seals enough to remove them. The side seals seemed to turn to powder pretty easily while the grove in the rotor was relatively untouched.
	The top fuel rail has been blasted, the bottom one has not. The left injector has, the right one has not.
	The sand blaster really took off the paint on the injector, but left the rust. This is before I discovered that I needed more sand in my container.
	Both rails blasted. The two left injectors are the ones that were painted black. I used a wire wheel on them to remove the rust. The right two injectors did not have any paint, and were really rusted. You can see that if you have the blaster working right, it does a pretty good job.
	Here's my high tech sand blasting cabinet. The box from Van's for my fuselage sat out in front of my garage for three months. My neighbors love me. I just can't throw anything away. Now, it is a sandblasting cabinet, so I guess it was good to save it.