170AMODELA

WELCOME TO 170 A MODEL A

MOUNT RANIER IN WASHINGTON STATE

BABBITT

OUR RECENT TRIP TO BEND, OREGON

FOR BABBITT

My Experience with Getting Babbitt poured.

A few years back, I found some Babbitt in my oil pan and knew I had to tear into the engine. I noticed the rear thrust has started to chip away and knew then I had to pull the engine. Al Rapp insisted that I do so. After I got the engine out with some wonderful members of our club, we took it all apart and Al even insisted on tearing the Transmission apart. I was appalled but when it was all apart, both the engine as well as the transmission was in dire need of a little bit of love and care.

I took the Block and Crankshaft, including the Bearings to a Shop for a physical Check-up and cleaning. They did a shake and bake, then honed the cylinder walls, measured the walls, checked for cracks and then checked out the Crank, then polished & measured the Main and Rod areas. The results were that I had a good healthy engine that needed just a bit of technical surgery.

I was lost as I could not find anyone to do the Bearing job so I posted a message on the Ahooga Board searching for a GOOD Babbitt Pourer. This was done on February 18^th, 2003. The response was quite effective as on the morning of February 21, Sabina and myself were on our way to Bend, Oregon with the trunk of our car loaded with car parts.

The big thing is that on February 22, at 7 PM, we pulled into our driveway with a complete Bearing job and the Crankshaft was installed with all the cotter pins installed (Shucks, I was so looking forward to the fight with those cotter pins). What a beautiful job on that engine. The end results were a beautiful engine.

The individual who did the pouring of Babbitt and directed all the activity was none other than Bill Barlow, our MAFCA Technical Director and his crew of Babbitteers. Several members of the board pointed me in his directions and I just cannot say enough about how nice a person Bill is. He gets his Babbitt from a firm in Seattle and is composed of 95% Tin, 3% Copper and 2% Antimony. (NO LEAD)

The sequences of bearing installation events are somewhat as follows:

The pour was scheduled 2 days in advance to be done at 9 AM, Feb 22. He had his Babbitteers all lined up and as 9 AM rolled around, the last person was walking towards the door and Bill motioned him in as the door was closing.

The fire under the Babbitt was going and the burner (looks like a burner I used to use in South Texas to burn the needles off cactus). Metal sections with beveled ends were fitted between the bearings to preclude an over flow of Babbitt when it is poured.

This burner was used to heat the cavity of the engine and the main areas to between 400 and 450 degrees to insure all moisture is out to preclude a blow-up of Babbitt.

When the temperature of the Babbitt reached 850 degrees, it was pour time. Bill had everyone back away and look in the opposite direction just in case of a blow-up. All went well and Bill did the clean up of that phase (removing excess Babbitt, etc).

Bill had poured a bunch of Caps the day preceding this pour and we just swapped Caps, which he will pour again after he does several engines. (NOTE: Rod Bearings are poured a little cooler than Mains. They are about 750-800 degrees).

The block was then set up on a table with a Line Bore machine all ready to go and after bolting down all the equipment and insured all was properly lined up, Bill began to hog out the first bunch of Babbitt. This appeared to be quite a job as he had just installed a set of new bushings in his boring machine and they were tight (he gets 4 to 5 engines from each set of bushings). While all of this is progressing, one individual is blowing out the cut Babbitt pieces with an air hose, another is insuring the oil reservoirs on the line boring machine do not run out of oil and Bill is controlling the feeding and resetting of the boring system which is operated by a 3 phase motor.

After the “hogging out” phase is completed, Bill then set the boring size to be commensurate with the Crankshaft allowing for a little polishing, cleaning up and with the Cam, etc.

The next phase, if I remember correctly, was the trimming up of each side of the bearing. Bill did all of this himself, except for his babbitteers helping to set the jigs up and bolting it down and unbolting it.

The oil reservoirs on each side of the bearing were machined out instead of just grounded out. Really looked neat especially with the oil grooves across the bearing being cut in so nicely.

He then set up his jigs and drilled oil holes in the bearings

I believe after that came the cutting of the oil grooves. Bill designed and built a jig that cuts the grooves in a very precise and orderly manner. He does the Bearings in the Block first, then puts the caps on and then cuts the grooves in them.

He then set the Crankshaft and got the correct adjustment on that, with the Cam in place. Just before he began to tighten the Crank down, he asked me if I would like to have a hole drilled in the rear portion of the Main for Oil Return with a groove. This is to reduce pressure and quit having those blasted oil spots on the garage floor. This hole is drilled from the bearing to the existing return drain (Picture attached) (NOTE: The Oil groove is not reflected in this picture as only the hole is reflected) (Picture was taken before groove cut in).

After all of that, Bill bolted the Crank in, put the torque on it, then put those wonderful cotter keys in. Within minutes, on Feb 22 at about 12:30, Sabina and I had the engine in the trunk of our car and headed back to Tacoma.

What a wonderful experience this was and to meet such wonderful people just made it more worthy of the trip. Here is hoping your next trip will be equally enjoyable.

On June 28, 2006 Al Rapp, Don Kersey and myself made another trip to Bend Oregon with five engines to have some fresh Babbitt poured.

We arrived around noon and had all five engines poured by about 1:00 PM. Just shy of 1 hour for all five in the pouring phase. I had called about a half-hour out and let them know about when we would get there and they fired up the pots and were ready by the time we got there.

After the pouring came the clean up and fine work on the raw bearings while Bill Barlow did his magic with line boring and thrust adjustments. Then came the grooving and fitting of the crankshaft. This phase took quite a bit longer than the pouring as we did not finish this until about noon on June 29^th. That still indicates five engines were poured, line bored, fitted, including rods in almost exactly 24 hours. Noon one day until noon the next. Yes, we did stop on the first day at about 5 or 5:30 PM until 8:00 AM the next day.

Quite a time and we enjoyed it very much. We can not say enough about the nice people.

Enjoy the pictures. Dick Burton

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