Reassembly

April 10 - I am out on spring break. Had hoped to have then engine finished this week and back in the boat - ain't going to happen. I had finished up on all the cleaning and painting on last Friday and was going to start assembly on Saturday. Saturday I turned the block upside down to install the main bearings and low and behold the new bearings were the wrong size! That killed the rest of the day on the engine. Not that Mary minded - I got a number of things done for her around the house that I had put off due to working on the engine. Talked to Trans Atlantic Diesel on Monday, new parts arrived Tuesday morning. So after lunch the reassembly began! I put the valve lifters in place, then the cam shaft. Everything is getting a coating of oil before installing. Next the block half of the main bearings were put in place (along with the thrust bearings). The crankshaft was lowered into place. The blocks were cleaned and loaded with the other half of the bearings and mounted - all torqued according Perkin recommendations. The crankshaft turned easily by hand. Play was measured at 0.010" - maximum allowed is 0.022". The rings were installed on the pistons using a piston ring tool - worth having for about $6. Most of the 5 rings on each piston have an top side and a bottom side. The pistons were thoroughly coated in oil, making sure that oil got under the rings. A ring clamp was used to squeeze the rings down to allow the piston to slide into the cylinder with a slight tapping from a rubber mallet. Before applying the ring clamp, you should make sure that the gap in the rings do not align - they should be spaced apart from one another. I forgot this one the first piston, so I had to take it back out, arrange the rings and then put it back in. Dang if I did not forget on the second one also! I did remember for the 3rd and 4th pistons. With all the pistons installed, I next installed the new oil pump - and ran into a problem. The pickup on the new pump is 4" below the pump, whereas the pickup on the old pump was only 1.25" below the pump. The sump will not fit over the new oil pump. I sent an email to Trans Atlantic Diesel to make sure there will not be a problem using the pickup off the old oil pump. All in all a good first day of assembly.

April 11 - Trans Atlantic Diesel stated that using the old oil pickup was ok - however when I mounted it to the new oil pump it put the pickup at an angle rather than sitting parallel to the bottom of the sump. Plus it looked like it might hit the bottom of the sump due to the angle. I made measurements of how high the old pickup was off the bottom of the block and found that the new pickup is 1.75" to high. Made some marks and took the new pickup to the local machine shop for them to cut out the extra pipe and weld it back together. Until that is done, no more work on the engine. I am off to the boat to wax, paint the bottom and clean in the engine compartment.

April 20 - This has been an up and down week. I had the new oil pickup machined so that it would fit in the sump. Mounted it and then put - or rather tried to put - the sump on, only to find that the new oil pump is larger than the old oil pump and it hits the side of the sump preventing the sump from being in it's proper position. In other words, you can not get the sump on with the new pump. Had another conversation with Trans Atlantic Diesel and they are at a lose - I had sent them my old pump and they returned it with a new pump as recommended by Perkins - but it does not fit. I have ended up putting the old pump back on. I put the rear oil seal on followed by the sump gasket and then the cork gaskets that seal the round ends of the sump against the block. In hind sight I should have put on the cork gasket prior to the rear oil seal. I had to loosen the rear oil seal to get the cork gasket to fit in place. After that the sump went on. By the way, I am using a joint compound on both sides of all the gaskets. This is lightly smeared on the gasket surface, The last item installed for the day was the timing case. I took a school trip this week to a non-traditional high school that teaches in-depth courses in HVAC, networking, auto mechanics, auto collision repair, and heavy diesel repair. I told the instructor about rebuilding my engine and asked for 30 seconds of advice. He recommended using a heavy lube on all moving parts - this would help keep them from seizing prior to oil being pumped through the engine on the first start-up. His second piece of advise is to torque all bolts to the recommend torque. I had been setting the bolts to the recommended torque. I went out and purchased some heavy lube. I opened up all the crankshaft and connecting rod bearings and gave them a shot of the lube.

April 21 - I ran down to the boat today to finish the bottom painting. I also finished removing the old motor vibration mounts. I got back mid-afternoon and started back on the engine, Since all the bottom work is done, I turned the engine over so it is sitting on the sump. With the cylinders exposed, I decided to first put the cylinder head on. I discovered that I am missing two of the bolts that hold the head down. The head was removed by the marina when they removed the engine. The head bolts were in a gallon jug that I have kept. so I am not sure what happened to the missing two bolts. I continued to add on other items not attached to the head - fuel lift pump, fuel injector pump, oil hose connectors, fly wheel housing, fly wheel and clutch plate. It should not take long tomorrow to get everything not involved with the cylinder head back on. I am going to check with NAPA tomorrow (if they are open) and see if they carry the bolts I need.

April 22 - It is 2 AM. I am having a hard time sleeping tonight, so I started looking though the pictures I had taken of the disassembly and noticed that I had been using two of the cylinder head bolts when using the engine hoist. I just looked and they are still on the chain for the engine hoist! Missing bolts found. I stated back to work on the engine later this morning. Placed the two last bolts into the cylinder head and torqued it to specs. Talking about setting a bolt to torque, I have read that if you have a number of bolts (such as the 20 on the cylinder head/rocker arm) you should tighten them in a predefined order (in the workshop manual) and the you should do it in torque steps. For example the cylinder head bolts should be at 85 ft-lbs. I set them all first to 40 ft-lbs, the 65 ft-lbs and finally 85 ft-lbs. After finishing the cylinder head, I decided to put the timing gears back on - manual says you should take off the rocker arm assembly to place the timing gears on! This way the valves are not protruding down into a cylinder as a piston comes up. So I loosened the bolts on the rocker arm and put the timing gears on. Then I started all over on the 20 bolts on the cylinder head/rocker arm assembly. Next I put on the starting motor, some brackets for hold hoses and cables, the thermostat housing, air intake manifold, fuel filter bracket, oil filter holder, bracket for the oil and transmission fluid cooler. I have figured out where most of the other parts go - the ones I did not take off. The front oil seal requires a press to remove and put the new one in - hope to get that done tomorrow along with some new hoses for the heat exchanger and oil/transmission cooler. It is coming but, boy is it slow!

April 30 - The rebuild is all but done. All parts have been put back on the engine. I loaded the engine onto my trailer last night. I can not find a water temperature gauge locally for less that $60, and I refuse to pay that much. I am ordering one from J.C. Whitney tonight for $14 (plus $11 for shipping and handling, which is a bit much). Next I will load the engine with oil, prime the fuel lines, and once the water temperature gauge arrives, and is wired in along with the oil pressure gauge, the moment of truth will be here. I received a couple of packages from McMaster-Carr today - the new mounting studs for the engine mounts (they are 6" long, 1/2" diameter with wood screw threads on one end and machine screw threads on the other end). The other package was two 6' long, 1" diameter steel rods. I hope to use these with some linear bearings to allow me to get the engine into the engine room without having to dismantle it as much as the boat yard did when they pulled the engine.

May 24 - The engine runs, but I am an idiot! I completed the engine, adding the oil gauge (which turned out to be a mechanical unit I plan to leave connected in the engine room as a redundant gauge) and not a water temp gauge. Seems the water temp gauge I ordered came with it's own temperature sensor that would not fit the engine. I took the old sensor and placed it in a pan of water and heated the water while taking resistance readings. This way I could use my DVM to check the temperature. Finally I hooked up a switch to the starter, connected water and jumper cables to the starter and pushed the starter button - nothing. Tried some #4 gauge wire jumper cables, still nothing. I then made the decision to take the engine to a diesel shop and let them check it out for me. I figured that when they started it, if there was a problem they would hear it. The shop kept the engine for a week before notifying me that they got it started, but it ran rough, and the started had quit. Not being a Perkins shop they felt it best if they did not go any further. I paid them $75 and went to a smaller shop where they were familiar with Perkins. They called the next day and said after doing some checking, the cylinder head bolts were only torqued to about 25 ft-lbs rather than specified 85 ft-lbs. They had ordered a new valve cover gasket, which would be in the next day and then try the engine. It ran like a charm. Oil pressure is back up to 45-50psi. I am an idiot because I did not know how to use the torque wrench - which cost me $530! For those who are neophytes such as myself, you dial in the ft-lbs of torque desired and then the wrench clicks when it reaches that torque. Mine was clicking as gears moved inside it - what they should have stated in the instructions is that the torque wrench sounds like a gun going off when it "clicks". This has lead to another problem - the bolts that are holding the crankshaft and piston connecting rods are not torqued correctly! This weekend, I will be removing the transmission, flywheel housing ,and the sump so I can retorque the crankshaft and connecting rods before they come lose and really cause some damage! As for the starter problem, this was due to me using a push button switch that was not capable of handling the current the start solenoid needed to activate - duh! I will need to order a couple of gaskets (sump and timing cover) that I will need before reassembling, for hopefully the last time.

June 2 - I traveled down to Annabelle today and installed the new motor mounts and the gizmo to help move the engine into the engine room. It consists of two six foot long 1" diameter steel rods supported on each end by a pair of 2x12 boards. The pair in the engine room has a brace that runs from the top down to the base of the fuel tank to keep it from falling over. Running on the rods are two plates with linear bearings. The plates, one steel, the other aluminum, are roughly 24"x6"x.5" and ride on top of the linear bearings - screws help position the bearings, but carry no weight. The steel plate has a couple of eye bolts which are tapped and bolted in place. The aluminum plate has a couple of pulleys for 5/16" wire, each rated at 840 pounds. The idea is to chain the top of the engine to the eye bolts and then attach a 3/16" vinyl covered wire to the eyebolts, under the engine and then through the pulleys. The wire will be used to pick the engine up and lay it on its side. The engine is taller than it is wide. If this works, it means I will not have to remove the cylinder head to get the engine in the engine room.

June 10 - After having retorqued all the above mentioned bolts and nuts, I once again assembled the 4154 for what should be the last time on Saturday June 9th. Today I started the engine with it sitting on the trailer in my driveway. You know, in a open area it is not nearly as loud as when it is in the boat !? The one hard part to get it to start was providing power. I purchased a 16' long #4 gauge jumper cables to which I ran from my car battery (still in the car) to the engine starter, and it would not turn over. Luckily I had some #4 wire at the house from when I rewired Annabelle back in 2001, which I used to make shorter cables (and removed the battery from the car) and it turned over as you would expect. After running for about 45 minutes, I killed the engine and started taking parts off for reinstalling in the boat. In order for the engine to fit through the engine door I removed the raw water pump, alternator, heat exchanger, oil/transmission cooler, front pulley, fuel pump and the oil filter mount and associated hoses. All openings to the engine were stuffed with heavy paper towels and the engine was wrapped in a trap to keep dirt out. Tomorrow I head to the boat with engine in tow.

June 11 - I arrived at McCotters Marina this morning, and they used the Travel Lift to set the engine out of the trailer and onto the ground (a board was under the engine). I removed the transmission, fly wheel and fly wheel housing in order to get it through the engine room door. The mechanic who removed the engine, Bruce, helped me back Annabelle into the Travel Lift slip, and then using Annabelle's boom and a come-a-long we lowered the transmission and engine through the aft hatch. The transmission was set aside; the engine was placed on a 2x12 that ran up to engine room door in the hall. We pushed the engine up the hall until it was at the door and using the support tabs on the engine, chained it to the eyebolts in the steel plate. The 3/16" vinyl cover wire was attached and put under the engine. Being top heavy, it was easy to push the engine over. Using wooden levers, we slowly raised the bottom of the engine. The cable was clamped off and the engine was pushed into the engine room. Unknown to me at the time of removal, a 1/2" hole had been drilled through the cockpit floor to pass the cable from a come-a-long through. I purchased a 4" cover and Bruce used a hole saw to widen the hole. Once the engine was in the engine room, still sideways, we hooked up the come-a-long from the cockpit to the engine and slowly released the 3/16" cable to allow the engine to swing back to vertical. This took about 3 hours from moving Annabelle to having the engine in the engine room. With the come-a-long supporting the engine, I removed the plates, rods and supports for the rods. With the engine hanging by a single cable, it was easy to swing it around so I could attach the flywheel housing and fly wheel, then manhandle the transmission into place and bolted it on to the flywheel housing. I then lowered the engine onto the engine mounts - man what a feeling! I continued working until about 8 PM reattaching the other parts.

June 12 - I continued working through the day attaching parts and reconnecting the various hoses. Bruce came back and did an engine alignment. All the electrical is done, except for two wires dealing with the alternator and external regulator - I am going to have to trace them out to make sure were they go, but daylight is gone and so is my strength!

June 13 - I traced out the two wires and reconnected them. Drained the fuel/water separator and added oil, transmission fluid and coolant to the engine - time to fire it up! While it would spin, it would not start. I went through all the fuel areas, while pumping the fuel pump, to make sure fuel was getting there - everywhere but the fuel injectors. Called Bruce back down, he retraced everything I had done, and begin wondering if the fuel injector pump had not gone bad - oh no. But then we tried opening the throttle with the lines off the injectors and spinning the engine. Sure enough, fuel started flowing - so we put the lines back on the injectors loosely and with the engine spinning tightened them down. The 4154 roared to life. After running it for about 20 minutes, I shut it off and checked for loose nuts and bolts. After lunch I settled my bill with McCotters Marina which totaled to $732 - $240 for 4 hours of labor, $76 for parts and $410 for hauling out/pressure wash/blocking and almost 3 months on the hard. I motored back to my slip in Washington, NC - a trip of just over an hour. The engine ran like a Swiss watch. At 2000 rpm I was making about 6 to 6.5 knots into the current, with a tail wind. Before the rebuild the max RPMs I could get was about 2900. I pushed it to full throttle once and got 3400 RPMs with a boat speed of 7.8 knots (via the GPS).

Final Entry - was it worth the labor on my part to rebuild a diesel engine, when I had never done such in my life - I think so. My final cost is roughly $5644.78. I am sure there are some things I have left out, enough oil to fill the engine 3 times, new oil gauge, gas to travel to the boat, a few meals out, etc. While I never asked someone else what they would charge to rebuild the engine, it certainly would have been more than what I invested. Plus I know more about the engine that I ever knew before, which should help me if I ever have a problem with it. It is a feeling of accomplishment that I will treasure every time I start that engine. A special thanks to Trans Atlantic Diesel for providing excellent service and prices. I am not sure I could have managed the project with out them. Local shops helped me with the cylinder head and getting the engine started, and to Bruce of McCotters Marina - a world class guy/mechanic who was a pleasure to work with.

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