Revelation

Started today by removing the #1 cylinder to try and determine just what I had done wrong. After removing the lifter cover it all became obvious. Check out these pictures.

The top cover was on the engine, the bottom one is a spare. Notice the design change. The upper lifter cover has two tabs per hole while the older lower one only has one outer tab. Here is a shot of the inside.

This must have been a design change to correct the deficiency that I mentioned yesterday. The one outer tab did not prevent the lifter socket from coming out of the lifter body. Here is a picture of the outer end of the lifter body. Inside here is the hydraulic lifter and the socket that mates with the pushrod.

With the engine assembled , if you pull out the pushrod for some reason(stuck valve) the lifter socket can come out and fall into the area inside the cover. The inside is the perfect size for the socket to fall in sideways and the next time you turn the propeller it bends and cracks (it's cast) the end of the tappet body. The only way to fix this is to completely disassemble the engine. You will only do this once, it is a painful lesson. I guess the two tabs are an attempt to correct this problem. These are Superior lifters and they have a snap ring groove you can just see. The snap ring prevents the socket from coming out of the body. The parts manual shows this snap ring , but I guess that Continental cheaped out for awhile and eliminated the snap ring groove and hence the problem.   To fix my problem of the pushrod rubbing I decided to remove all the new style covers and install the older style covers. I went through my spares and selected 4 I liked. After a trip through the solvent tank, a few glass beads, alkaline wash, acid etch, and some alodine they were ready to paint.

You can see that I also prepared the inter cylinder baffles. Since it was 95 degrees,  I'm painting in the shade tree paint booth today. I am lucky to have college students for neighbors and not some Weiner!  I have been running a paint test on the Stits epoxy primer and the Aerothane. When I primed the cowl back on May 19th I put the remaining primer in the freezer.  I shot the Aerothane on May 22 and did the same. When I took it out today  the Aerothane had cured into a rubber hockey puck.

However the epoxy primer had settled and needed to be mixed but was still in useable condition.

This is sweet, I can mix up a batch of paint and when I need to paint just a few parts it is all ready to go after it warms up. When I shot the primer I could not detect any difference it the way it went on or cured. Here are the parts all primed.

I let all these cure while I had dinner and then I went out and shot the Continental gold engine enamel . I know this was a lot of work but the rest of the engine got this treatment so I just could not half ass these. They came out nice.

After I remove the tape I will bake these in the oven for a little while.

Tomorrow, Scott is coming by at 9 and we will install the cylinders before it gets too hot.  Personally, I will  take too hot over too cold any day, water and air-conditioning are cheap compared to heating. I'm just glad I don't have a fur coat. The Bobcat did not get far from the water today.