Miller Trailblazer 55G further questions...stuck valve

Time to call the scrap man. Sell some parts like alternators and manifolds and scrap the rest.

Why?

Better now than later.

Yep. I think you might be correct about that.

Never restored an old machine tool have you?

Gunner

I have, but there is a point beyond which the machine is scrap. A engine that is old, worn, to begin with, and is also rusted shut, with broken valves, is uneconomical to repair. My opinion only. I will admire you if you restore it, but I bet that the restoration will be a big net loss even if it succeeds.

You know that my opinion is not worth much, so, feel free to disregard. I had bad luck with everything gasoline powered, which also suggests that I do not know enough to have any insignts.

Why would my O-L-D flathead have bronze? They may have been replaced many times before I got to them.

John and Ig are wimps! Minor setback, you now have to get a valve and maybe a guide. Too bad I threw all my parts away when I got rid of the Clark. However, now it's easy to get out. I like the welded nut and slide hammer. Those valves won't be sodium filled, will they?

You give up, way too easy. :(

lesson of the day. Valves snap real easy. Patience is a virtue. Let the chemicals do the work.

Get the pieces out and crazy glue them together.

Be glad that it wasn't a sodium filled valve.

John

Gunner:

Actually, I'm more interested in the story behind the burn pictures at your site.

-- BottleBob

Just now read the complete thread, after responding to your response to my first post.

That motor is going to have be completely disassembled, cleaned (vatted), bored or sleeved, (depending on how badly pitted the cylinder walls are), valve seats installed, because the what you have won't clean up, valve guides replaced (at least the broken one) or guide liners installed.

I doubt that the pistons can be salvaged, and of course you will need a set of rings, and valves, cam, main, and rod bearings, and a gasket set.

Very likely that the crank will need to be ground. May have to replace some of the lifters, too. And you don't know if the block is cracked, yet. If that motor showed up in my shop, I would guesstimate around $1400 to rebuild it. Probably around $800 (my cost)for parts. If it is one of the oddities with a strange bore, weird water pump, goofy distributor, etc., you may not be able to find parts for it.

I've rebuilt several thousand of those things over the years and none of them was ever a straight-forward job.

FYI: sodium filled valves tend to explode like TNT when the stem is ruptured.

Indeed. The man obviously never heard of "mission oriented" The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality", John F. Kennedy.

oh that little thing? I was inside a machine base, cutting out a bearing, and my leathers got hung up and while trying to free myself..dropped the torch. It landed pointing directly at my knee, and through the leathers...I was madly flapping my knee as I had to reach down through the flame with my right hand to grab the torch.

No big deal, doesnt even hurt (burned the nerves) and the scab is nearly all gone. The burn down the right hand and wrist..that still hurts, but neither has caused me any flexibility problems.

Its been about 3 weeks or so. I heal pretty quickly..though not as quickly as when I was a kid

Thanks for asking

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality", John F. Kennedy.

Ah! I can buy a rebuilt for $900

Errrk!!!

Gunner

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality", John F. Kennedy.

I had a seized Chevy 292 20+ years ago in a Union City steel bodied Chevy Step Van. I got lucky with the original Breakfree penetrating oil. Then I needed a gas tank, front grill, fender on the passenger side, a back bumper, and to fix a couple holes in the roof that you could put your fist through. I spend $8 to get the engine running, another &8 to make an all aluminum tube grill, 97 cents to make a rear bumper, and another $50 for all the other repairs. BTW, I used 26 pounds of #6 3/8" self tapping sheet metal screws and over 100 pounds of aluminized stainless steel to do the rest of the body work. The screws were $1.50 a pound, and the aluminized stainless was not only free, but cut to size, and had the edges bent. The hardest part was replacing the lower door tracks without dismantling half the body. I spent about two weeks fixing the truck, and a month loading it twice, for the two trips south. I drove the truck over 5000 miles without removing the valve cover, but I did have to put new bearings in the starter, and replace the missing alternator. I found a 83 amp in a junk yard for $5. The guy misread it, and said it was 30 amps, After a little gunk, it looked brand new, and worked like new.

BTW, my typing may not be up to par. I had a palsy in my right eye about seven weeks ago, and I am legally blind in my left eye, when not wearing glasses. Even with them I have very limited vision. Low light sensitivity, and poor color rendering. The VA doctors are making me wait at least three months to see if it starts to heal, on its own. In the meantime, I can set the font size in Netscape to read the messages in a large font, but it doesn't affect the new window needed to reply.

I am more or less dead in the water, and have had to put at least ten pages of projects on hold.

But did you take anything away from the experience?

LIKE TURNING OFF THE TORCH FIRST!

Or is this just another case of you can't teach an ole dog safe tricks?

Glad to hear your OK but more importantly how's the machine?

LOL, Tom

Ouch.

Not quite as extravagant, but Nels was welding under a van and let go of the rod to flip his goggles up to see how it was going. But when he reached for the rod, it had moved, and he grabbed the hot tip. Ouch! he sat up in surprise, and banged his head on the underside of the van. That's when he dropped the torch in his lap. Nelson had a number of incidents involving welding torches and fire. Like the smoldering away of his coveralls, till he noticed the smell of smoke. Hole about a foot in diameter over his stomach, with just the zipper in the middle.

Sigh, life is so much fun when it is other people setting it on fire. :-)

pyotr

-- pyotr filipivich "I had just been through hell and must have looked like death warmed over walking into the saloon, because when I asked the bartender whether they served zombies he said, ?Sure, what'll you have?'" from I Hear America Swinging by Peter DeVries

I am not sure if the guides have a step at the top but with the bottoms of the valve and guide broken off it should not take much more demolition to get the rest of the valve and guide out. Just be careful to not break the block or the camshaft and try not to damage the valve seat. The camshaft may not withstand a whole lot of pressure from the lifter as I think some of them are actually chilled cast iron. A torch thru the port will sever the valve stem easily and the stub can be ground off and driven out. If the guide does not drive out from the top you can rig a screw puller to pull it after you get the valve out.

Don't forget to ream the cylinder ridges before you try to remove the pistons. Don't mix up the pistons, rods, and caps so all can go back where they were originally. That cylinder seems pretty bad and undoubtably should be bored or sleeved for the best job. It is best, but not absolutely necessary to bore all the cylinders to the same oversize. You would be surprised at how worn and pitted the cylinders can be in these old engines and the engine still run okay. When I asked someone why the smallest oversize pistons for my old John Deere two cylinder were .045" over standard, he said that by the time they were worn enough to be rebored they were usually too worn for any smaller oversize.

Somewhere along the way you will have to decide just how good you want that motor to be and how much rebuilding you are going to do. You will likely be shocked at the cost of parts for it, compared to common auto engines.

Don Young