Nice Christmas present

[cgwymp]

I've been tearing down & inspecting my 8/1 and have found some interesting things.  There was a lot of side wear on the piston and cylinder, showing that the piston was not square to the bore.  I'm still taking measurements to figure out why that was.  Also, this engine has seen a *lot* more time than the few tens of minutes or so that I assumed the assemblers would run it to make sure it wouldn't hand-grenade before shipping.  There's a noticeable ridge in the cylinder.  I was bummed.

So, I called Gary at Diesel Electric Service, from whom I bought it.  He said that that was unacceptable; I paid for a new engine and that's what I should have, and that I should make a list of what I needed and he'd make it right.  So for Christmas I got a big box o' parts!  New piston with gudgeon & rings, cylinder block, gudgeon bush, valve guides, rod bearing -- everything that was worn!

Here's a big "Thanks!" to Gary and a sincere endorsement!

[XYZER]

Many have reported the block deck is not parallel with the crank. This was discovered because the Indians were instaling half of a shim gasket under the cylinder to help adjust out the issue. It would be wise to check this before instaling new parts or they will do the same thing! Merry Christmas!

[cgwymp]

I have read about the half-shims and I'm definitely going to check the block parallelism.  I'm assuming as first principle that *nothing* on this engine is correct.  Only after I've verified each dimension or parameter will I trust it.

(I'm an embedded systems engineer by trade and I love a quote by Jack Ganssle about his approach to embedded system design:  "Assume it's broken. Never figure anything is working right until proven by repeated experiment; even then, continue to view the 'fact' that it seems to work with suspicion.")

I've got some work to do on the idler gear (too much clearance between the gear and its pivot bolt).  Lash actually seems tighter than I expected but I don't entirely trust my measurements because of the slop in the bolt.  Do you anticipate a run of offset idler bolts in the near future (or do you have any on hand)?

Cheers!