"Give it a turn"

[Desburnett]

Not wishing to teach Grandmother to.....

Something I picked up years ago from a Diesel Fitter was when ever rebuilding engines always give the engine one full turn after each item has been added ie before fitting next item. Seems simple but sometimes its easy to get carried away assembling components and if it doesn't work out your not sure when or where it went wrong. I recall a freinds brother rebuilt a MGB engine, refitted to the chassis and fitted all of the ancillaries up to the point of starting, which it didn't. Each time the starter was operated just a "clunk". A push start was organised and when the clutch was let out the rear wheels locked. It was some time before he found the cause....a big end shell fitted the wrong way round had locked the crankshaft. I can still hear the Diesel Fitter....give it a turn.

[dpaddock]

Darn good advice! And don't forget to apply it to work done by others on your behalf.

For example, I recently had an A10 cylinder head refurbished by a reputable fettler - new valves, guides, springs, the whole magilla. I've always done this work myself, but this time I didn't for some reasons which are irrelevant to this post.

Anyway, the whole package was immaculate, and I installed up to the point of firing it up. What! No compression?

Upon disassembling, I found small cuttings between the inlet valve faces and their seats (and atop each piston). I would not have imagined anyone who'd done this fine a job would have overlooked this, and it certainly was not obvious. But I was so impressed with the appearance of the work that I failed to do my usual test which is to fill the combustion chambers with alcohol and check for leakage out of the ports, before installing the springs.

So I blew a couple of days of assembly labor as well as spoiling a new head gasket simply because I failed to give someone else's work a "turn". And I know better. . .

Thanks for reminding us, Des.

David