labrador-guy wrote:

William MacNeill wrote:

The gear oil was more like sludge than oil. I don’t think it was ever changed or if it was not often. I do believe it has been resealed at one time as there was very little trace of water in the oil. It was black and not milky at all. I appreciate all of the input. It’s good to have other’s insight as to what might be going on. This is not the first motor I have tore down nor will it be the last I’m sure. I always seek out the obvious first when starting to work on a motor. Compression, spark and fuel. From there as we all know without the 3 working nothing else will either. I would of bought this motor even if I had checked the compression on it first because of it’s appearance. It will end up staying in my personal collection as I will never get out of it in sale for what I have into it.

Wiliiam, is your gear case filled with corn head grease?  Or a similar grease?  These  “O” grade greases do not mix with water.  90 weight should be milky in color if any water at all gets in side there.  These 5 1/2..7 1/2  gear cases are the hardest to get to seal up. IMHO!   The shock absorber is the culprit.  It can stretch and break the impeller housing.  That housing is getting hard to find lately.  I weld every shock thingie I work on now just to make sure it doesn’t stretch.

dale

I agree.  I must bite my tongue every time well intentioned folks encourage first timers to tackle sealing up one of these units.  Sure, most anyone can probably get the unit back together and working, more or less.  Sealing the unit properly, is another story altogether.

William MacNeill wrote:

I just got the rings in for the 5.5 Fisherman. Been working all day on the motor tearing it down. Upon checking the the gap on the original rings they were past the maximum tolerance of  0.015. I doubt that was by accident or wear. I do believe that this motor was opened before.

 

OK, well proceed carefully if you think it has been apart before.  Start by checking the ring end gaps of the new rings in different locations on both cylinders.  Someone may have attempted to bore/hone this thing and gone overboard.  Good idea to measure the piston skirts as well.  Oversize pistons are usually stamped with their oversize dimensions on the piston domes if OEM pistons were used.  Make sure that the pistons are correctly oriented in the cylinders and that there is not excessive rod wear.  These are simple engines, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t easy to screw up while assembling.  The rod caps are unique to the rod they were manufactured with and must be correctly oriented.  In short, check everything and “assssume” it was all put together improperly so you won’t miss any previous mistakes.