Wasn't sure I'd be able to do this buddy job successfully.
Possibly could have meant lots of previously wasted time
and much money for my buddy if I botched it !!
Buddy half heartedly bid online for a late 60's early 70's
I think British made Rover and he won the auction.
He's had it for 2 or 3 years now pecking away at
restoring it.
He's got it totally torn down to bits.
over that time we would repair or remake various
pieces now and then in my home shop, as well as him
doing tons of work to it at his place.
So now he's got the engine completely torn down,
and wanted to change the rear main seal from the original
type to a modern rubber lip seal.
As he found out, there is no rubber lip seal available with the
same dimensions as the older type.
This would necessitate boring out the rear of the aluminum
engine block to accommodate the new seal.
I've never done this kind of work before, so some head scratching ensued......
How would I do this??
My mill is pretty small ...Clausing 8520 vertical that I picked up about
15 years ago.
Until now, I've never used it in the horizontal mode.
Got ahold of some 4"x4"square steel tube and some2"x2" square
aluminum tube and used those materials to extend and build up
a way to mount the aluminum engine block the the mill table.
after many hours of setup, including traming in the head to the existing bore face,
I then set up the 2" boring head.
previously had to order a 1/2" od x 3" long insert boring bar with the triangle insert
positioned so that when held in the side hole of the boring head, the bottom flat of the
insert was parallel to the bore bottom surface.
Then forgot to have on hand a chamfering bar to take care of the sharp edge of the
newly bored pocket.
So searched through my oddball collection of junk and found something that I could
put a piece of HSS tool bit in and hand ground an angle on it.
Didn't get a pic of that sorry.
The lip seal chart listed the press fit as 0.008" under the seal OD
After measuring with an inside micrometer, I hit it at 0.007" under.
For me, this whole adventure was a blast !!!!!!
We had big smiles when it was done.
I had not botched it !!
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