Restarting old engines that have sat....

[fjk]

Someplace was a thread about issues folks have restarting engines that have sat around for a while ... sorry, I forget the thread

Anyway, I just ran across this article on the BBC news web site

The salvagers who raise World War Two tanks from the dead
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2018...-from-the-dead

Apparently there is a family in Belarus that wanders around through the forests and _marshes_ there, digging out old tanks and getting them going again...
The article is lightweight but it implies that they get the engines going and that they do it all fairly quickly... YMMV


After a bit of digging ... this bunch is the “Stalin line museum” in lasany belarus
Here’s a google map link ... the museum is a bit to the north of where this link drops you

https://www.google.com/maps/place/La...2!4d27.2922893

Frank

[Doc Nickel]

There was a video some years back, all in Russian, where a group descend upon a tank that had apparently been put on display many years prior. Hatches welded shut, etc.

They pry it open, work through the evening, and by the next morning, get it started, and drive it onto a trailer. No real explanation, as it's all in Russian, which I don't speak, and no translation was available.

I do seem to recall a story about a tank that was dredged from a swamp, that was incredibly well-preserved thanks to the low-oxygen water and silt covering. To the point where the paint and markings were mostly intact, the treads still rolled when it was towed up, etc.

Story was, a young boy watched retreating Nazis put it in gear and let it roll into the water. He told the recovery people where to look many years later (I believe in the 90s) and they found it, towed it out, hosed it off, and hauled it off to be restored.

Apparently, with relatively little work, the engine was able to be started, the gearbox still worked, and the gun was found to be firable.

Doc.

[Willy]

Yes I remember seeing a few that resemble what you described Doc
I'm not sure if it was this one,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8MQqTe3sJE

Or this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Z4IOQWNKY

Definitely not an afternoon project pulling and then cleaning one up after being submerged for decades but yet still amazingly well preserved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azOsCmfdsfA

Great to see some of this old iron being preserved and restored. Gearheads will be gearheads no matter the language.

[Doc Nickel]

Yes I remember seeing a few that resemble what you described Doc
I'm not sure if it was this one, [clip] Or this one? [clip]

-Actually, I guess I've seen both of those, but the first one, the tank destroyer, was the one I was referring to. I'm still not sure if that thing had been actually concreted down or not, or had just sunk into the dirt.

Great to see some of this old iron being preserved and restored. Gearheads will be gearheads no matter the language.

-The one thing I miss is, years ago, somebody I think here on this board, linked to another board where they were detailing the rebuild of an old Sherman.

The hull and drivetrain had been pulled out of the weeds in the midwest, maybe, where it'd been used as a battering ram for a demolition company. No turret, and the front of the hull had been torched open and covered with heavy mesh, so the driver could just drive it through a house, or something.

The photos- several hundred of them- detailed them towing it home, to a well-equipped shop that had apparently done this kind of thing before, and proceeded to fully rebuild the thing. They replaced the turret, rebuilt the transmission, replaced the treads (with new ones from Europe, where such things are still being made for the tanks left over there now used today as tractors) swapped the engine for a modern crate diesel, and built a propane-firing main cannon to replace the missing gun.

I enjoyed the thread, even though while there was virtually no narration or details given, there were plenty of photos detailing everything from restoration details (correct colors of paint, correct types of this or that for this model/year of Sherman) to just gearhead type stuff showing the inside of the transmission, the mechanism used to rotate the turret, and so on.

The link went dead years later, though, and I've never seen the photos pop up anywhere else. I'd love to read it again if it were available.

Doc.