Unless you want the rather considerable expense of thorough
non-destructive testing ~ ~ ~ such as dye-penetrant and
Magna-Flux, maybe even X-ray &/or ultra-sound ~ ~ ~ unless you really
think you need any or all of those procedures, there is a rationale to
re-building a used case. Old-timers refer to them as being "seasoned", which
I
guess is similar to 'seasoning' a new cast iron skillet.
If you are comfortable with the absolute knowledge of the source of your
used case and know that the engine it came from was actually running OK the
last time it was shut down, clean it up - immaculately! Then, visually
examine it as closely as you know how. Ask for help: there is nothing like a
second set of eyeballs that may see something you missed. Get out your
best sets of micrometers, bore-gauges and calipers and mike the bloody thing;
again, as closely as you know how.
Heck, even if you are going to trust a new case to keeping your rear-end
in the air you'll probably do all of the same inspection work, any way . . .
. . . . .
I have yet to fly a Vee-dub, but have rebuilt several of Dr. Porche's
beauties for automotive use. Never once started with a new case. Even
hopping-up a couple of them for off-road racing and dune-bugging in The
Imperial
Valley/Yuma desert areas, where/when we ran the hell out of them in the
very worst of environments, we NEVER had a failure of an accepted & inspected
used case!
Well, that's not exactly true. We did have one failure in a used case
that we had cleaned up, inspected and found acceptable. We sent it out for
machine shop work - boring & stroking, etc. Even installed needle-bearing
mains on the crank. Damned thing was a real work of art. Unfortunately,we
did NOT re-check the machine shop's work as closely as we should have . . .
. . . . Three cylinder/head hold-down bolts on one of the cylinders pulled
out of the case. Nutz!
s/s WxBY - ORL/MCO
(_jtwxby@AOL.com_ (mailto:jtw...@aol.com) )
