BD240 Overhaul - General Questions


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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2012 9:55 am

Post Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:13 am

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

Alex Kovaleff posted in 2003 about how he had bored into the back of the block of his SD220 to accept a modern one-piece seal. I contacted him for some information, and here is his reply.

"I just take my 1940 Quickway boring bar, and put it on a steel plate, which is C clamped to the rear of the block. Nice and flat, on the rear surface. My old boring bar, which probably hasn't bored 100 engines, is held down by a 1/2-13 or 5/8-11 bolt. I put the bar on the plate, snug the bolt, just tight enough to let me move it with a lead hammer. Put a dial indicator on the bar, put it in neutral and spin it, tapping it till it is within .001". Tighten it down, I recheck, and bore a hole, .375" deep (3/8") and 4.562" in diam. (4 9/16") ID. This is done with the rear main cap torqued. You don't need to mess with a bearing at this point. Just indicate in the bore, where the bearing fits in to. Take off the cap. Clean everything spotless. Put the engine together, and seal up the rear main cap to the block. I use orange high temp silastic, or silicon, or industrial RTV, only use GE or Dow Corning. At this point the crankshaft should spin, with a little oil on the brgs. like a kids top, cause it has no seal drag. If it does, tap in the seal. This will seal up the ass end and put a little drag on the crank. Always lube seals on installation. I don't use the primitive old felt wipers, I use seals ---Caution---don't knock the spring off the seal by doin sloppy tapping. If you look inside the seal, before you install it, you'll see what I mean. I have a seal in hand and it says National 335942N USA Tells you what I know. It came out of a brand new Chicago Rawhide box with 39838 on the box. I buy these at a power transmission, or industrial bearing house."

I took Alex's information with the seal that came in my FelPro gasket set, the block, caps and bolts, to the machine shop. I think the long and short of this is that you want them to bore 3/8" into the back of the block, 4.562" diameter. Here are pictures of the end result. You can see that the old groove for the rope seal isn't used at all, so the modern seal rides on a "new" spot on the crank that doesn't have that seal wear.

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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Location: Lyman, IA

Post Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:29 am

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

Alex was a true craftsman of the 1st order. He did wonderful work.
Rope seals, done right are a good seal. Are they 100% drip proof for the life of the engine? no, of course not, but if you don't want to machine the block, if you install it correctly a rope seal will do a good job. There is no real good way to replace a rope seal with the crank in place however. There are ways to do it, but it will never give as good results as replacing it with the crank our.

Rusty Driver
Rusty Driver

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Location: Rostraver, Pennsylvania

Post Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:32 am

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

Paul,

This is awesome. Thank you for finding this info. I am going to definitely have this done. If the shop I am going to use can't do it, I will find someone that can. It is definitely worth it.
I was wondering, is it a good idea to also use a rope seal, to add extra sealing, since the groove is already there?
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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2012 9:55 am

Post Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:40 am

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

I had thought about using the rope seal as well as the one-piece. I don't know whether it would be a good idea or not. My thinking was that if the rope seal did its job, the modern seal would run dry. And engines made for the one-piece seal don't use rope seals at all. So I elected not to. And a reminder - the holes for bolting the flywheel to the crank are drilled all the way through the crankshaft flange. The mounting bolts for the flywheel MUST be sealed or you'll have a leak regardless of what else you do.

Cornbinder89 is right, rope seals, done correctly, work. It was that requirement that they be packed and trimmed "correctly", and the difficulty of replacing them, that made the other option more consistent with my skill level.
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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Location: Wichita, Kansas

Post Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:03 pm

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

In regards to the orange engine- Some people paint their engines IH red, or something close to it, since the agricultural engines were all painted red. It may have faded.
It has also been reported that some IH rebuilt engines were painted orange.

Dean
Lifelong Kansan
Grew up with red paint
Moved off the farm 33 years ago.

Rusty Driver
Rusty Driver

Posts: 147

Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:14 am

Location: Rostraver, Pennsylvania

Post Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:07 pm

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

Paul, that's pretty much my thought too. The rope seal would let the new style seal run dry. I do like the idea of machining the block to accept the new seal. I have never installed a rope seal before. I am willing to try, but it sounds like they eventually leak anyway. I would hate to have to yank the engine out to fix a leak after all this...

Dean, thanks for the info about the paint color. It does look orange, and I have confirmed this is the original engine, but I am certain someone has been into it before, so it may have been repainted. I like the orange, well what I could see of it under all the gunk, but if it was originally IHC red I will paint it red again. The gearbox has the orange on it too. I guess I'll make it red too, when the time comes.
I am going to keep looking for pics though, because I would like to see how the factory delivered them, such as was the valve cover black, etc.... I have seen the block black with red components, an the block red with black components....Both look cool, I just wonder which was more correct.
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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

Posts: 1887

Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:40 am

Location: Wichita, Kansas

Post Mon Apr 27, 2020 1:20 pm

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

The orange could also be the red oxide primer that was under the original black paint.
Lifelong Kansan
Grew up with red paint
Moved off the farm 33 years ago.

Rusty Driver
Rusty Driver

Posts: 147

Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:14 am

Location: Rostraver, Pennsylvania

Post Tue May 05, 2020 10:14 pm

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

Was at the machine shop today and the block has been cleaned. You can see a color on it now. It does look like an oxide primer. It is amazing how intact it is. The writing on the block was under the grease as well. (photos attached)
What is everyone's thoughts on this? Was this the color, or primer and the top coat has come off? I'm thinking primer, since it is on the inside as well, but would there be writing under the paint if so...?
Attachments
Engine Block 1 c.jpg
Engine Block.jpg

Yard Art
Yard Art

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Joined: Thu Mar 30, 2017 9:48 pm

Post Tue May 05, 2020 11:35 pm

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

Very cool. An old hot rod trick was to use red oxide primer inside the motor, coating all the rough casting to smooth out the finish. This was done to promote faster oil flow back into the pan. Guys with tons of time (or money to pay someone else) would sand/polish the casting to achieve the same end. Painting sure was a lot faster!. I still do to this to customer's cast iron blocks. Looks great and stays in place. In over 30 years, never had an issue. Does it really make the oil return faster? Who cares. Looks good.
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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

Posts: 1887

Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:40 am

Location: Wichita, Kansas

Post Wed May 06, 2020 7:30 am

Re: BD240 Overhaul - General Questions

I believe it is primer. Priming was probably done soon after machining and cleaning, color coat after assembly.

I have seen Glyptal recommended for castings. It was originally developed by General Electric for electric motors. I don't know if Glyptal was used by OEMs or not. In addition to aiding oil drain-back, it seals minor casting porosity.

Dean
Lifelong Kansan
Grew up with red paint
Moved off the farm 33 years ago.
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