HD213 Wrist Pin Lubrication

Hi All:

I am going through the HD213 from my '35 C-1. Only the #1 connecting rod is drilled for wrist pin lubrication. The #1 rod is P/N 60832-H, and has the "IH encircled by C" logo. The #2-#6 rods are P/N 1820-YA, also with the logo. My Model C-1 Instruction Book lists P/N 1820-YAX as the "Connecting Rod Assembly" for this engine.

I have a copy of the 1948 Thompson Repair and Tune-up Manual, which shows a cutaway view lubrication diagram of the HD-213. That diagram shows wrist pin lubrication through a hole drilled in the connecting rod. Was that an upgrade available later?

Was wrist pin lubrication a problem spot for this engine, or is "splash" lubing good enough? Since I have it apart I am considering replacing all five rods with ones that are drilled, although I am not working on an unlimited budget.

Brian

I think it really depends on if the pin is "locked in rod", Locked in piston" or free floating. If the pin is press fit in rod, oil hole in the rod will do nothing.

Brian: Interesting that you have some rods not drilled. I'll quote from the IHC Service Manual CT-140 for the HD-213 or -232 engine:
" Piston pins float in rod and piston …..
Piston pin bushing should be burnished and reamed to give clearances specified. Make sure that oil hole in rod indexes with oil hole in bushing."
Specs for piston pin fit at 70 deg. F. are 0.0001" to 0.0002" in piston, and 0.0003" in rod (I assume that means rod bushing).

I was wondering since you have a C series truck if you might have an HD-3 or HD (just plain HD, no -213 suffix) engine? I have seen a C-30 once, presumably original, that had an HD-3 engine. The driver's side of the engine block is not flat but has a rounded off appearance like a set of six bottles in a row. In any event the engine ID stamped on the upper front of block, drivers side, should show HD-3 or HD-213. But I don't know if those earlier engines had drilled rods or not.

Tom

Cornbinder and Tom:

Thanks for the replies. The rods definitely float on the wrist pins. I think the wrist pins are pressed into the pistons, but will need to confirm this. EIther way, it seems to me the rods should be drilled with an oil passage.

The engine block is stamped with serial no. HD-47106 (plain HD) and has the nonjacketed cylinders showing on the driver's side. Before now I was not aware that there were HD and HD-3 versions of the Willys-made 213 C.I. L-head 6.

Brian

Only clue I have is from an old partial gasket set I bought. See attached pic of label which identifies an HD, HD-3, HD-4 and the HD-174, 213 and -232 series,

Tom, that's an interesting document there. I had no idea there were, what, seven different versions of the HD engine? The C-1 Instruction Book matches three of the OEM part numbers listed (the 4 digit ones), but not the others, including the head gasket. Of course the serial number on mine (47106) is lower than the "starting with" serial number on the packing list. My '48 Thompson manual also shows HD-213A and HD-232A which are slant versions.

Cornbinder, I confirmed today that the wrist pins are fully floating, although they are a tight fit. Given the clearances provided earlier by Tom, that makes sense.

Brian

As far as I know, with IHC part numbers, if the number itself is the same, the suffix letters denote updates to the part itself. So your 5 rods would be correct, the one with a different number is likely from a more modern version of the engine.

Cornbinder, that is pretty much my conclusion too. It looks like the later drilled rods may not be readily available, at least not from Egge Machine. For now I will just stick with what I have. I may swap a later engine in the truck someday anyway. Thank you for your input.
Brian

Im sure I have some spare rods to match