Oliver 1850 gas engine rebuild

[DaveNay]

I am thinking that my tired 1850 needs to have the engine rebuilt, and I am contemplating doing the job myself. I am asking for opinions on what the level of difficulty is for this task for a person with a good amount of mechanical experience but no engine rebuilding experience itself. I am quite familiar with tolerances, run-out, end play, backlash, torque, etc from having done mechanical design of industrial automation equipment but I have never torn apart an engine. I have replaced a couple, but that was a simple swap. Obviously if there was any machine work to be done, a shop would be involved, but what about replacing the cylinder sleeves? Can that be done in an average garage shop environment?

There seem to be two primary distinctions in the rebuild kits; in frame and not in frame. I am assuming that the single biggest difference is that I couldn"t do any work with the crank (or mains or rear seal) on the in frame method?

Finally, what would be the estimated time to complete this job? I have about 6 weeks until the next hay cutting, but I could probably borrow a tractor for that. I do work a regular 40 hrs, so this would be nights and weekends.

I"m sure I am only hitting the high points of my questions, but I want to make sure this is a task easily and reliably done by a regular ol" guy without specific training.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[Anonymous-0]

Having done this several years ago, I can offer an opinion. It sounds like you have the basics. Personally, I would pull the engine out of the frame, it's not too hard, particularly if you got a shop manual. Assuming the 1850G is similar to the smaller 50 series, the sleeves are wet, therefore should not be difficult to get out. Logical stuff like keeping the main and rod caps where and how they came off, checking the crankshaft for size etc. Tapping out to clean bolt holes for true torque on re-assembly. Keeping relatively clean. You may have to buy a ring compressor to install the pistons in the sleeves. It is a lot of work, but you should have an engine to last another 4 or 5,000 hours or so and save a lot over paying someone else to do it.

 

[DaveNay]

Well....thankfully, I might be able to put this project on hold for a little while. A neighbor came over this afternoon (right after I posted) and he helped me diagnose the problem I have been having (no power, backfire and stall under load). He suggested that it was an ignition problem which reminded me that a couple years ago I had bought a Pertronics Ignitor electronic ignition kit and a 40K volt coil. I performed that upgrade just now, and I think that has fixed it! Before the upgrade, if I applied the brakes hard while in 4th or 5th gear, it would get all pissy with me and backfire and stall out. After the upgrade, it powers through the brakes. There is still the obvious change in tone of the engine and the RPMS drop, but it just powers through. This is a definite improvement!

I will still need to do the engine rebuild soon though since I still have oil leaks around the fuel pump, oil pan and valve covers. And if I am replacing all those, I will go ahead and do the full rebuild. Maybe over the winter though.

 

[Anonymous-0]

we sell 1850 oh kits and all parts needed plus we have rebuilt a ton of olivers and will walk you thru the whole process--we normally can pull the engine in 2 hours and the rebuild part should take 8-10 hours

 

[DaveNay]

That's good to know. If you could contact me off forum with info, I'd appreciate it.

david dot nay at gmail dot com

 

[Mike Bock]

does engine really need rebuilt? do a compression test on it .it would be alot cheaper and easier to just fix all the oil leaks ,if you dont know what you are doing you could destroy that engine if not rebuilt properly ,i have seen a few that were put together wrong and it got ugly ,

 

[DaveNay]

(quoted from post at 16:56:25 06/24/12) does engine really need rebuilt? do a compression test on it .it would be alot cheaper and easier to just fix all the oil leaks ,if you dont know what you are doing you could destroy that engine if not rebuilt properly ,i have seen a few that were put together wrong and it got ugly ,

No, I am not sure yet. I definitely plan to do a full evaluation before making that final decision.

Right now after doing the ignition upgrade, it ran great today cutting 10 acres of alfalfa. The only thing I want to figure out near term is why I can't get full rpm out of it (never have since I bought it 6 years ago). It is most likely the governor that needs to be adjusted.

 

[gitrib]

Did it about six years ago, It was a Waukasau engine>had yhe head rebuit in a machine shop. Only question we came up was grinding the valves on th split head. Called Waukasau engine dealer he said just grind them DO NOT SPLIT THE HEAD was just a basic overhaul no surprises. gitrib