Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase price

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

OK! As promised... I was having a really hard time getting the bolt drilled out. The drill bit kept wanting to wander...

So I made myself a little jig out of steel plate. Just used the exhaust plate to mark the holes on either side of the one I wanted to drill... Drilled the 'good' ones at 17/64 or so... and a small one, 3/32 or something through the 'bad' hole. bolted it on using the good holes, then drilled out the bad hole using progressively bigger bits. Worked great, much to my amazement!

Drilled hole oversize (17/64ths), tapped and inserted a helicoil... First time I've used one, they're great! It's the top left hole...

Wrapped some sandpaper around a piece of flat steel plate and cleaned up the gasket surface a bit...

Now it's back in the engine cleaner / degreaser bucket. I'll take a bristle brush and try to get the rest of the carbon out, before I reassemble. That's it for now!

 

[1946Zephyr]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

working on a 5 hp Seaking

I'm going to manufacture my own hand starter assembly for my 1947 Sea King 5hp.

 

[Mas]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

That is a great jig...I always have some issues drilling straight. Kinda like "training wheels" but it seems to work great.

Good job!

Mas

 

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

And here's what tomorrow looks like...

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Nice!!!! That's great that you have all your bits and pieces ready to go. Did you order it all as a kit, or a la carte, so to speak? Have fun tinkering. I'm jealous!

 

[1946Zephyr]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Yep, it looks like you have all the gaskets there, except for the lower unit, but that'll be another day, huh?

 

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

OK! So... Had a better look at the bores. One side was fine; the other had three areas of pitting / staining. Not deep enough that I could catch a fingernail in it; but deep enough that I wanted to get rid of it as much as possible. The good news is, the bores measure out pretty tight (2.497 or something) so I thought I might have some leeway.

Here's what I did - checked the required ring gap, which is .007 to .017. Gave the bore a decent hone (which didn't do much to get rid of the staining), then put a ring in, pushed it down an inch or two with the skirt of a piston, then measured the end gap. It was within spec, on the tight end; .009 or so.

So I'm continuing to hone, while stopping periodically to re-measure ring gap. I'm at about twelve or thirteen thou; I'll stop soon (maybe .014 - .015). The staining is still there, but two out of the three areas are much better. (I think this pic is about halfway through the process.)

Ideally I would do a .020 or .040 overbore, with new pistons and rings. But a) this is supposed to be a relatively budget build, b) those parts are all NLA, and c) it's right on the border of acceptable... I'll be surprised if it makes a measurable difference in PSI once it's all back together. So, I'm just going to clean it up as much as possible, and not worry about it.

Oh, and took a straitedge + sandpaper to the HG surface... almost ready for reassembly (after a good long clean)!

 

[ultra353]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Thats looking good. I thought i heard these omc motors are pretty forgiving, that you could go 20-22 thous on the ring gap and be ok. Don`t take my word on it though, i`m sure one of the experts will chim in.

 

[64osby]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

tsc - Nice work, I watching and hoping I don't have to go that far on mine, but your making look simple.

 

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Thanks Osby! So far, it's only *slightly* harder than LEGO blocks! It's only my third engine rebuild, and my first two-stroke; first two were a '96 VW quad cam (1.8L 16v - complicated engine!) that I assisted on, then a '78 Triumph Spitfire 1.5L 4-cyl that I did myself... The nice thing is that at the time, I bought all the little tools (ring compressor, cylinder hone, ring groove scraper, etc.) that have made it much easier this time around.

Here's tonight; got the new rings on, and got the pistons back into the correct bores. (Pretty sure I've got them the right way around; exhaust side of the piston facing the exhaust cover, right?

Bolted the crank on loosely; I didn't disassemble it during the rebuild, but I've got something wrong, since it doesn't want to sit all the way down. Rides about 1-2 mm high. The corner of the cast-in aluminium bushing in the middle of the block got a little banged up during the rebuild; I thought I had cleaned it up, but maybe that's it. Or I've just got a bearing on backward, or the rubber o-ring in the wrong place.... haven't started looking at the exploded diagram yet, I'm sure it's something simple.

Cleaned up the exhaust plate; a quick bath in parts cleaner, then a quick scrape with a chisel, followed by a once-over with steel wool. I was surprised at how nicely it came up.

Was hoping to find hex-socket replacements for the exhaust cover screws, but not a lot is open on Xmas eve. (Slackers!) But I did manage to find some 1/4" - 20, 3/4" stainless steel bolts with Robertson heads at my local hardware store. (For the Americans in the crowd... P. L. Robertson was a Canadian who invented a number of fastener types, including the tapered square and triple square. Far superior to flathead or Phillips; see here for more info.)

I have installed them, using a little anti-seize on (aka copper grease) each. Hopefully that's acceptable? They were hard enough to get off, I can't imagine needing loktite or anything on them.

And that's it! Will try to get the crank figured out, then call it a night. Merry Christmas everyone!

-Duncan

 

[1946Zephyr]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Yep, the pistons look good. The steep side of the crown goes toward the intake side. I think those cylinders will work out fine. After a few hours of running, that stuff should be gone. The new rings seating in will clean it up.

 

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Zeph, any idea what I'm doing wrong with the crank? a) Do all the bearings need to be rotated so that the larger oil hole fits over the (brass) drain hole in the block? And/or... Bah, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It may just be the corner of the center (aluminum) fixed bushing... but it's too cold out there to mess with it tonight!

 

[1946Zephyr]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

See if there are any pins to line up the bearing cages and yes, you also want to make sure that hole line up with the ones in the block, so fuel mix can get through the bearings.

You can look here for a complete breakdown of your motor.
http://www.marineengine.com/parts/v...ntage-evinrude-johnson/278647/27864700001.htm

 

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Well! I'm not quite sure what did it in the end... I think it was prying the lower bearing race down (against the pressure of the spring in the end of the crank) to line it up the oil hole... but the crank finally dropped into place. So now that I knew it would go... I had to pull everything apart again to do a final wash-down with carb cleaner. (Realized I hadn't dressed one of the gasket surfaces, and didn't want sand in the bores!) Tear down, sand all gasket surfaces, then grease / lube everything (I'm using bearing grease on the bearings, 3-in-1 on everything else), and assemble. First pic is with pistons in;

Managed to get the cages / roller bearings on, caps on, crank in, case still fits nicely. Yay. Then Permatex Grey (recommended for crankcases) painted on both sides; let sit for one minute, then assemble and torque immediately.

Oh !@#$%#^&... Writing this, I just realized... I don't think I torqued down the con rod cap bolts. Son of a...

Well there you go. Here's some pix of a nice clean case that I'm about to have to open again. :S

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Looks great. But it sucks that you gotta take it apart again

 

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

OK, so... split the case again, torqued the con rod bolts, re-sealed the case. Let's go from there...

Cleaned the head, dressed the gasket surface, cleaned again with brake cleaner; ready to assemble.

Head gasket goes on dry; test fit.

The bolts were pretty grubby, but I didn't have any 3/8 x 18NC hanging around... and not much is open at 11PM on December 26th. So, clean and re-use. Just in case there's anyone reading who wants to learn about this kind of thing... here's where a tap and die set comes in handy. First, I ran a tap through all the holes; lubricate (I used proprietary tapping lube; 3-in-1, ATF or other light lubricant will do in a pinch.

Then; crusty bolt #1.

Put in vice; attack with wire brush to get the worst of the crusty sediment off the threads.

Then, lubricate, and run a die down it. Same technique as with a tap; forward half a turn or so, then back off 1/4 turn so the cutting edge doesn't jam up. Wipe off or wire-brush when done.

Owner's manual says to torque to 120-130 inch feet; that's only 10-11 lb.-ft. Can that be right?!?

 

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Anyway, head is on.

Now for the ancillary bits; old and new thermostats. Wonder if this is the reason it was seized?

Cleaned up and installed both bypass covers; fuel pump on upper. Threw the old spark plugs in, just to cover the holes and stop me from dropping something down them!

Cleaned up the oil drain cover as well; tomorrow I'll attack the intake, I can't seem to find the right hex wrench (for the two hex-head bolts that attach the crankcase, and are covered by the intake plate) so it will have to wait until tomorrow. That's OK though, it was getting a little cold out there, even with the Guinness 'liquid courage'!

-Duncan

 

[tosoutherncars]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

Oh! And I meant to ask... I plan on using this as a kicker on my fishing boat, but I thought it might be fun to pick up a cheap tinnie to run it on as the main motor, too (for rivers and smaller lakes). What should I be looking for, 13' - 14'? Is that about what an 18HP will push fairly well?

 

[1946Zephyr]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

A nice 14' aluminum boat would be great for that. Like a Mirrorcraft, or Smoker Craft. Nice job on the rebuild

 

[64osby]

Re: Start-to-finish, complete rebuild of a 1965 Evinrude Fastwin 18HP, $90 purchase p

You could add Starcraft and Lone Star to the boat list that 46Z mentioned. All are quality boats. Nice work, lookin purdy.