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I am pretty much isolated where I live, not having any rotax experts handy.There is a coolant leak thru the PTO end of the rear cylinder jug (if thats what they are called.) There may be some porosity with pin hole leak above the gasket leak, though I am hoping that the coolant is throwen up there by vibration of engine..There are 12 nuts/bolts to undo to remove the cylinder head, so that I might be able to get to the 4 jug bolts, these secure the cylinder jugs to the upper section of the two crank case halves.I believe that re-torquing the jug bolts may stop the coolant leak.I have viewed tear down videos and read a bunch of stuff BUT I feel mechanically inadequate.Is it possible to leave pull start, and carbies etc on the engine, simply drain the coolant and just take the cylinder head off? This would give me access to the 4 jug bolts in each of the two cylinders.Any advice here about how to go about this woukld be greatly appreciated.Thanks,Mitch
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Hi Mitch,I have viewed tear down videos and read a bunch of stuff BUT I feel mechanically inadequate. end of Mitch"s quote.Boy, I know how you feel mate, I have been up to my armpits fixing stuff on my new grader and the good book not always gives the right advice applicable to what you are trying to do. Fortunately I do have a Cat grader expert in Mildura that can give very good advice, unfortunately no amount of money will get him to do mechanical work.
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G"Day Brian,Looks like I need a top end, Head and Cylinder Gasket kit.Think I can do the top end. They reckon you need to get alignment tools for the head and exhaust manifold. Otherwise they say flip the head over and use it to align the "jugs" correctly before torquing up the jug bolts X 8.No other special tools required unless there is other work to be done.Should I or should I not........ :-
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If you think you have a pin hole leak in the cooling jacket it would pay to to do a Dymark check on the cylinder to see if there are any hairline cracks or casting faults in the cylinder outer wall as well.
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mitch, "chem-e-weld". a lot of mechanics swear by it . i had a problem with an engine nearly the same situation as yours but 4 stroke and the 1st bottle i used did not work, it must of been old stock and all the shaking couldn"t get the concentrate off the bottom of the bottle. so a few weeks later i tried again and it had been good for at least 3 years i think. never had to put a spannner on the engine.
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Mitch, I replaced my own pistons and cylinders on my 582. It was pretty easy. I used the exhaust manifold to align the cylinders. You need to turn up a dummy Gideon pin to do the needle rollers if you change pistons.
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If you think you have a pin hole leak in the cooling jacket it would pay to to do a Dymark check on the cylinder to see if there are any hairline cracks or casting faults in the cylinder outer wall as well.Looked for your Christian Name, couldn"t find it. So, Mr Beadle appreciate your advice and could you tell me how to do such a test.
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Hi Greg. My first name is Richard. Most good bearing retailers will sell the Dymark kit or something compatible with it. It consists of 3 spray cans and is easy to use. Its a while since I have bought a kit and I think it was about $80.00. I used it to check a cracked head and to inspect valve seating for cracks but I have seen it used for checking water jacket cracks on cooling systems and weld flaws as well.You will need to drain the coolant out of the engine to allow the dye to penetrate into any flaws or cracks. CBC bearings sold it the last time I went in to buy a bearing. If you know a good diesel mechanic he will probably have some in stock that you can borrow because you won"t need a lot to find any problems.
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G"Day Richard,Thankyou for that. I passed on your comments to the fella who is doing the decoking for me.Floods are sending out the required gaskets and circlips. Hope to have the engine off and over to the mechanic tomorrow.Thanks to all.Mitch
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Looks like you now have most of the info you need. One thing I do know is dont assume anything too much. I thought I had a leaking welshplug on the back of the head on one of our old Diahatsus but the leak actually wasw coming from a craacked heater line :-[ Tis amazing just how much an old dog can learn...We alreading have a road grader but just before christmas, I see this Cat 17 K advertised on the internet, later model than ours and it has an airconditioner. Add says in "Excelent " condition and air con needs " gassing" make some inquiries from owner and told " needs 3 new tyres, has NO oil leaks, brakes work but they need bleeding, 1 bush on front end is flooged out, hi low lever is very stiff and generally needs little doing" Well,,,,long story short, busy as here so after lots of phone calls to seller checking all the details and ignoring the old advice " of actually going and give the grader a personal checkout", I goes and buys the thing didnt I, sight unseen !! I had the grader dropped off in Mildura at a blokes place who has a big yard and is going to do the few jobs needs. Couple o days later I get to see the grader, first thoughts are to get the truck to take the thing back to where it came from, only reason I didnt was that seller most likely has cahsed the cheque and vanished. [ pity you cant pay for graders with credit cards] From the front, oil leaking badly out of seals on the scarrifier arms, flogged out bush is right, bush is gone and hole is much bigger than a new bush, needs a couple of new universals and yokes on some drive shafts and one drive shaft for the blade circle is critically ill and is US. Oil is coming out of the hydraulic tank near the cap, oil
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Mitch,
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Ooouch!Geez Chopper, sad state of affairs. Hope it all works out in the end.Hi Disco,Reckon 130 hrs, is about right. Larry said it had 60 odd when I bought it of him a few years back.Parts arrived from Floods, they were on the table when I came home at 1330 hrs after I had been out to take the engine off. That took me 1 1/2 hrs. Labelling and bagging up carbies etc. The MLS pre-rotator stuff is what takes most of the time.Yeah Disco, they say its not real hard to do and you are probably right BUT my wife was much happier knowing the "rotax fella" was doing the job.When I dropped the engine and parts off Vince said it looked very clean and didn"t think it would be anything more than flooged out gasket at the jug bolt area. His workshop was spotless, everything in place and very well organised. I feel some degree of comfort knowing Vince is doing the work. Vicki, from Floods asked if I was doing the work, when I told her not me but Vince B was taking care of it she said yes Vince does good work we know him well.So the engine at 130 hrs could use a good look and some new gaskets all round.Disco how did you treat your cylinders ie:re-honing, was it mechanically done or did you use a decoking compound?I"ve seen a lot of videos and one which decokes with the pistons insitu using a "blue goo" after using this stuff with a toothbrush on the heads of the pistons, he then uses it on the sides of the cylinders. Later after making that video he took out the pistons because the rings were siezed in there grooves.The thought of loosing one of the 31 rollers from the bearing, down into the engine was the deciding factor. I know someone who saw the results of a lost roller. Castrophic.Say Disco how are you enjoying your two place machine?Hope any and all who attend Temora this weekend have a great and safe time.Cheers,Mitch.
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It"s the pin hole leak that has me curious. Hope it turns out to be something simple or a non event. It"s always better to get the experts to do it. Saves money in the long run. Let"s know how it turns out.
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Mitch,I know you are now organised, but I am just back from NZ where I had head gasket problems. My mate had given me his Nissan Bluebird which was losing water.Youtube lead me to a mechanic in the US who suggested Steelseal before going to the expense of replacing the gasket. He said
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