Engine diagnosis

Today's update might be a bit boring for the non technically minded although I'm sure my old engineering buddies will be interested.

The nice man from Primrose engineering has stripped the engine and identified the fault as a failed crankshaft journal on the No. 3 cylinder. For those that understand this stuff this is a picture of the underside of the cylinder head and the faulty cylinder is the centre one which has clearly not been firing properly which is why it is so clean compared to the ones on either side which are in good condition.

The journal has been reduced from 50mm to 46mm which is a large enough gap to stop the cylinder firing due to lack of compression and also for the piston to hit the cylinder head on the exhaust stroke, you can make out the bright ring at the 11 o'clock position.

The crank is badley damaged and we cannot source a replacement at present. However, it can be recovered through a process called metal spraying where new metal is effectively added and this can then be machined to the original specification. This is extremely good news as I would be looking for a replacement engine otherwise.

Richard, the engineer, will now go ahead with repair of the crankshaft, check all the other components and replace what needs replacing before rebuilding the engine and refitting to Mr Bunbury. This should take a couple of weeks so I hope to able to continue my travels in early June.