Finally started my v4 crossflow build!!!

[keefallan]

I have been saying it to you guys for too long now......about getting my motor built for my boat. Yes, I have been busy, but I am out of time, and could've done more as well. Been working on it for the last two weekends. So I will start from last weeks work. Btw, this is the same motor I started in November and started the 115/140 thread. I couldnt find it when I started this today. Moving frwd.......

Here is everything ready to go. I had previously coated the tops of the pistons, the entire exhaust tract down to the tuner. This was my staging table to grab stuff and go.


Here, I installed my CC reeds onto the lapped cages. As you can see, the screws stick way into the airflow. So I decided to cut them.



The pic speaks for itself. This is how far i cut the factory screws down.


This is the finished cage(s). I had to use my carbide bit to just touch up the areas where the screw was to get a flat area(about 30 seconds per cage). I liked the flush screws.......no chance of air disturbances..........dont know if it mattered, just didnt want to take a chance.

Before I started the real work today, I did install a cage onto my manifold. I have intake stuffers going under the cages as well as factory rubber stuffers going beside the cages. I need to trim the rubber stuffers. They stick up past the face of the intake. I will post a pic later.

Now, it was time for installing the pistons. I dread doing the needles because of my past experiences with them. But I remembered ROCK replying in a thread about a 13mm socket. So, I pulled out my 13mm socket and gave it reading.... .743 and the wrist pin was .748-.749. So, I gave it a shot............night and day difference. The socket extended just enough to grip the retainers on each side of the rod as well, so, all I had to do was push my wrist pin though..



In the above pics, you can see the 13mm socket sitting in there. The needle bearings are in there ready to go. As for the jig, I had two of them. One is for standard bore crossflows, and the other is for big bores. I made it exactly the width of the respective piston, and the side wood keeps the pistons in place. There is also a thru bore in the wood for the pin to push thru. With it, you can punch out old wrist pins(if necessary) and install new ones. The one block supports the rod perfectly centered(enough) to hold the rod in place and just push the pin thru. I use and old hitch pin(pictured) to remove old pins and install new ones if necessary(a little leverage...no hammer here). But I may tap on it to remove an old piston



This is the finished pistons and new bearings. I also lapped the face of the block on each cylinder bank to ensure a flat face for the gasket and head to bolt to. I washed the block in hot soapy water, and then blew it out with compressed air to dry it out and get it oiled up to stop flash rust. I used ATF to clean the bores even more, and I will wipe them down with two stroke when I install the pistons tomorrow. More pics then.

I have a alot to do..........got to build a mid, so that all I have to do is remove the old motor in its entirety, and install this one. I plan on using the old mid for my xp175 powerhead that needs a home.

[racer]

Pictures make it difficult to see but appears you might not have the oil hole at wrist pin up on all.

[keefallan]

Thanks for the reply Al. And you are right. I just went and checked to see('cause I swore I had them right), and I have 3 and 1. So......I guess I am starting off the morning with swapping a rod over. Thanks for the catch. I might have caught it later, and then again............

I appreciate the good eye.

[H2OPERF]

I wouldnt reuse the cirlips

[keefallan]

I started at 8am this morning to move forward on this. Of course the first thing on the list was to swap a rod around....got that out of the way, and then proceeded to just clean things up...........lower bearing, upper bearing..........install new seals and o-rings on both and the start the assembly.
This is the deck after lapping. Everything is not shiny bright, but I put a straight edge over everything on both sides. I couldnt fit a .002 feeler gauge under my straightedge. Those ears on the exhaust side of the head are always high. Everytime I lap the deck, those 2 ears always shine up first before the sandpaper touches anything else.

The carbs were rebuilt last weekend and the plastic bowls always need attention. I would love to install the metal bowls, but I have them for my v6 motors..........and I dont have the jets for the metal bowls to install on v4's. So, gotta lap the float bowls......100g, 220 g and then finish up with 320. I usually lose a 32nd or more, but the bowls are dead flat afterwards. A free fix for leaky bowls.


This is the exhaust ports after a general clean-up.....no porting, just removing the "tooth" in the middle thats left from factory drilling. That area is ceramic coated and flows into the filler blocks......see the 115/140 build from November for pics.


I don t know how many rags you guys go thru, but i go thru them like water when wiping down the bores. I was surprised to see how dirty the towels were this morning when I wiped things down again. The second pic is with all the pistons installed, waiting for the crank. The 3rd is the crank installed, caps torqued down to 30ft/lbs, and waiting to sealed up.

I stopped here because I realized that I needed to find my inspection covers. Its funny how OMC couldnt make up its mind thru the years what to do with recirc lines. They changed them 2 or three times. So, i realized I cleaned up some early covers and they were wrong for my intake. That meant finding them, cleaning them up(done now) and reading the manual for the hose routing.

So, tomorrow after work........button up the block and maybe get some primer on everything

[keefallan]

Thanks Joe........good to hear from ya

[CUDA]

Pictures make it difficult to see but appears you might not have the oil hole at wrist pin up on all.

Nice catch Al

How is lake Norman?

[racer]

Cuda thanks. Lake Norman is nice but do miss somethings in Florida. How are things?

[CUDA]

Mosquitoes, traffic, Women chasing you around the pool?

I'm looking to retire near where you were, just east, Saint Johns river area

What ever brought you to this coast? got sick of taxes and regulations?

[dagodiver]

Awesome stuff.!!!
I hope to have a running v4 crossflow soon.

Dago

[vintage v4]

On the exhaust tuning side, you may want to find a 1977 megaphone part number 321681. Its a one year only part so may be hard to find but by far the best for performance.

[keefallan]

Yur wanting me to find a unicorn eh? I completely agree..........but finding just the tuner.......tough one. If I travelled to wisconsin, I could pick up a complete 77 motor, but its too far, and I dont need another motor. I always have one eye open for one, just havent come across one yet.


Dago diver...............ME TOO!! I almost have it buttoned up. I need to get some stainless bolts from work for the bubbleback cover.....then paint, take some pics and post 'em.

[keefallan]

I've been super busy this week. But I was finally able to get it buttoned up and put some color on it. Everyone always go black. I had some red engine paint in the garage.........and I thought, "Perfect". Johnsons have a red and black theme with them thru many of the years, so I am gonna make it red............and, well, you see the results. But before you smack the dislike button, its gonna have powder coated water covers and bubble back, black flywheel, and black electronics. So, it should look decent. For those crossflow builders who see a bolt/stud in the wrong place(I'm not showing where), it was just to keep paint out. I will be installing proper hardware when I dress it out.

I would have definitely finished it this weekend. BUUUUUT, There was another side of the picture too......my boat. It needed its spring cleaning. I had to repaint the floor and topside with no slip paint(my crab boat), install bottom paint, wash and compound/wax the hull, and install a new depthfinder. I will post pics of that too.

More to come............

[keefallan]

I need to take another pic of the motor completed with the flywheel and everything on. But I dont have that yet. Today, I finally got around to working on the other part of my motor.......cleaning and painting the parts to put them together. I firmly believe tha the only way to paint an outboard is to take it apart and paint it piece by piece. I understand that thats not always possible, and I have done that before. Its very time consuming to paint pieces apart. But, you get a better paint job and better paint adhesion when you get the opportunity to piece paint. So, thats what happened most of the day today. After I finished sanding the motor cover, my son and I went and prepped/sanded/grinded on the steering head. Its a 1978 unit that works well, but the old units have a ton of casting flash. There was also a previous paint job to get rid of....mostly. After that we hung every thing on a paint rack err .....I mean a clothes rack that I used for hanging my pieces to paint. The wife didnt mind, so all is well.

This is everything hanging after I sprayed it with two coats of white epoxy. For those of you who dont use epoxy primer, I strongly recommend it. Its better than self etch and it sticks well to just about everything......if you properly prep. I had old paint, bare plastic, and bare aluminum to deal with............epoxy was the only way to go.

After I shot the epoxy, I went straight to white base coat.......two coats. Thankfully, with the white primer, color saturation was very fast. It may have taken three coats with gray epoxy or regular 2k primer. After color, I went with SPI universal clear. I shot two coats and I need to sand the cover a little(runs)....I couldnt see because the sun was so bright, and I couldnt get to an angle (reflection) to see the clear going down as I sprayed it. So, I have a tiny bit of wetsanding on the cover to fix that, but other than that, it went down really nice......being sprayed outside in the weather. I am working on getting a dedicated place to spray.....like the past. Right now, I am making lemonade. Making the best with what I have available. But I had no wind today(well light wind at times), so, I couldnt have asked for a better day to paint outside.

I will say this, I normally use urethane for outboard stuff. It would have been waaaay easier to accomplish this today. But since, I didnt have to pay for any supplies, I went for it. It was a success. But I will but single stage urethane next time. Its just easier when I dont have a booth available to spray in.

This is everything with clear sprayed on. Hopefully tomorrow, I can get the lid wet sanded and put the new decals on so you can see what it will look like as a warmed over 115........CHEERS!

I do want to thank a friend I met thru S/F who gave me the cover for this motor. He is a local Joe who races on the exhibition circuits. So, I wanted to thank him for giving me the cover to be able to get this motor done.

[LakeFever]

Looks great!