Still working on the engine

For years this engine has been lying upside down, without it's sump, in a shed.
The engine is now completely striped down and, as I thought, it is full of grime and grit!
Crankshaft out and inspected, all looks good; bearings and journals are in remarkably good condition, as is the camshaft.

The Subaru engine is a cast alloy unit. I have tried several methods of degreasing and cleaning. One method of cleaning I tried was a DIY home made ultrasonic cleaner! OK - it's not actually ultrasonic, it's a plastic box with an orbital sander strapped to the side, as seen on youtube.com !

Step 1: fill the box with water and add ultrasonic engine cleaner - that didn't work so then I added karcher pressure washer fluid - and that didn't work! So I have resorted to using a container full of Gunk engine degreaser, and brushes -  hard work and time consuming - followed with a visit back to the ultrasonic box to be rinsed - well, it seemed a shame to waste it! - then pressure washed to finish, that worked well, then dried off with the compressed air.

I forgot to mention the inside of the rocker covers were filthy, solid with years of oil, carbon, and grime - they took a couple of days to steep in the degreasing bath before cleaning.

As for cleaning up the outer casings of the engine, after degreasing and pressure washing I am going to try giving them a blast over with the soda blaster. I've never used baking soda, yes, I did say baking soda! to blast before so this should be interesting to see how it works out.
I am lucky enough to have my own blast equipment: a blast pot and cabinet.

I found soda blasting on good old youtube.com, a great source of information and 'how to's.

Soda blasting appears to be non abrasive and is kind to glass, rubber, and chrome but is great for removing paint. I can also recommend electrolysis as a method of removing rust - again, you will find it on youtube.com

I would say that this engine is worth fixing (the engine didn't cost me much) the only thing is that parts are not easy to come by for the EA81, and although you can find parts on ebay.co.uk, they mostly come from America so p&p is expensive - and watch out for import tax!

So far all I need is a full set of standard piston rings, which I can get in the UK. A full gasket set however is more difficult to get here, although I can get it as an import from the USA.

Subaru EA81 flat four 1800cc

Subaru ea 81

Sat 30 nov 2013
Subaru EA81 flat four 1800cc

The engine is an unknown quantity. I have no history of this engine or the year, I think it came from a brat pickup.

The engine is currently mounted on my engine stand for work purposes - a great pice of kit - it allows me complete access as I can turn the engine round to any angle to work on it. 
The engine is not looking good. I put a spanner on the crank to see how it would turn and oops! It didn't MMMM! Only one thing for it, get the plugs out and have a look, YUCK! I've never seen anything so bad! - one of the plugs was completely rusted up, so I had to take the cylinder heads off - this is a straightforward job, and everything went well. The two rear cylinders were sitting with water in, and obviously had been for some time, this has resulted in a buildup of rust in the barrels. I have soaked them with engine degreaser, then cleaned them out. I gave them a bit of a rub with some polish, which has helped, so I'm thinking I might get away with some light honing?  Still got the jury out on that one!

The heads
I don't think they're as bad as the look; I might get away with cleaning and re-seating the valves.

very rusty spark plug

cylinder head / right

cylinder bore / right

cylinder bore / left

Almost ready

Engine frame almost complete, just the feet to go on now and then powder coating. It's all a bit tricky, even the variator leg is at a slight angle. The holes all line up with each other and everything seems to be straight. If I haven't mentioned it before I'll say it now, it's best to make everything up in component parts then make yourself a jig, it's simple a sheet of ply and some 2 x inch and screws then lots more measuring. Once that lot's done, I found it relatively easy to assemble it freehand with a little bit of care. Remember when lunchtime hunger kicks in, it's time to stop or things start to go wrong - I learned this many years ago at great cost! I can recommend a wire rope/brush attachment for the angle grinder for polishing up the welds afterwards - a good weld is a thing of beauty, and this will finish it off beautifully!

Many thanks to Scotty from     www.hoverclub.org.uk
for recommending

www.hovercrafter.com

this is a great site for hovercraft especially the UH hovering

 www.hovercraft.com

engine frame

engine frame

wire rope/brush

Welding

Today was a good day, the engine jig finished and I started welding. All has gone to plan so far

All parts done, and now the frame needs to be assembled. This is another tricky stage in the build - I need to make sure that the holes for the engine match up. I do have the engine, so I can turn it upside down to bolt the side rails on; that will give me an exact template for making sure that the distance between the right and left rails is spot on.
The rear of the frame is also a little tricky as it is at a rakish angle!

The next stage is the engine frame mounts, 4 pieces of round tube of about 48mm x 40. They need a washer welded into the centre - I was thinking about using 15mm neoprene and devcon flexane 94 to secure them into place, or to mould new mounts just using the devcon flexane 94. I am open to suggestions on engine mounts if anyone has a better idea!
Today's photo is by my glamorous assistant Daisy.

Welding the engine frame on the jig

UH18 Hoverwing: starting the build

The Weary Spindlefly

UH18 Hoverwing

Located Skelmorlie, west coast of Scotland on the river Clyde

21/sept 2013
Today I got the styrofoam 75mm and plywood for the hull, it's stacked up in my workshop and ready to go. This is a great opportunity for me to buy lots of new tools and gadgets!

28/sept 2013
Started cutting the metal for the engine frame today.
The drawings from Universal Hovercraft (UH) are not great and I think it would be a struggle for most people to build the frame using them. I did email UH to ask if they had a more detailed drawing,

 but got no response.

We were lucky enough to have bought an abandoned project - we'll call it (MkI) - that has all the hardware, including the engine frame, so I was able to use it as reference to sizes and angles. The UH frame, in my opinion as a metal worker/welder, is ropey as the holes for the pillow blocks, which were also supplied by UH, did not line up with the pre-drilled holes on the frame.
Anyway, with a lot of work, it is coming together.
I have measured the UH frame, and re measured it, and have now done my own drawing in metric measurements.

The hoverwing MkII( the weary spindlefly ) is being built by myself, (John McGonigal)  Chris, and his son, Oliver.
I am a metal worker and former MG specialist,
Chris, is an expert in RC model aircraft, Land Rover and has all round good knowledge
Oliver, has expertise in model aircraft and is studying to be an Aero-engineer

We have built two hovercraft previously, but now is the time to do a more ambitious project - so we have chosen the UH 18 hoverwing.
Chris and Ollie are building one between them, with some help from me (MkI, the abandoned project )

I hope the information that I post here on this diary will be helpful to other UH18 builders.

I am looking forward to welding the engine frame together - I find welding to be very rewarding.
I do MIG and Stick welding. On this project I will be using the MiG because it is my preferred method.

The reason for starting with the engine frame is because Chris and Ollie's craft is 3/4 done, and now that I've copied it, they will need their frame and engine back soon - currently it is in my workshop.

13/October 2013
Today I was building a jig for the engine frame using a large sheet of heavy plywood and 2 x1 timber. It's time consuming trying to get it right, but it's coming along nicely .
Lots more measuring involved on making the jig, just to make sure that everything will line up properly.

Engine frame

Engine frame in jig