Tag: engine

Shade-Tree Mechanics and EXAIR Products

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

EXAIR most often sells business to business, but we also sell to individuals who need the right tools for their home projects.

If you frequent our blog it is no secret that I tend to have projects going on outside of work and I generally find a reason to have an EXAIR product when I am doing them. The first EXAIR application I had at home was in fact utilizing an E-Vac to build a motorcycle brake bleeder.  I still use that to this day, it is on my bench ready to help me rebuild my rear brake system on my bike once I decide to do it. I’ve blogged about that before. The most recent application I had was working on an early 1970’s Jeep with a close friend. He inherited the Jeep from his dad who no longer wanted to work on it. The Jeep hadn’t run in over a year and the original reason for parking it was ticking in the motor.

Broken parts removed – Time for cleaning.

Sure enough, once he got it up and running with some fresh gas and cleaning up the carb the tick had not gone away but he was able to narrow down that it was in fact coming from under the valve cover, so off it came.  We discovered that one of the bridges that hold down the valve rocker was broken, parts were ordered and we started cleaning everything off. The fix could all be had from right up top under the valve cover and should be easy enough once parts were in.  We cleaned up all the oil, removed all the bridges as well as the pushrods.

When we were removing the bolts from the valve cover and bridges there was a good amount of “sludge” and debris around the bolt holes.  When cleaning this all up some did go into the holes and we really wanted to try and keep all debris up top rather than going down into the motor. We noticed some crud around the top of the pushrod holes so we waited until we could use an Atto Back Blow Nozzle on a VariBlast Compact Safety Air Gun to pass down through the pushrod holes and effectively blow any and all debris back up to the top of the motor.  We also were able to use it on the blind holes of the bridge bolts and remove any fines or buildup that had fallen into the hole.

Cleaned up and ready for reassembly

After we were done cleaning up it was time to reinstall with the new part and having a clean top end made the job that much easier. Buttoned everything up, did an oil change, and then the Jeep fired right up with no ticking noise in the motor. Now he just has to clean up some wiring and get tags to put this classic back on the road.

Having the right tool for the job is always the best solution. Whether you are working on a car at home, or if you are career certified mechanic in a shop, the same goes across any industry. When using compressed air in an application EXAIR is the company that can supply you with the right tool to get the job done efficiently, safely, and quickly.

If you would like to discuss any point of use compressed air application, please contact an Application Engineer.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer / Shade-tree mechanic
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

HE LIVES!!!! …And His Name Is Freshie

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

Freshie 2

At long last I finally dove back into my A4.  Armed with my premonition from a dream and a deep desire to hear the engine purr, I set out to find the source of the awful noise and dead misfire.

With the noise coming out of the right bank, I started by taking off the valve cover on that side.  Per my dream, I checked the clearance between the intake cam and the lifters, but it was to no avail as everything was within tolerance.  I did notice (through luck) that the engine had stopped PERFECTLY on Top Dead Center for cylinder 1.  My exhaust cam on bank one, which is driven by the timing belt, was dead on the money.  Perfect.  My intake cam, however, looked a little off.

Chain Links

So, as the timing procedure outlines, I checked the number of chain links between the intake and exhaust cams (see photo above) and realized I was at 14 links rather than 16.  Boom!  That solved the misfire concern.  But what about the noise???

I thought to myself that regardless of what the noise may be, I had found something that had to be corrected.  The course forward would be to re-time the cams on bank two, check compression, and reevaluate.  And that’s exactly what I set out to do.

I removed the bearing caps for the intake cam and compressed the cam chain tensioner hoping to have enough wiggle room to make the needed adjustment.  I didn’t.  Then I loosened the exhaust cam, but still no dice.  Ultimately the timing belt, cam gear, and timing cover (behind the cam gear) came off to make the correction.

With the cams out I decided to check the lifters again for good measure.  What I found was an intake lifter on cylinder two that did NOT want to move.  This was the area with the noise!!  With a little persuasion the lifter came free and I found debris (almost like a dried up engine sludge) between the lifter and the bore in which it travels.  It wasn’t much debris, but it was enough to prevent the lifter from freely traveling.  Boom!  Here was my noise!!!!!!  I cleaned all the contact surfaces, lubricated them with new oil, and confirmed there were no more restrictions.

At midnight I was finally ready to hit the key, and to my delight the engine was quiet as a mouse once the lifters pumped up.  Needless to say I’m very happy to have the A4 road ready.  And, with the all-wheel drive drivetrain, I can weather through the snow to EXAIR for your application needs all winter long.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Also, about the name – I acquired a VW Jetta much in the same way I came to own this A4.  When I towed the Jetta home my son saw the crunch in one of the fenders and named the car “Crunchy”.  This one, being very clean and sporty, has been named “Freshie”.  Because he’s fresh.

Vacuum Chips from Blind Holes

Published on by 2 Comments

An engine manufacturing plant had an issue with removing shavings from a blind hole to be threaded. The machining of the engine block is done on a transfer machine and is unmanned from station to station. Shavings in the drilled holes would interfere with the bottoming forming taps, causing them to break. When a tap breaks, sensors shut the entire line down.

Capture

The initial concept was to use an EXAIR Deep Hole Vac U Gun where compressed air is blown down into the hole with a small compressed air tube. The savings are captured by a soft vinyl tube under vacuum generated by the gun. This worked quite well but would require an operator positioned at that station. The customer wanted to keep the operation unmanned.

GM Romulus BO-Vacuum System HP Chip-VacThey added another station in the transfer line and installed an EXAIR 5 gallon Chip Vac with the end of its hose modified to replicate the Deep Hole Vac U Gun. They moved the modified hose end with a robot from hole to hole. This eliminated tap breakage, line shutdown, and increased uptime by 10%. 

There are a lot of innovative  ways that EXAIR products can be used.

Give our application engineers a call. 1-800-903-9247.  They would be happy to assist you.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax (513) 671-3363
Web: http://www.exair.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

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