Pulling the engine on a 4106: Part Two, Supercharger

[OneLapper]

Of the three engines I have, not one of them looks great to me.

This blower is the one on the engine I just pulled out.  It's clear that the left side oil seal is leaking oil into the supercharger.  Inside the blower housing is black on the leaking side, and clean/shiny on the non-leaking side.  I wonder how much this contributed to my smokey engine syndrome!!!!

Leaking oil seal, inside left


Non leaking side


Look at the oil build up on the left side of the lobes, closest to the leaking oil seal. Ugh.



I found the answer to my massive blowby!  Look closely at the above picture, do you see where the manifold to blower gasket/screen slip below the upper center bolt when it was installed?  It was sucking in un-filtered air for thousand and thousands of miles!  That's a tough gasket to install incorrectly, but someone managed on this engine!  Blowby mystery:  SOLVED!

[johns4104s]

One

Sorry but I canot see were you are pointing to?

I see lots of oil.

John

[Gary '79 5C]

John,
If you look at the top of the casting, about 2" from the left, there is a oil line V shaped down to the bottom of the center bolt. Not so evident on the right side.
Difficult to believe that gasket was installed as such, but there it is.

Have a great day !

[wal1809]

I am no wing ding of a mechanic but it seems to me the gasket should have had a bolt hole in it for the middle bolt.  I can't see putting a new gasket on and missing that hole.  I have seen gaskets slip when somebody re-used a gasket that was broken at bolt holes.  Maybe somebody re-used a broken gasket allowing it to get sucked into the blower case.  I installed the black arrows because I could not get photoshop color swatches to behave, after all I have only had 2 cups of coffee this morning.

[Chopper Scott]

So are you going to put the same one back in or chance another one?

[OneLapper]

Thanks wal1809 for the photoshop effort!

ChopperScott:

I'm going to install the engine I bought from NIMCO with the blower that's on it now.  There isn't any oil so to speak in the blower housing on that engine, so all I can do is assume that it's good enough to run.  Hell. That engine that I pulled out was whipped when I bought it, and it's still running! Amazing, really.

The blower that's on the engine from the 4106 I scrapped last fall actually looks like it was a reman, it has no paint on it.  That engine ran great until it puked two injectors 200 miles from home.  Hell, the bus was sitting for years, we tossed a starter in it and drove it 850 miles overnight, no heat (17 degrees that night), no alternator, original fuel filters, etc etc.  The condition of the that bus is another mystery that will never be told.  There wasn't a straight panel on it, but it had new drums, shoes, cams, air bags, shocks, the list goes on.  Too bad.

I'm really looking forward to getting this bus running with a better engine.  I'm hoping to take my three daughter on a tour around our country in the next 4 or 5 years.  I can remember taking a summer and doing just that with my family when I was 7! Of course, that trip wasn't planned out too well, no fault to my dad's best efforts.  We were in a Shasta S&S based on a Ford van chassis.  I remember the tranny oil cooler burst 10 miles from home the day we left!  We ended up leaving the day after, which messed up the entire schedule for the next 5 weeks (according to my mom!!).  My dad spent A LOT of time wrenching on that thing! Great memories!

[wal1809]

Your welcome on the Photoshop.  I have kind of become super bus crazy lately.  It has rubbed off on a buddy who is looking at a 1979 MCI.  It needs new tires and still needs a conversion.  They are asking $5000.  I am hoping we are not about to go through what your going through right now.

[rv_safetyman]

Mark, you mention taking your three daughters on a tour of this great country.  We have three daughters (all in their 40's as of this year) and we did several long trips.  A couple in a 73 Winnebago, two in a VW camper and one in a crew cab truck with a camper (that trip we had our German exchange student with us; can you say outnumbered: 4-1?).  Our girls and our German daughter (who calls herself our German Shepherd)  still talk about those trips.  We still see her every couple of years and stay in fairly close contact.

Our daughters all have RVs and are taking their kids on trips.  Not as long as our trips but they are still banking memories!!!

Jim (Shepherd)

[OneLapper]

Jim, it's in honor of those childhood memories that I bought this 4106.  Actually, is two fold.  Maybe three.  One, I want to give my daughters the same opportunity to experience and create memories of their own childhood, much like I did when my parents took my sister around the country in that crappy S&S.  I held that flashlight for my dad numerous times during that trip!!  Two my daughters love it!  I use it almost every weekend, even if it's just to take the girls out for ice cream at the local creamery.  And the looks we get at the creamery are classic!  Three, I love a challenge.  Seriously love a challenge, especially mechanical challenges.  I always take the path less traveled because it's there.  Just look at my hobby. We've won the Cannonball Run five years in a row.  Before me, only one person has won it more than once!  My philosophy on life, you get out of it what you put into it.