Saturday 15th October

Attendance 4:

Today was yet another major landmark in the CoBo restoration. A start was made on stripping down the engine to find out what work needs to be carried out to get the engine running as it hasn’t run since approx 1974. Today’s team was Carl Holt, Les Tappenden, Rob Mason and Adam Booth and they congregated down at the CoBo Tent. Carl Holt had a boot full of tools to help with the engine rebuild so first job was to empty the boot of Carls car and place the items into the workshop.

With that complete a start was made on the engine. Various items needed to be removed before the nuts could be removed from the studs that held down the heads. First up Les made a start undoing the fuel lines where they joined to the fuel pump, the fuel lines going to each of the cylinders. Adam made a start removing the clamps that secured the fuel lines to the engine block. There is one set of 4 fuel lines each side of the engine as it is in a V8 configuration. With the pipes disconnected Adam and Rob tried to remove the fuel lines but this proved to be impossible. There were other items that needed to be removed first. So various pipes including oil and water pipes were disconnected and once removed the fuel lines could be removed.

Next to be removed were two water pipes, one for each side of the ‘V’. All of the heads on each side of the ‘V’ are connected together by a single pipe and the pipes on each side are used to take away the water used to cool down the heads. Les undid the bolts that held the pipes in place and once undone with assistance from Rob and Adam these were lifted down and placed out of harms way.

One last job to complete was the loosening off of the two exhaust manifolds, these being located in between the two banks of cylinders. Les climbed on top of the engine started to undo the brackets that held the manifolds in place. The first three sets of brackets were easy to loosen off but as he moved along access became harder and harder. The reason for this was that there was limited clearance above the engine due to the roof of the tent. However the final 2 sets of brackets to be loosened off Les was struggling so Adam climbed up the engine from the other end to see if he could assist. Adam managed to get the first set of brackets loosened off at the end of the engine he had climbed up. The final set of brackets however was proving to be troublesome. They were hidden down in amongst the manifold and various tools were tried but they were unable to loosen off the brackets. In the end the original spanner was used and it was decided that just enough purchase could be got and so it was decided that Adam would hold the spanned on while Les pushed the spanner using his feet. So following getting stuck Les managed to turn around in the limited clearance on top of the engine and with a good push with his feet managed to loosen of the first clamp. So the same plan was attempted but Adam using his feet this time and Les holding the spanner in place and quickly the final set of clamps were loosened off and the exhaust manifold was finally loose. After a quick test to see how heavy the manifolds were it was decided that the best option would be to lift them out when the heads were removed.

While the job of removing pipes was going on Carl made a start at looking to loosening off the nuts that were holding down the heads. A Torque multiplier had been purchased for this job. Basically it works in that for every 5 turns of the input shaft the output shaft will turn once. This in theory would make it a lot easier to undo the nuts. He got together all of the required tools and made a start. A large socket was placed over the nut, the torque multiplier was placed on to the socket and the locking device put into position and then a spanner was attached at the top of the torque multiplier. Then some steady pressure was applied and the first nut began to move. After a few revolutions of the spanner the first nut was loose enough for a normal spanner to remove. The same process was carried out to loosen the other nine nuts on the head and then they were removed by the use of a spanner. The same process was carried out for the 6 other cylinder heads (One had been removed years earlier) Les, Rob, Adam and Carl taking their turns as it was hard work, usually two people working at a time with the spanner.

With all of the Nuts and Washers removed from all of the heads Les and Carl then went round and split the heads from the engine block just to make sure that there were no issues before lifting them off. With that done that brought to an end of the days proceedings at around mid afternoon. All of the tools were tidied away and all of the heads were ready to be lifted off the following day. Everyone then made their way to C&W to see if they could lend a hand working on ‘Ernest’ the class 14……..

Sunday 16th October

Attendance 4:

Today was the day to lift the heads off the Crossley engine. Initially there was Carl, Jason and Adam. First job was to start dismantling the tent to allow the Manitou access to get in to lift the heads. Jason dismantled the canvas sheets and then he and Adam gradually folded back the sheeting to reveal the frame of the tent. Carl in the meantime was tracking down a Manitou driver who was going to assist us. After a short wait in which breakfast was bought and devoured Carl and Dave Feather arrived with the Manitou. The plan was to place a strap through the fuel injector support bracket located on the cylinder head. This turned out to be fairly straight forward as the strap then hooked on to the Manitou and when in place the strain was taken. With Carl and Adam gently rocking the head it slowly lifted off the studs and was soon hanging free. This was then lifted away and placed onto a pallet. The next two on that side (this side was the side with only three heads present) were removed in a similar fashion and were soon placed on the pallet with the first one.

Next for removal were the heads from the other side of the engine block. These would need to be dealt with differently as when it was tried to get the Manitou in close to the engine it was discovered the tent frame was in the way. The tent frame needed to be partially dismantled! Adam and Jason removed three poles from the tent frame and this allowed the Manitou to get close enough to be able to reach. As before the heads were being lifted using the fuel injector support bracket, however due to limited access a block and tackle were used to manually remove the heads from the studs before the Manitou lifted them away from the engine. So with the block and tackle clipped onto the fuel injector support bracket Carl gentle starting lifting the head, while he was doing this Adam gentle rocked the head so that it didn’t snag on the studs. Once clear of the studs Carl gave instructions for the head to be lifted away and it was placed with the other heads. The three other heads were treated in the same way and in no time at all they were stashed away on a couple of pallets on the floor in the tent.

With the heads removed the final task to complete on the engine was to lift off the Manifolds. These come in two parts and are wedged in the top of the 'V' of the engine. There were 5 clamps that held them in place and these had been undone the previous day. To lift the first manifold off Jason lifted one end which allowed Adam to feed a strap around the manifold a couple of times so that it couldn't come loose. The Manitou started to lift once everyone was happy and nothing happened. It turned out that the manifold was still stuck under a clamp and after some jiggling and kicking then it came clear. Next challenge was that it was too large to lift straight out from the tent, it was larger than the gap in the frame work of the tent but with some twisting and turning they managed to negotiate its removal from the tent. This was placed down on the ground and then the same procedure was carried out and the second manifold was removed, these were then carried into the tent for safe storage.

With the lifting completed the tent was put back together, tools were tidied away and Carl left for the day. Jason then went to assist with work on the Class 14 which left Adam to continue work on the CoBo. A few weeks previously he had degreased the last bit of floor in the boiler end of the CoBo, between the wall and the main cable trunking. Adam decided it was time to give this a coat of undercoat. Also while at it Adam decided to apply some undercoat to the walls around the Electrical Cubicle, No2 Cab bulkhead and the roof in the same areas. These areas had been sanded down or needle gunned and drelled back to bare metal a few weeks previous. This took Adam an hour or so to complete and once finished it was a case of tidying up the brushes and this brought the CoBo weekend to an end……..

If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton