[AT] Mustang/now 'first time start-ups'

[Grant Weir]

The last time I fired a newly rebuilt engine was a couple of years ago when 
we fired our Wallis for the first time.  It was January or February or some 
other cold month because I remember it was far, far below freezing outside 
and too cold to roll the tractor out.  After liberal dosages of "shimstock" 
we decided that we could not wait for spring and lit er' up for the first 
time right there in the garage (18' x 26') with the doors closed.  I had it 
totally ready to go and knew it would start and boy did it start!  We only 
ran it for about a minute as the noise coming from that straight pipe was 
really something.  My buddy Doug claimed my Dad jumped at least a foot off 
the ground when it barked. Ha ha!  It scared the hell right out of all of us 
- we all shook for 1/2 an hour after.  Good thing we had lots more beer.

On a more technical note, the engine did not smoke in any way right from the 
get-go.  I installed NOS pistons and sleeves including rings and it did not 
even leave a spatter mark on the ceiling of the garage - which was only 
about 4" away at the time of the 'incident'. :-)  We started it with the 
crank the first time too - no sissy 'belting up to another tractor' stuff 
here!  :-)

Oh yeah, and I always literally 'dunk' pistons into a can of clean oil 
before I put it into a bore.  There is no way (in my opinion...) you can use 
too much lube during engine assembly.  You CAN use too good of a lube but 
never too much.  Use a cheapo grade engine oil for assembly and the rings 
will seat just fine.  Use a slippery synthetic or the like and the rings 
won't seat right.  Use the cheapo oil for the engine break-in then switch to 
expensive slippery oils later.  One more thing I like to do is I always drop 
the oil after the first time I start and run an engine.  I usually only let 
the first oil stay in there for a few minutes, then I change it.  Most 
people will say to run it for several hours but I think there is way too 
much initial 'engine assembly' crap and dust in there to leave it run for 
that long.  Oil is still pretty cheap, at least in comparison to the cost of 
rebuilding your newly rebuilt rebuild.

Grant Weir
Saskatoon, SK.
Canada



>From: "Spencer Yost" <Spencer.Yost at piedmontsystems.com>
>Reply-To: Antique tractor email discussion group 
><at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>Subject: [AT] Mustang
>Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 23:21:53 -0400
>
>Just wanted to let you folks now that the Massey Harris Mustang I have been 
>working on over the last several weeks has come to life!
>
>Everything went pretty smooth except I was quite surprised at the amount of 
>smoke the first 10 to 15 minutes.   MUCH more than any other engine I had 
>ever done.  Man did that thing smoke like a 20 year old marine diesel for 5 
>minutes.  Then it died down to something a little more reasonable.  After 
>about 15 minutes, when I was getting it ready to shut down for the second 
>head torque-ing, it had stopped burning oil and started running clean.
>
>I'd love to hear some "new engine startup" stories from you folks to see if 
>anyone else had any problems with the engine smoking excessively at first 
>start-up.
>
>Other than that, it runs really well.   I just have some adjustments to 
>make.
>
>Spencer
>
>
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