Albin engine, Part 4 - New Valves

Mounted on a work table in John Dickerson’s shop, stripped of its intake/exhaust manifold, valve cover and cylinder head, it was obvious why the engine had no compression and wouldn’t run.

The exhaust valves for both cylinders didn’t go up and down like they should. They were up and they stayed up. The valve lifters were a little pitted, too.

If the valves don’t work right on a modern automobile engine, it is relatively simple and economical to remove the cylinder heads, which contain the valve mechanism, send them out to one of the many machine shops that specialize in that sort of work, and have them fixed.

However, while the valve mechanism on the Albin engine is much less complex than that of a modern automobile engine, there are no machine shops that specialize in that kind of work for that kind of engine.

In fact, in all of metropolitan Los Angeles, there is only one shop that will work on that engine. And that shop already had worked on this engine. Twice in two years it turns out. And the engine didn’t run.

John Dickerson doesn’t work on this kind of engine, either. Or any other kind of engine. He sends the engine work out to engine shops that specialize in whatever he needs done. Usually it involves extracting much greater horsepower from an engine than its manufacturer ever imagined.

John was doing me a huge favor by hosting me in his shop. I’m always quick to overestimate my abilities. So I had assured John that I would do all the work myself if he would let me use some space, some tools, and answer an occasional question. After all,
I once rebuilt a VW engine. Many, many years ago. And to prepare for this task I bought a book about rebuilding engines.

As it turned out, my questions were, in fact, incessant. The space requirements kept expanding. And I probably laid my hands on most of the tools in his shop. In the end, John patiently rebuilt my engine for me, while I convinced myself that I was assisting.

Several hours spent trying to free and clean up the stuck valves led to the conclusion that all four valves and their valve guides should be replaced. The valve lifters would be cleaned, polished in place with emery cloth and reused. This was a decision prompted by both practicality and fear.



Removing the valve lifters meant removing the camshaft which meant removing the front and rear engine cases, which meant removing the transmission. The danger of damaging a part that couldn’t be replaced loomed larger than the probable cost of all the extra gaskets and other parts that would be needed.

A micrometer check of the cylinders showed that they had not worn beyond as-new tolerances in the 39-year-life of this engine, and they were still round. Swedish iron is good iron. All they needed was a new set of piston rings to replace the new rings that had been installed at the engine shop when it last worked on this engine. Apparently, if new rings sit in cylinders for months without the engine being run, they lose their ability to properly break-in and seal the cylinder.

Most parts are readily available for Albin engines from AME Ship Equipment Co., in Miami, FL, which imports them from the Swedish manufacturer, Fors Marin. (See listing and link in sidebar.)

Relying on ground shipping rather than air, in about 10 days we had four new valves, valve guides, a set of piston rings, cylinder head gaskets, manifold gaskets, and the other parts and spares we needed. The cost was $583.00.

I was surprised to learn that both the valve guides and valves themselves were supplied longer than they would be after installation. John deftly drove the brittle iron valve guides into the cylinder block and then snapped off the ends at the proper distance with a chisel and a sharp hammer blow.

The valve stems had to be ground down precisely to the proper dimension for the required .008 and .010-inch clearances from the solid valve lifters. First he made a V-shaped tray for his grinder to hold the valve stems at exactly 90 degrees from the grinding surface. Then he ground each by hand, checking repeatedly as he neared the proper clearance to get exactly the right dimension.

I did assist. My job was to lap the valves to the valve seats with valve grinding compound so that they would make a good seal when closed. The seats were in good shape, and the seawater in the combustion chambers had not ruined them. Valve lapping is done with a suction cup on a round handle. The suction cup grips the head of the valve while the round handle is spun between the palms of the hands moving back and forth opposite each other. It takes awhile to mate the surfaces of the valve faces and the valve seats that way.

Eventually the engine was reassembled. John welded up a mounting stand for it, complete with fuel, water and battery connections and we did a test run. It started fine. It pumped cooling water fine. But the engine would not run smoothly no matter how we adjusted the carburetor.

The carburetor, with its prior JB Weld repairs, proved itself to be just what it looked like. Junk.

Albin engine, Part 3

When my Ericson 30 was built in 1968, I'm guessing that its Albin O-21 engine was bolted into place in the hull cavity before the deck and cockpit molding was lowered onto the hull.

Now, it rested in a cave beneath the cockpit sole. Like a sleeping bear, the trick was going to be to coax the injured engine out of the cave, and up and off the boat without dropping it or getting hurt. Then we'd have to get it into John Dickerson's truck for the journey to his well-equipped auto restoration shop.

Weighing about 350 pounds, it was not going to be easy. But there were some advantages. Access to the engine from the side through the starboard cockpit locker was good. The cabin sole was a simple painted surface, not highly varnished teak and holly. A little dirt and even a few scratches weren't going to matter much. The opening aft to the engine from the cabin was large and unobstructed. And a lifting eye was bolted to the cylinder head at approximately the center of fore and aft mass.

The plan was to rig a 1-inch iron pipe through the aft portion of the cabin extending into the engine compartment, through the lifting eye. With everything unbolted, we would then lift the pipe about four inches so the flywheel could clear the lower lip of the engine room bulkhead. Next we would slide the engine forward on the pipe until it could be lifted vertically through the companionway.

With the help of a cable hoist lashed to the boom, the strength of my two companions, John Dickerson and Dick Barnes, and lubricant on the pipe, it worked. Not quickly, not neatly, not quietly. But it worked.

There were the moments when I realized that the engine was hanging about four feet above the cabin sole and I wondered what would happen if it fell. I put the cabin cushions below it.

Swinging the engine over the side of the boat so that it could be lowered into a dock cart on the dock finger was piquant, too.

I was beginning to understand why the quotes for a new diesel engine were approximately double the cost of the engine itself. I would gain more appreciation of that cost ratio as the project progressed.

Albin engine, Part 2

The day after the boat was relaunched, I tackled the problem of the recalcitrant engine again.

This time I pulled the spark plugs and found, to my horror, water.

What did work the day before when I was cranking the engine was the water pump. It dutifully circulated water through the raw water cooling system and out through the cylinder head to the inlet on the exhaust pipe.

Boats use the engine cooling water to cool the exhaust enough so that it can flow through a flexible rubber hose instead of a metal pipe like a car exhaust.

What makes this wet exhaust system work is, well, engine exhaust. It pushes the cooling water through the exhaust hose and muffler and back out into the ocean.

If the engine doesn't run there is no exhaust. So what you end up with is a very efficient system for filling the exhaust hose up with water until it backs up into the manifold, through the valves when they are open, and then into the cylinders. If you crank on a dead engine long enough you may ruin the engine.

Thus I belatedly learned Rule No. 1 for attempting to start a balky engine when the boat is in the water. Turn off the cooling water sea cock until the engine is running.

My immediate reaction, after turning off the cooling sea cock, was to run the starter while a mix of water and air sprayed out through the spark plug holes. Then I started spraying copious amounts of WD-40 into the cylinders and kept cranking. When I wasn't seeing water anymore, I checked the oil dipstick to see how much water had ended up in the crankcase. Not much. I changed the oil, cranked some more and then changed the oil again.

I still didn't know why the engine had not started. In fact, I didn't learn that until several weeks later, when I had time again to do more diagnoses. In the meantime I bought a compression tester. When I hooked it up to a spark plug hole and ran the starter, I discovered that the engine didn't have any compression.

That's when I decided to call me friend and Ensenada Race crewman John Dickerson, who owns Automotive Restorations in Downey, CA and has decades of experience with cars and engines. He also has been a boat owner for years, currently owning a Catalina 34.

The recommendation was to pull the head off the engine and view the damage.

The good news was that the cylinders looked fine. They were not rusted, nor scored. And there was no ridge at the top. Clearly the cylinders had been honed in a recent engine overhaul, and per the receipts the seller provided, there undoubtedly were new rings on the pistons.

The Albin O-21 two-cylinder gas engine in my boat was manufactured in 1967, according to the serial number history. Serial number 1 was built in 1925, so this was an old and relatively simple design.

The valves popped up and down on the starboard side of the cylinders, seating in the engine block. The simple flat cylinder head was cast with combustion chambers that extended off to the side of the cylinders to allow the gas-air mixture to be sucked into the cylinders and the exhaust gases to flow back out. The carburetor was bolted to the bottom of the exhaust manifold and had its own passageways to feed the gas-air mixture to the two inlet valves.

It was the exhaust valves that were frozen in place. The valve for the front cylinder was recalcitrant, but it would move if tapped with a rubber mallet.

By soaking the valve stem with penetrating oil, tapping it down, cranking the engine to raise it again and repeating the process over and over, I eventually got that valve free.

The exhaust valve for the rear cylinder wouldn't budge, however.

John suggested filling the valve chamber with penetrating oil and giving it a few days to work.

After 10 days of trying that, the rear valve remained frozen in place. By now I also had removed the manifold and could see that the lifter for that valve, which bobs up and down on the camshaft low in the cylinder block, also wasn't moving.

Clearly the engine would have to be removed and John graciously volunteered work space in his shop and help getting the engine out.