I spent 6 hours today degreasing and cleaning the Raby Type 4 engine that I bought from Chris Sutton on this listing. I have never seen a dirtier engine. The engine and carbs were completely coated in dirt and oil, up to and over 1/16" in many areas. To clean the engine I first sealed all openings that would allow water and degreasing foam to enter inside the engine. I lifted the engine up on a fork lift and covered it with degreasing foam and let it sit the 15 minutes the instructions recommend. This loosened the sludge some. I then used an electric powered high pressure sprayer to attack the grime. It took 3 applications of degreaser and high pressure sprayer to blow away 95% or the dirt and grease. I then used a gun cleaning wire bore cleaner to scrub the hard to reach areas. I then did the same to the carbs. It may be hard to see from the pics but this engine was the dirtiest I have ever seen. It looked like it was in a flood and then buried for a length of time. I won't be surprised when I discover some level of dirt and sludge inside the engine. The carbs were filthy even inside the area under the air cleaners, so dirt was getting past the air filters. I may have said this before but the Speedster must have been driven almost exclusively on dirt roads or flat out used for off road excursions. I feel better now that the engine is cleaner and ready to be rebuilt. The 2276 Type 1 engine being built will be finished this week. I will install it in the Puma and she how it runs. It should really scream. I will keep you posted.
The first pic below is an example of how dirty the engine was.
PS. I uncovered this stamped into the top front of the engine case "RAT2003032" I assume it means this was the 32nd engine Jake Raby had a hand in during 2003. I also uncovered interesting numbers stamped on each head, the right side head has 32.6 / 34. The left head has 32.2 / 34. Each number has the universal sign for diameter which is a circle with a leaning line thru it. If it is valve sizes why would one head have a valve that is .4 mm's smaller than the other, and the sizes would be way too small for valves. I am stumped on this. Looking into the intake ports it is easy to see that some nice porting work has been done which makes sense since Jake Raby built the heads. Anyone with info. concerning this (Chris Sutton maybe? ) It would be appreciated. All in all I think I got an amazing deal on this 2056 Type IV RAT engine.
