“All been done?” Yet another guy RIPPED OFF with a KNACKERED rebuilt engine!

We show how out of balance a new crankshaft and a high performance flywheel can be on our balance machine, we show another Heath Robinson setup that will get the haters going in the comments and we have yet another engine in that is supposedly meant to have been reconditioned, this is a beauty!

[@garethprice218]

Britain was built on Heath Robinson set ups! 😂

[@mickyanderson3639]

Great British bodgeinuity you mean.. or the WW2 term make do and mends

[@alanrichardson1672]

​@@mickyanderson3639bodge it and scarper

[@neill4133]

British Leyland and 70s Ford were renown for quality!

[@bigturboxr3i]

Britain is a Heath Robinson set up.

[@derekhobbs1102]

Finally, someone who calls it a G clamp, and not a C clamp.

[@madeljacky]

If you have never done a Heath Robinson set up in your life your not trying hard enough to get a job done, another great video Lee.

[@xiamaramu1538]

if that was my engine he was working on and it worked out just fine... there be beer on Friday.

[@charlesgraham9954]

keep being honest, and as transparent as possible, within reason, and admit any mess ups, at the end of the day, most people just want an honest man/woman. I've said it before, u will build a business from honesty. i would absolutely bring an engine to u. also i want to tell i appreciate u making video and bring us alone, i know how long it take to film and edit. so thank u.

[@DaleSteel]

No. Most ppl just want the cheapest. Your clearly not in business

[@captaintoyota3171]

​@DaleSteel not in every business. Only never ending profit greedy corporations. You can run a niche business on honor and great service and make $. Not as much $ as a greedy liar but you can sleep at night.

[@ianryan606]

Could you do a video on how you balance item, love the channel keep up the great work.

[@Airgunfunrich]

If it works it works simple as that! I did many “effective field repairs” when I was in the army, was annotated on job card to come into workshop for “ proper” repair when back on camp an I never saw any of them again…

[@tonypybus8003]

I full concur with you - ex REME myself

[@glennpowell3444]

I love your reference you often make to"Heath Robinson" set ups to provide a solution.The thing is that to set up i and improvise youself is in itself very specific to a particular task and therefore represents engineering be a mechanical or structual level that works better often than a more specific way of doing a job you can buy off the shelf.I am very much on the old Heath Robinson school side of getting a job done.Its a way of solving an issue often using the most basic of methods.

[@MONTY-YTNOM]

When I was at Engineering collage, we was always told. If it works its a good job. We had to make, jerry rig or Heath R lot's of things back them. You couldn't buy stuff like you can now.

[@nicsrover3324]

I often wonder how many people go and google Heath Robinson? I have a 1949 book of his wonderful cartoons and contraptions.

[@puggzymalone5824]

Yeah it always makes me smile when you say Heath Robinson it takes me back to my childhood (I was born in 1980 so I grew up in the 80's and early 90's) and whenever I was "helping" my Dad with a job he would often say well this is a Heath Robinson set up. And in the end I asked who or what was a Heath Robinson. And he proceeded to tell me about the film called the Swiss Family Robinson which came out in 1960 and featured a family stuck on a desert island and they had come up with these ingenious solutions to make life on the island as easy for them as possible. One bank holiday afternoon we watched it and as a child I absolutely loved it!

[@JezCunningham]

yeah... a bit before 1960! But a good story from your Dad! (See Wikipedia.)

[@ericmcrae7758]

Your Dad was not quite right the following is from Wikipedia William Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist, best known for drawings of whimsically elaborate machines to achieve simple objectives. In the UK, the term "Heath Robinson contraption" gained dictionary recognition around 1912. !872 - !944. When I was child in the 50's we had a book of his cartoons, I wish I still had it.

[@puggzymalone5824]

@@ericmcrae7758 Well I never! Didn't realise it started as early as that! Still enjoyed the film though, i'm now going to see if its available on youtube!

[@fredsmith6725]

Great video, but you didn't say what needs to be done to balance clutch cover, or even if that is possible. I'd love to see that. Thanks

[@markthompson8656]

me too

[@markgulyas2455]

Love the videos. Absolutely nothing wrong with your piston setup. If you know your machine and know your material, you know or con estimate the cutter load. I've had weaker setups and have had no problems because I trust my ability to use the machines I have. keep up the good work. Thanks, from Australia

[@CrimeVid]

That mini engine will blow it’s head gasket the minute you think it might be ok, I knew a guy that raced the things, he had a large collection of buggered engines, burnt through between the cylinders.

[@paulnolan1352]

Cheers Lee, carry on in the land of Engine buildery.

[@matthewharmer1656]

Love all the exposed fast spinning metal lumps,not a guard in sight... hope you have good insurance ?

[@alanrichardson1672]

They won't get away with their shocking attitude to safety forever. Unfortunately, sooner or later there will be a serious accident. 😮

[@michaelmason5459]

Engineering experience and skill makes Heath Robinson ideas work he'd be proud of you. Just one item I've noticed you need to say area or town for bad or faulty engineering or rebuilds, like you said London area for this one. Some times when you say up country that puts a onus on rebuilders or engineer above your base right up to Scotland, where a area or town, city closes it down a lot, that is you know where it was done, if that makes sense. Brilliant post as always.

[@steveskipper6473]

Surprised you were able to work on a John Deere cylinder head without them sending a cease and desist notice.

[@Phuc_Yhou]

Now they've seen this a SWAT team are in the Blackhawks circling above the workshop...

[@captaintoyota3171]

Yeah F these corporations ill keep my old 90s stuff n fix it myself

[@prevost8686]

Funny thing how they try to do everything possible to protect their technical information from the end user and then choose to do business with the CCP who just happens to be the largest thief of intellectual property on the planet. You can’t make this stuff up.

[@bondisteve3617]

Loved it again. Thanks.

[@autophyte]

I totally agree with your scepticism of "Specialist" firms. I put my vintage jeep radiator into a "specialist" radiator firm to have it rodded out. They destroyed it by accidentally melting all the solder out of the core tubes, ( which were not corroded) ,returned it to me saying it was "dead" and charging me $100 for the labour already done on it.

[@darringrey4329]

The flywheel I would use a 120 grit disk while it's spinning to give it a cross hatch, same finish as a ground flywheel.

[@markhyland1398]

I had this problem recently, bought a “reconditioned” 4HJ engine 2.2 for our Citroen relay. That was back in December, Last week the timing chain snapped, after stripping it, and contacting the company, they don’t change the timing chain, or replace any parts, just basically paint it to make it look pretty and flog it on, 6 months warranty.. gutted. Currently fitting another engine 😩

[@ricbarker4829]

"Put it on the workshop floor and dragged it around" Funny story, when I was in the Australian Airforce I was on "flight line", which means there was a lot of sitting around waiting for aircraft to come back. There was one guy, a "general hand", who was discussing how he had taken the head off his Ford Falcon and he was told by a mechanic that it needed a skim. Being a general hand, he wasn't paid much and so he was saying he will have to wait until he can afford it. One of the guys jokingly said "tie the head behind a tow motor on the hangar floor, that should do it". We were all then called out to turn the wave of aircraft around after landing. When we all got back to the flight line waiting area we could hear this strange noise coming from the hangar......yup, old mate was dragging his head around the hangar during his lunch break. Sounds unbelievable I know, and had I not witnessed it myself I would call BS.

[@bobmizen1]

Thanks for another entertaining and informative video. I see you are using a blue G clamp, isn't that a RECORD 🤣. Regards, Bob M. South Wales

[@richardhartley7094]

Nice one👍

[@onenuttybuddy]

Good afternoon Lee, Here in the US we call that clamp a "C" clamp. You folks call it a "G" clamp. Interesting. You have shown how to tell how far out of balance the crank and clutch are. Now, how do you bring it true? Do you add counter weights in the proper places? Love t se how it is done. Thanks. I hope the week goes well.

[@1crazypj]

Usually, all that's needed is drill some holes in counterweights. Various charts available with material density so you know what diameter and depth to drill Adding material gets real expensive real quick. G clamp looks more like a G than a C

[@intergrale4x4]

Would love to see more detail on the crank balancing if you get a chance

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

I pissed balancing aircraft gyroscopes, and we are talking about 24,000rpm with them. Modern integrated circuit laser gyros defunct them. They are in mobile smartphones now even

[@charliejackman2953]

I believe they did it in a previous video - maybe worth having a look.

[@HybridGt2052]

Its a shame the mini community has gone like this, it was always the ford stuff you got ripped off on but since minis have gone up in price they have gone the same way. I have a 12g940 head sat on my shelf that been there 15 years that looks better than that. I like the way you engineer solutions being heath robinson does not make it wrong.

[@stevewilliams8515]

Enjoyed that video,thank you. You didn’t say how you were going to balance that crankshaft?

[@davidwharton841]

It's called thinking on your feet and getting the job done rather than discussing it for a week.

[@CrimeVid]

Wot’s the matter with Heath Robinson setups ? no matter what kit you have, you’re going to want to do something with it that you don’t have a jig for, so you find a way to do it.

[@adee-H1066]

Just a thought,if you haven't mocked up the merc block with pistons and done the valve pockets first,surely there is a fair chance you'll need to face the pistons,which would then mean you have to do the pockets again?

[@michaelmason5459]

I had same thought, skim pistons first then pocket for valves means you only set up once saving time equals more time for coffee and biscuits.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

G-clamps was always Heath Robinson's random tool of choice. 👍😎😁

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

06:28 ~ A-series Mini engine? Now you are in my zone! 😎🙃👍

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

1314 +40" bore out. Got to make sure you get it's water cooling correct. Head and especially block is renowned for building up brown-red rusted sludge sending the cooling to buggerey.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

@integraledave What chat? Where? 😁😁😁👍

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

@integraledave hello piggies nipples 😁👍

[@ianbates1312]

I haven’t a problem with using a G clamp when removing a small amount of material like you did. It would have been better if the G clamp had the “wobbly” end on, to prevent slippage

[@richardtroughton3776]

Can you show how you balance the crank/flywheel

[@alanrichardson1672]

Can you please explain how a bowl in the "head of the new piston give extra compression if you have to take some off". I don't understand - I'm trying to learn about engines.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Fine tuning, to get the CR compression ratio correct. Bore and stroke volume and that suitable. 😁🙂

[@msa-tt4bg]

I noticed that. I think Lee misspoke there.

[@alanrichardson1672]

Where did you nick those CEGB floor mats from? 😉

[@ernieleithes6545]

What happened to the stag engine.

[@thomaskirkpatrick4031]

When you guys are doing these machining processes do you write things down, keep notes as you go?

[@RestorationWatch]

What weight is that flywheel, or rather, what is a good weight for a race flywheel on a 4 cylinder? Thanks for the very interesting content. I clicked on the subscribe and like after watching this one.

[@captaintoyota3171]

Alot of the issue is shops who do repair and replace work shouldnt be doing engine work. Yeah the techs prolly know some but not enough to really do an engine correctly. As an Ex ASE tech and engine builder they are usually not the same shops. Regular ppl just understand so little of engineering they can easily be conned.

[@dsmhiggins67]

do you even need valve pockets ? they look so slim as to almost make me question whether any interference occurs...

[@dodgydruid]

A lot of sharks out there m8, I was on the wrong end of one myself when every year my previous MOT garage failed my Reliant 3 wheel van on many things and after they had closed down I discovered they had two scrap Reliants round the back of the workshop and were charging me new prices for worn out parts ripped out these two clapped out motors. One fateful year I was told my brakes were blown so out came the card and expected pristine brakes after expensive replacement of pipes, cylinders, shoes, master... well they went bust and I went to a new decent place in Wincanton and my brakes failed foot to the floor going down a steep hill so to the new place it went and what they discovered was spine chilling, where the previous lot had mullered all the threads and fittings etc, they literally hammered in used wheel cylinders, no bolts or nuts on any of the rear cylinder fittings. My clutch blew and bearing in mind this was the cars original clutch from 1989 so it did above the call of duty... £350 later and discovered when the "new" clutch grenade'd, it was a used slightly bent clutch out of one of these scrap Reliants they had. The original clutch took out the original gearbox but by huge happenstance I found a recon Reliant gearbox from a gearbox recon company in Southampton where customer never returned for rebuilt box and I got it for £250. Luckily for me too is the box had been painted as I bet if it weren't them shysters would have had that for 'emselves and shoved in a pile o' poo from the scrappers.

[@alanrichardson1672]

Is the balance machine calibrated?

[@user-tb1tx1wp7k]

……’height gauge’. AKA…..depth micrometer ☺️

[@andybtec]

Your piston clamping is only stupid if it doesn't work

[@user-tl9cr9vm3x]

In the USA we mostly junk out engine broken cars...it is very difficult to find a serious responsible mechanic many are flat plain thieves. 😡

[@bufferbridge]

No surprise with the 6068 John Deere head, never had a John Deere that didn't blow it's head gasket and bend the head like a banana, Smallridge give you planty of work?

[@gerrypowell2748]

Great engineering skill here👌👌

[@dogpaw775]

Barum Engines is inswing, i gas flowed my lawnmower flathead using a Dremel; it flies !. ps name and shame, it has fallout on all engineers lively hoods.

[@MrGuvEuroman]

Why doing you balance the cranks with weights on to replicate the pistons etc?

[@1magnit]

Inline engines should be balanced with bobweights equal to the rotating mass of the conrod and zero% of the reciprocating weight. Afterall that's what the balance weights of the crank are for. Otherwise just cut them off, it'll still balance on your machine.

[@1crazypj]

That's what I thought, inline engines need a percentage of reciprocating weight added to crank-pins or you'll have a mad secondary vibration

[@1magnit]

@@1crazypj All of the rotating and none of the reciprocating. With a 90 deg V8 it's all of the rotating and 50% of the reciprocating and with a 60 deg V6 it's different again.

[@1crazypj]

To hold the piston down, why don't you just make a 'dummy' con-rod end with a bolt underneath? I've been doing things that way for 30+ yrs on motorcycle pistons. Machine a shallow rectangle in main plate so you don't need to try and hold anything, actually much easier than the system your using now with two bolts into plate It's dead easy to have some aluminium bar about 1-1/4"" (30mmmm) by 3/4" (19mm) and drill two holes 90 degrees to each other with one being tapped for a draw bolt. It's also re-usable as gudgeon pin hole doesn't have to be same size as gudgeon pin, just have some clearance. Do you have a radius on edge of end mill? I thought sharp edges, even on valve pockets were 'A BAD THING' 😁 Isn't your 'height gauge' a depth micrometer?

[@ricbarker4829]

I dunno why you would have haters. If it works.....it works, if it didn't, you wouldn't do it again. That's how small machine shops without unlimited budgets get by.

[@ScottJDF]

You should do a new channel Barum car builds.

[@diggs345lr]

I was looking at refacing a flywheel as i have my own lathe but as there are hardly any videos on KZbin using a lathe im under the impression a ground surface is the way to go , anyone else have an opinion on that .

[@rushymoto]

I may have to do this on my bridgeport some time. I want to take a small 1L car, likely a Citroen C1 or other 3 cylinder and up the compression for the purpose of getting the best advantage from the fuels we have today, E10 and E5. Tuning for economy. I'm aiming for up to 11 to 1. The McLaren F1 as a normally aspirated engine had this ratio. Any one know of a higher ratio non diesel normally aspirated engine? Ill look at head skimming at first.

[@stephenscholes4758]

Not Swiftune?

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Another scrap yard within a crankcase? Ah well, crap happens.

[@5rgs17]

'Experts' to be aware of as well as 'Specialists' !!

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

I believe I know who he is on about.... 👍😎

[@bertrampalmer7497]

Heath Robinson it maybe, but the Brits are the best in the world at it! 😑

[@alanrichardson1672]

I think most developing nations would win hands down these days for improvisation - but I guess we probably taught them 😮

[@LizardCustom]

Heath Robinson was a illustrator not an engineer he knew nothing about enginginering but the phrase tends to be be used as a cover for a cock up job

[@philipcable437]

It's a clamp. I don't see the problem. You know what you're doing.

[@jimamizzi1]

There’s nothing wrong with the way you clamp the piston down

[@Phuc_Yhou]

Obviously its obvious that obviously is repeated until its obviously obvious in its obviousness Obviously..

[@fredsmith6725]

I don't see, can you explain 🤣

[@andyhunt457]

Can't believe you used a G clamp.....😂😂...

[@geordiegibson1210]

I'm more worried about the John Deere head at around 5:42, where it looks like it hasn't cleaned at the rear, but the whole cylinder head chamber is gone at the front, and nearly gone at the rear? Has no one else spotted that? I'd say that head is that far warped it's not worth fixing, everything else is going to be that far out of spec it wouldn't be worth machining. How are you going to put the chambers back in, and get the valves back to the original height? Asking as an engine builder here, I've spent many times checking all of these things before sending parts out for machining so it doesn't waste your or my time, and doesn't cost the end customer.

[@grahamb1]

I'm fairly certain that's a flat cylinder head. The combustion chamber is in the piston, what looks like a combustion chamber in the head is just the staining from the carbon build up on the head face. The valves are set below the level of the head face.

[@geordiegibson1210]

@@grahamb1 Yeah that is definitely possible, fair call. Just doesn't appear that way on camera, which makes it hard to see what it is. It would help if Lee mentioned if it was a flat head or a dished head right from the start, just so people can be clear at what they are looking at, it would help stop a lot of keyboard warriors out there.

[@grahamb1]

@@geordiegibson1210 I agree, also, it would have been good to see it finished.

[@Paul-um6pi]

Do you have consumer protection laws in the UK?

[@Ben-Dixey]

Yep, using a G clamp to hold anything in a milling machine is dumb and asking trouble. Just like holding that flywheel on the ring gear with those hard jaws or using a milling cutter in a drill Chuck. It's like only using three out of the four wheel nuts to hold your car wheel on, "if it works it works" right ? Why spend the extra few seconds to insert the fourth ? You could drill and tap two holes in the fixture for some threaded bar and have a plate across the top of the piston held with two nuts. A 1/2hr job, it would be just as fast once made and there would be no chance of the part moving. Same as machining some soft jaws to hold the flywheel but instead you choose the high risk methods to save 1hrs work total. This is just senseless and will catch you out just like driving a vehicle with a wheel nut missing. No doubt you won't listen and will just carry on as you are but for anyone watching please do not copy Lee and how he does things it's a terrible example of engineering practises.

[@peterdashper2251]

Well said. I can never understand why they don't use external soft jaws borded to suit. They wouldn't have to mess around clocking the flywheel. Also the G clamp had the bottom clamp missing meaning it was clamping on a tiny area

[@chrisyboy666]

Why don’t you put some plastic packing or even brass between the piston and g clamp

[@jimamizzi1]

Lee, we all appreciate your a business man, but you need to slow down your camera work 🍻

[@barrythomas1616]

its a G Cramp not G Clamp

[@EricaMTB]

Please stop waving the camera around.

[@malcolmlane-ley2044]

Don’t you ever feel silly doing those lame stills that promote your channel? They are just like dear Deirdre in the Sun newspaper. So feeble.