RR# 1, Box 63 Avoca, Iowa 51521
I guess you could say that my son David started me in the hobby
of collecting and restoring gasoline engines. I now have a 1 HP
McCormick-Deering Model M; a 3 HP air cooled New Way; and a 3HP
Alamo Blue Line.
When I bought the Alamo, it was stuck. Several pieces had been
welded very sloppily. However, it was a pretty complete engine. The
biggest thing my son and I were concerned with was a hole broken
out of the casting under the rod bearing. Evidently, the engine had
thrown a rod at one time. As the crank shaft came around, it had
pounded the rod through the pan. We decided to try an experiment of
our own. First, we covered the 2′ x 3′ hole on the bottom
side with paste board, fastened with 2′ grey furnace tape.
Turning the casting right side up, this made a trough of sorts, as
the casting was ‘ thick. We had had the engine sandblasted, so
it was perfectly clean. We knew the cost would be prohibitive to
use J. B. Weld to completely fill the hole. We decided to try
something different. I am a carpenter and had used many cans of
‘Rock Hard Water Putty.’ It drys very hard, is easily
mixed, and is inexpensive. That’s what we used. We filled the
hole with Rock Hard 1/32′ from the top, smoothing it out with a
table knife, a putty knife, and the trusty old index finger. After
this had dried completely (takes overnight), we sanded off any
spill around the edge and dusted.
Next, we finished filling the hole with J. B. Weld, lapping over
onto the cast iron. We found, with minimal smoothing out while
still wet, the job cannot be seen after painting. Turning the
casting over again, we removed the past board form, covered this
side with J. B., and painted. Follow the directions on the cans and
tubes.
