Sexton R975-C1 a mess

[carl brown]

Your engine definitely failed due to a worn out crankshaft main bearing, resulting from no oil supply due to incorrect operation as David says.

You can fit a C1 crank in a C4 but not the other way round. The C4 crank isn't machined to take the C1 oil pump drive gear or lock ring.
Con Rods are the same in both engines but master rods different.
Pistons are basically the same but there are different rings depending on chrome or steel cylinders.
I can help you with parts if you can't find anything your side of the pond.
Carl

[David Herbert]

I definately bow to Carl's very much more recent experience with Sherman radials. As he is now involved I will keep quiet !

David

[LRDG]

Thanks for the good information. As mentioned above, when I become a retiree in April, I will be in a much better position to follow up on all these tips.

[Bob Phillips]

Not sure if I should weigh in here but..here goes..
Before you do anything else you need to strip that engine right down and see what you have to work with. If the case, crankshaft, gear case etc are rebuildable- all the rest of the parts are easy to obtain. You will need to really check for cracks and damage carefully. Second, while some parts between the C1 and C4 interchange, many do not. The crankshafts are different and use different bearing retention in the front, slightly different rear mains etc. Third there are many aircraft engines that have been flogged to people to use as spares- notably the post war R975 -46 which was a helicopter engine- though it looks a lot like a C4. It is an entirely different animal with few interchange parts. Be careful you don't get stung! Fourth, it is easy to destroy a C1 engine. I recall the overhauled engine in Bill Greggs Sexton having the bottom jugs damaged when safe start up procedures were not followed. Most of the many engines I have seen had bad main crankbearings- hardly surprising given the design and the design expectation that this would be an aircraft engine. Finally lots of parts and core engines are available right here. Tear that engine down and see what you need!

[Andrew]

Andy over at northeast military is selling off everything he has. He has parts listed for this over at www.site.ww2mv.com/Engines-Parts_For_Sale.html

Andy (not the above andy )

[LRDG]

Bob, the engine is coming apart as we speak - a complete teardown. The bottom of most the cylinder liners have been mushroomed out by the broken rods (red arrows) so it will take some time to get them out without damaging the case.

The rotating assembly is scrap, badly damaged. If I have it straight, the output spline damage shown would have been from the engine trying to stop the Sexton dead when it locked up.

The case may be OK. We'll check it with dye penetrant when apart.

I take your point about carefully checking we are buying usable parts.

Are the very thin, closely-spaced steel cylinder fins as-cast? If so, they are very high quality castings. Spin casting maybe?

Malcolm

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[Bob Phillips]

Malcolm- for whatever little bits its worth- those splayed out cylinder bottoms may be a pain to disassemble but maybe they will have saved the thin cast aluminium that makes up the crankcase. Later engines (eg the -46 helicopter) has much heavier castings in it. It also rated at 600 hp with much more blower and carb action. I cannot tell you about the fins, I always thought they were machined in but I don't know..Bob

[daninnm]

last I heard he had lots of C1 cores avaiable and lots of parts....I even bought a C4 and a set of parts to rebuilt it but never had to do that.....I ahve his ph no if you need it....send me a note for the number.....

[LRDG]

Originally Posted by Bob Phillips

Malcolm- for whatever little bits its worth- those splayed out cylinder bottoms may be a pain to disassemble but maybe they will have saved the thin cast aluminium that makes up the crankcase. Later engines (eg the -46 helicopter) has much heavier castings in it. It also rated at 600 hp with much more blower and carb action. I cannot tell you about the fins, I always thought they were machined in but I don't know..Bob

Good point, Bob. You are right, they did save a lot of damage to the crankcase.

It's pretty well apart now and disassembly has stopped as there is some angst about repair costs.

There is some interesting damage to the crankcase in the raised web that supports the lifter bores. It's shown below. It lines up exactly with the inboard end of the starter drive shaft (last photo, 6 o'clock position). It's like the nut on the starter end of the shaft had come loose and allowed the shaft and small gear to move inboard and wear into the web. And it doesn't look like old damage because there is wear debris coated on the web that's not shown on the photo. It's like the nut came loose and when it was spotted (or heard), somebody just retightened the nut to pull everything back into place and hoped for the best. The weird thing is there absolutely no sign of damage or wear to the end of the shaft or the gear. It's a bit of a mystery to me.

Thanks again for all the suggestions on parts but things are on hold for a while.

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