rob2
Active member
Mojo has a Sole mini-14 engine which is fresh water cooled. I went to check the water level and the whole filler neck pulled off the heat exchanger body! It seems to have been attached with some sort of resin which was now gellified and scraped off easily. Now, being pragmatic about this, it stayed put since 1987 so a repeat performance will see me out and probably the engine too. I would guess that the cooling system would have lost pressure for some time before it actually came off in mu hand - I'm only little, so it wasn't brute force.
My first reaction was to find someone to braze or silver solder it back on as it's brass onto an aluminium casting, but I guess resins have come a long way over the years so am also considering an Araldite repair. That would have the advantage of not having to strip the exhaust off the engine! I found it interesting that the parts manual for the engine lists the heat exchanger and filler neck as separate parts.
Two questions for consideration:
1) Could the unpressurised cooling system have affected the engine's performance - it's been a little underwhelming of late?
2) What would be the best epoxy glue to stick it back together?
Rob.
My first reaction was to find someone to braze or silver solder it back on as it's brass onto an aluminium casting, but I guess resins have come a long way over the years so am also considering an Araldite repair. That would have the advantage of not having to strip the exhaust off the engine! I found it interesting that the parts manual for the engine lists the heat exchanger and filler neck as separate parts.
Two questions for consideration:
1) Could the unpressurised cooling system have affected the engine's performance - it's been a little underwhelming of late?
2) What would be the best epoxy glue to stick it back together?
Rob.