Mission Creep on a D-150
The key to Kilmat installation is to do it while it's HOT. Kitty and I installed it over a period of two days in the broiling summer heat. Was between 98-101 degrees. It went on easy, formed easy and stuck like who flung dung. We were real happy with it.
Did you ever find out what went wrong with the engine? What caused that whole fiasco? I'm just hoping that you don't duplicate it.
It was only about 60 or so in the shop when I did the Kilmat, but it went on easy enough. It just took a while for all the cutting and fitting.
On the engine, I'm not sure I'll be able to know for sure what went wrong. I have some ideas, starting with a list of what it was not. I didn't forget to tighten down anything. All the rod, main, and head bolts were properly torqued when I took it apart. The oil pump was fine. It wasn't oil blow-by on the rings, they were all in the right place, right side up, and clocked correctly. It wasn't the valve guides - I had the head gone through again, they were pristine.
It appears it was running wildly pig-rich, which I agree with. That likely caused fuel washing on the cylinder walls and gas in the oil. It certainly would explain the horribly greasy/nasty plugs and combustion chambers I found on disassembly. I also suspect I used engine lube on the OUTSIDE surfaces of the main and rod bearings. I imagine that would make it lots easier to spin a bearing. However, the bottom line is I don't know for sure.
For this go-round, I'm double checking everything again. I've been over the mains and rods so many times I had to stop being overly compulsive. I had the shop do all positive valve stem seals when they cleaned up the head, along with re-lapping the valves and double checking the springs and spring height. I added an exhaust bung installed and invested in an A/F gauge so I can monitor the carb settings. I down-sized the carb from an AVS2 500 to the Holley 390 I got from you. The 390 has been rebuilt. And I got a new timing light as I don't trust the ancient, thoroughly used dial back unit I had previously. Hopefully this all puts me on the road to Valhalla. This would hardly be the first time in my life when I got smarter by making mistakes and paying dearly for them.
