Engine Mounting and Bugger!

A while back I posted an entry about the construction of the engine bed and the fun and games had with drilling the engine mounting holes.

Well…. I made a decision about the mounting method and have gone for a modern product call ‘TICO S’. A "High performance machinery mounting pad", according to the manufacturers.

http://tiflex.co.uk/tico_s/tico-on-line/tico-on-line.html

It comes in various guises, but I bought a strip of the stuff 100mm wide (4" in old money) by the standard 12.5mm deep. I also bought some of their TICO S washers.

The engine is to be mounted on the TICO strip and the bolts have TICO washers at the top of the engine. This has effectively cushioned the engine between the TICO material and should absorb a lot of the vibration but still hold it firmly to the engine bed.

The ‘Bugger’ bit?

Well… Whilst carrying out this exercise I noticed an error in the engine bed manufacturing process.

I welded the cross members between the longitudinal members at the engine mounting points. This would give the frame the most strength/rigidity at the mounting points. Fine at the front (this will be effectively covered by the flywheel overhang). A problem at the rear though.

The National has a sump that is separate to the crankcase. The clearance from the bottom of the crankcase to the top of the rear cross member is 4.1/4". What’s the depth of the sump?… 5.1/4" ……. Bugger!

I’ve now got to ‘notch’ out at least 1" from the top of the rear cross member. A bit of an exercise if the engine bed had been built of wood, but its not. It’s built from 6mm structural steel!

It’s been a while since I’ve used a gas axe. Man the fire extinguishers!

Still, at least I’m dealing with these problems in the comfort(?) of the garage. Imagine trying to do it having just lowered the engine in through the roof of your boat on to an engine bed that had just been welded to the bottom plate of your Narrowboat!

Happy days!