How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

I can’t wait to get a metal lathe. It’s on my list but so is a new deck and some landscaping around the house.

Anyway back to fun stuff out in the shop. Today I just wanted to get a few small things installed on the engine. I was fortunate that the wartime engine still had the original drain cock and steam bypass fitting. After cleaning them up I decided to use them. However the mounting holes were smaller on the new engine. Thankfully brass adapter fittings are available. I screwed in the drain fitting only to have it snap off inside the block. I didn’t have any of the extractor bits so I simply drilled it it carefully then ran a threading tap. Another trip to town was now in order and I picked up another fitting. This time I made sure to not put that one last turn into it. All worked out.