1944 A27M Cromwell MK IV Restoration

[kevin powles]

Rick, Looks fantastic, what you going to do with the turret?, certainly going to be busy this year, will we see your Cromwell at War and Peace this year?, Doctor Rick heard it running yesterday and was most impressed!.

Kev.

[eddy8men]

kev we will get rid of the turret and gun as it's no use to us and yes the Cromwell will be at war and peace, infact i'm going to see shaun tonight to take lance for a spin in the Cromwell tomorrow morning before he flies back on sunday.

rick

[lssah2025]

Tank up at Rick's place, here is some info.

we've been busy this week

fuel tanks steam cleaned, repaired, tested and painted ready to be fitted.
oil tanks cleaned and painted ready to fit.
the engine is with the builder and the tear down starts on Monday

we also had a quick look at the box and managed to free off the brakes and got the box to spin quite freely, we'll have a proper look at it on Monday and although we were told the box was knackered i'm fairly confident it will be ok with a bit of work.


if the resto gods are on our side by the end of the next week the engine, clutch and gearbox will be ready for fitting.

[lssah2025]

Nice parts cleaned and painted.

[lssah2025]

Some info from the engine rebuilder.

I'm unable to get the inlet manifold water jackets off, it's a common problem caused by damp storage where the studs corrode into the alloy casting. Having drilled them out as far as I can, it is still solid, so I can get the engine apart by splitting the manifolds into two with a disc cutter, see red line on photo, but I need the go ahead for that as I don't have any replacements. They could be welded, but it all adds to the work.
I could get it apart in about a week and a half, so overall, it's going to cost more than a good engine if you can find one that isn't seized up.
Internally it looks ok, the oil is quite clean. It has wear on some of the cam lobes, typical of these engines. The ignition harnesses and magnetos look in poor condition too.

So it looks like I will get to keep my 44 dated engine.

[horsa]

Bummer. Guessing they have tried heating and cooling to get some flex going. I've used torches to heat studs where nuts won't come free. You quickly see the rust glow and burn off and then things tend to unscrew with ease. Seems something else could be done there as if you can't get it off, you can't use the engine. So not much to loose even if they have to cut and pry off the offending part. Sure the cutting wouldn't cost much in time for them to try. It'd be the re-welding if a replacement part couldn't be sourced.

[lssah2025]

Looks like everything is going good Dave.

Well the engine is currently being rebuilt, one cylinder bank was bad, so he had a spare spitfire bank, which is going in mine. So it will be half spitfire...The manifold will be rewelded so no issue there.

Also it looks like we are going to make a mold for the wheels to redo the rubber, so we will probably have some makers marks and some other goodies put into it. I need all 20 of my road wheels redone, and I know a few others do too, so look for more info.

And don't be to hard on Rick for picture updates, he decided to step on his laptop again and broke it, so he will be back in service some time this week enshallah.