How NOT To Seat the Piston Rings on Your New Ford 300 Industrial Engine; Cleaning Components When Swapping Accessories

Helpful Tip for Anyone with a New Ford 300 Industrial Engine - Tech Tip #143

This Tech Tip is part of an ongoing series that we publish relating to Deutz, Deere, Perkins, Ford, Continental and Wisconsin Industrial engines. It is particularly relevant to someone swapping components from an old engine to a new base engine.

Most of the Deutz, Deere and Perkins diesel engines we supply people are factory remanufactured, dyno tested engines that are complete with all accessories, except electrical. These engines are ready for installation and are essentially ready to run. In fact, as dyno tested engines they have been run-in at the factory. People love the plug 'n’ play convenience and ease of warranty of a complete engine.

However, many of our customers still run Ford, Wisconsin and Continental industrial gas engines. We usually supply these gas engines as remanufactured base engines, complete valve cover down through the oil pan, but less the accessories. The installing mechanic then dresses out our replacement engine by swapping over accessories such as the intake and exhaust manifolds and occasionally changing the oil pan or front gear cover.

When preparing accessories for installation on a fresh engine, mechanics sometime use rotary buffers and grinders to clean gasket surfaces. This is a bad practice. It can dramatically shorten the engine's life because the resulting debris from the buffer can enter the fresh engine's lube oil system and cause premature bearing failure. This debris can also enter the cylinders through the intake ports and scuff the cylinder walls and piston rings.

We strongly recommend that when you clean manifold gasket surfaces prior to re-installation that you use either a jet spray washer or preferably, that you an industrial baking oven and then lightly shot blast the baked components. As a final touch, you should run the manifolds across a belt surfacer to square up their mating surfaces to prevent leaks. In any case, do not use a hand held grinder or buffer. This is not a good way to seat your rings.
 

For more information on installing and engine, see our Guides, Forms and Tags section for Form #17, Installing a Replacement Engine.