Things have gone backwards for the past several days. While performing the engine testing I discovered that the engine would not achieve full power without pulling back the mixture control from 30 to 50%.
After talking to Dan, I discovered I was not the first builder to experience this problem. It turns out that the carburetor repair station was in the habit of using nozzles that increased the flow over the standard Marvel Schebler 10-4894 carburetor by some percentage (16% in my case) if they were to be used on a 3-liter engine. After Dan explained that this engine works best with the standard flow setup, I called the repair station and they agreed to replace the nozzle with the “Standard” size for this carb. It should be back in a couple of days.
During the engine testing I also had a small leak at the 5th bearing seal. It turns out that I had not fully seated the seal. I used a wood block to tap the seal into position, but I let the block stop against the front end of the bearing rather than the housing. The bearing extends past the housing about 3/32”, so the seal was not properly seated.
A new seal was ordered from SPA (they have the best price by far.) The old seal was pulled and the new one installed; this time seated flush with the bearing housing.
With the down time, I have taken care of a few items on my punch list. One of the items was the addition of a battery charging port positioned near the dip stick. This allows me to hook up the battery charger through the dipstick access door rather than having to open the boot cowl to make the connection. The charging port is wired through a fuse to the battery.
