Howard Engine Fun, The Rebuilding

[IesuNazareth]

What a find! I have a Howard Junior "Five" sitting in my backyard that I'm hoping to resuscitate, and I happened across your video. Bloody fantastic. I have a mate that has already restored one of these machines (the whole hoe not just the engine) and he found a place in Melbourne that can get just about any part for them, even the funny rubber bush between the magneto and the block. The head gasket on mine isn't metallic - prolly what diymania suggested. What kind of spark plug does it take?

[Aussie50]

I'm not sure what model mine was but it was a Junior one, probably the same engine as yours!

Good to hear theres a gasket supplier around!, I just got mine back together and running for the time being (i honed the cyl, replaced the inlet valve and re lapped the exhaust)

The old gaskets were okay so I coated them in copper gasket sealant and reused them.

Price wise- new bearings, rings and gaskets are months off but its running good now with its old carbie too!

Solex was dumping too much fuel!

[Aussie50]

I havn't actually tried to source a new spark plug for mine but the old one is marked 'I 50' or maybe 'L' and the marking is worn off a bit.

its well due for a replacement so I'll take it to the store one day and see what they say.

[IesuNazareth]

I suspect yours is a bit older than mine but judging by the size I'd say they are identical engines. That makes it a 5HP FYI. The plate that hides the cam shaft has that curved part on the outside - on mine there is the word FIVE written on that vertically, which is why I think maybe yours is older. Mine also has some aluminium british carby but that could be a modification. I'm playing with magneto atm hoping it will still work. Still very magnetic - fun times.

[Aussie50]

sounds interesting!, definitly no model markings on mine at all, if there are they are very light and covered by paint somwhere else.

Not sure about what carbies they used over the years but the origional one for mine is bronze, you can see it in my older vids.

It shouldn't be too hard to get parts for the magneto if needed, the Lucas design is pretty common on many different engines.

[IesuNazareth]

Watching the vid just reminded me of an interesting note - the exact same valve cover/tube/thingy on my engine seems to be loose as the one that was loose on yours - did you discover that this was normal and if not how was it fixed? The other side seems to tighten using it's thread but the intake one seems to be stripped or some such thing....Also the fabric on my oil purolater is cactus so I'm having the mother-in-law sew me a new one once I find a suitable fabric...

[Aussie50]

The valve/pushrod tubes should be tight when the head is installed and fully tightened, you screw them down before bolting the head on then retension after.

They should be tight with a gasket on the underside, to keep oil in and dust out.

My purolator was okay when I first did the overhaul, I'll be doing an oil flush soon and check it. did you work out what material it is?

[IesuNazareth]

No idea. My wife says it looks like a suede of some sort, but I doubt anything that retails is exactly the same. Best I can hope for is something very close.

[Aussie50]

It dose sorta look like suede, like from bluejeans etc...

[pixuma]

FYI, you might want to make your own copper head gasket, just mic the old one and get the same thickness copper sheet and machine it out, you can also go on ebay, theres a guy on there that makes custom copper gasket, it's a common thing in the ATV world

[diymania]

I thought it was called a cylinder, not a barrel :P

If it coughs up that much oil i´d say the piston and ring have pretty much had it, same thing causes blowby on a car engine.

You can make gaskets yourself, you just need a sheet of gasket material and a few sharp tools. Also that head gasket look almost identical to the ones in my compressor pump.

[Aussie50]

barrel is just slang for cylinder :D engine guys always use that term over here.

the rings are indeed stuffed, but they still do work to a degree.

As far as gaskets are concerned there are a few I'll make myself but the head gasket has a rolled copper inside edge to resist erosion and leakage, I think its a specially pressed item.

[pixuma]

lol we ATV/Dirtbikers say Jug

[Aussie50]

yeah! that's the other one!

[NOBOX7]

cool i wonderd what you ment by barrel

[mattyvt93]

wow lol, fair enough, well i dont really know what a .308 rifle feels like lol. and is it good for it to have that much oil in the cylinder?

[Aussie50]

its enough of a shock wave to get the neighbors attention :D

the oil will burn off when the fuel mixture is right. its running too rich at the moment.

but the piston rings are very worn, so naturally oil will migrate into the cylinder in excessive amounts.

[mattyvt93]

lol cool, with the piston rings, could there be places that would make new ones, or would you have to just find some second handers?

[Aussie50]

I can get new ones made real easy, but pricey!

i'm fully unemployed so one-off ring kits are out of the question at the moment :(

[mattyvt93]

ahuh, thought it would cost a bit.

Yep fair enough, i understand. :(

[mattyvt93]

cool backfiring lol, but that noise dosnt sound good :S ekkk

wow lots of oil in there haha.

Hope to see it running in the future.

[Aussie50]

some of those backfires kick you in the guts harder than a .308 rifle! but thats because the ignition was late, when the piston was 1/2" down the bore.

With ignition on top dead center, it runs really well, but quiet enough to hear every rattle!.

I'll have a quick try at finding piston rings before i reassemble.