New to the rypn. I'm pretty computer / smart phone ignorant so please be patient. Looking forward to sharing Railroad related information as well as hopefully learning a few things as well. Been into railroading since birth. I got it pretty bad!! Passed it on to my son as well. Have lots of personal Railroad project im working on and look forward to sharing info etc.. first post short as sweet. Over!

Welcome. Don't be afraid to post your location in your signature. Might help some one get help on a project.

Later!
Mr. Ed

This can be a great resource place, but it can also get a bit brutal. Don't allow yourself to be beaten down by a very few "know it all's". Otherwise, glad to have an enthused railroad preservationist aboard.

Not taking anything away from the previous post, but there are also a lot of really helpful and knowledgeable folks who contribute on a frequent basis.

Have fun!

What are you interested in?

By all means, Mr New Guy, WELCOME TO RyPN !!!

I'll go along with the sentiment that we have a few grouchy old bastards on here, just ignore them, they'll wither up and die if nobody pays them any mind.

The nice, helpful, and knowlegeable folks on here FAR outnumber the other variety. It seems to me that folks who genuinely have something to offer the world are most often humble...

Please tell us about yourself, looking forward to hearing more.

Welcome to the board, I am not too far from you in SW Michigan, hope you are riding the South Shore, there is a hobby store in Griffith and another nearer towards Chicago, there is a model railroad club in Michigan City just had their train show a couple of weeks ago, Chicago and the area is a hotbed of railroad activity, I am a model railroader as well. This will be a great place to read and learn and participate even if it may get lumpy sometimes. But sometimes a good disparrage is healthy.

Thanks. Glad to know there a support group for my railroading addiction. Hopefully an intervention will not be necessary although I'm sure my wife would say it over due.

Well, there is bad news and good news. Finding LeRoi parts is pretty much impossible.

The good news is that as long as most of the major components (cylinder block/head, crankshaft, cam shaft, connecting rods) are unbroken they can be repaired.

One beauty of that old iron is that they "generally" used wearing surfaces (bearings, valve guides, piston rings/pins) that were intended to wear out and be replaced every few years. Generally there would be "rebuild" parts that where +0.020", +0.040" etc larger than the original parts.

The engine would be torn apart, cylinder bores cleaned up (and enlarged) and a new set of bigger pistons installed. Since you seem to have good compression the pistons/rings/bores and valves are probably ok.

Other parts like gaskets, bushings, spark plug wires can be easily replaced. Check out some of the "car restoration" hobby websites, there are lots of parts available to get old engines up and running. You may have to learn how to cut simple gaskets from sheet gasket stock, expect some leaks if it has not run in a while.

One word of caution; most modern engine oils (cars, trucks, etc) have a detergent in them. This helps dissolve the sludge inside the engine so it can be trapped in the filter and removed.

Older engines (50's 60's) did not always use oils with detergent in them. These engines can be packed with sludge. Sometimes folks think they can just change the oil over to a new detergent oil and clean out the engine. BUT this can dissolve all of the sludge at once and block critical oil passages. This can starve bearings of oil and severely damage an engine and you can't really tell it is happening until it starts making really expensive sounds.....

You can run an old engine on non-detergent oil but the sludge will remain inside just waiting for a big chunk to break off and lodge in a small oil passage. Or you can try some detergent oil and an number of oil changes (after every few days of running) until things seem to be cleared up. Once you fix the oil pump you can try running some kerosene thru the oil system (sparkplugs disconnected) and see if it goes from "really dirty" to "clean" after a few changes of solvent. NOTE: only use the starter motor in bursts to pump the kerosene through the oil passages, DO NOT attempt to run the engine at speed with kerosene instead of oil.

If the kerosene does not clean up after several flushes (using fresh clean kerosene each time) you may need to open it up and clean it up inside. Sometimes you can do this by just pulling the oil pan and covers, other times it's a teardown.

If the engine was open to the elements (rotted hoses, rusted valve covers etc.) the only safe thing to do it tear it down and clean everything inside. There are usually lots of small cross drilled holes (between the crankshaft main journals and the connecting rod journals, etc) all of these need to be carefully cleaned (pipe cleaners or small bottle/tube brushes work well).

Once the engine has been torn down and completely cleaned up inside it is safe to use a detergent based oil going forward.

Sounds like it can be turned over and compression is ok, that is a much better starting place than a seized engine.

I took a seized and mouse nest filled 4 cylinder Buda (1919) from rotted hulk to operating engine. I did have to make a bunch of small bushings, new gaskets, retapped bolt holes (using Helicoils (tm)) etc. But it was a beauty to hear it running again after 5 decades rotting away in a field.

Good Luck, Kevin