After decades of engine shaking, we decided to have the engine mounts replaced for the first time (yes I know they should be done more often). After replacing the engine mounts our diesel mechanic tried to align the engine and transmission with little success. The steel angle irons holding the engine had sloped too far inward and the lag bolts could not be re-tightened. There seems to be a design issue since Hunter put the bolts at the bottom of the angle iron away from the bend, rather than higher and providing better support. I will be drilling two additional holes in the angle iron in order to provide additional support.
We decided to pull the engine forward and redo the steel angle irons properly. It turns out that all the bolts holding the angle irons are lag bolts except for the two forward bolts on the port side. To access them you must remove or "surgically" cut the lower portion of the port wall to the engine compartment in order to access the nuts on the two forward bolts. (see picture below) Once all the bolts and angle irons were removed, I drilled out the 3/8 inch lag bolt holes to 3/4 inches. I then refilled the holes with West Systems 610 epoxy. HINT If you leave this in your car overnight when it is cold, you don't have enough strength to squeeze it into the holes. I finally realized my mistake and put the tubes in front of my little space heater. The holes will be redrilled later this week and the angle iron replaced.
I'm glad that we decided to slide the engine forward since there were a few problems which became apparent. The exhaust hose was delaminating from the inside, the shift cable wasn't properly installed, and the diesel return hose was cracking. I also took the time to replace all the engine bay insulation, repaint the rusting angle irons and clean up the wiring.
As for the engine alignment, I'm glad to have a real diesel mechanic do it since it seems to be more complicated than I thought. The real trick is to get a the engine angle irons to be at the same angle as the prop shaft. While I will let our diesel mechanic do his thing with his level indicator on his phone, I have my own level indicator that I use on my table saw to adjust the blade. Regardless, the angles need to be the same.
Importantly, over the last few years I realized that our old "trusted" mechanics really didn't know what the hell they were doing. After doing some work on the engine, they left the alternator belt eating into the water hose! When they came back to fix that, they left the alternator shield sitting on top of the alternator belt. We now have a much smarter diesel mechanic!
We decided to pull the engine forward and redo the steel angle irons properly. It turns out that all the bolts holding the angle irons are lag bolts except for the two forward bolts on the port side. To access them you must remove or "surgically" cut the lower portion of the port wall to the engine compartment in order to access the nuts on the two forward bolts. (see picture below) Once all the bolts and angle irons were removed, I drilled out the 3/8 inch lag bolt holes to 3/4 inches. I then refilled the holes with West Systems 610 epoxy. HINT If you leave this in your car overnight when it is cold, you don't have enough strength to squeeze it into the holes. I finally realized my mistake and put the tubes in front of my little space heater. The holes will be redrilled later this week and the angle iron replaced.
I'm glad that we decided to slide the engine forward since there were a few problems which became apparent. The exhaust hose was delaminating from the inside, the shift cable wasn't properly installed, and the diesel return hose was cracking. I also took the time to replace all the engine bay insulation, repaint the rusting angle irons and clean up the wiring.
As for the engine alignment, I'm glad to have a real diesel mechanic do it since it seems to be more complicated than I thought. The real trick is to get a the engine angle irons to be at the same angle as the prop shaft. While I will let our diesel mechanic do his thing with his level indicator on his phone, I have my own level indicator that I use on my table saw to adjust the blade. Regardless, the angles need to be the same.
Importantly, over the last few years I realized that our old "trusted" mechanics really didn't know what the hell they were doing. After doing some work on the engine, they left the alternator belt eating into the water hose! When they came back to fix that, they left the alternator shield sitting on top of the alternator belt. We now have a much smarter diesel mechanic!