Zack and I installed pistons/rods and assessed packing glands.
Last week I made and installed the rear cylinder head bearings, and ordered piston rings. These pistons are built up instead of being cast solid- this means they can be taken apart and the rings installed without having to spread them over the od of the piston. I plan on doing this in place on the engine, so that Saturday's installation was the one and only for these components.
I wanted a couple thousands clearance from bearing to rod- and a couple thou interference bearing to head- so I bored them 0.004 to 0.005 clear of the rod to allow for a little shrinkage during pressing. I was pleased that it worked- everything was right enough that we pushed quite a lot of air even without rings.
No 9 has metallic packing, using a United States Packing Gland (that's a brand). One side is actually usable after reboring. We'll cast new ones for the remaining side. Gordon C will likely work though this as we continue with other driving gear concerns.
This week will be a little quiet as I'm home recovering from a surgery. I believe Jonathan was in today, fitting wrist pins to the crossheads. Brendan will be in later this week continuing some bay 4 improvements.
We'll also be looking into continuing the boiler jacket processing soon.
See ya
Jason
