1941 Lauson
This engine is off an old trash pump that was given to me by a friend who picked it up while doing a clean up job. It had been in a flooded basement, so it's another basket case. Basket cases are what keeps this hobby interesting!
The numbers on the ID tag are of the pump. They were no help in identifying the age of the engine. The Tillotson carburetor, on the other hand, is model ML1B. It was only made in 1940 and 1941 for Lauson. Based on that information I'm calling this a 1941.
The carb and fuel filter were both stuck bad. With a little time and a lot of patience they both came apart without damage. The carb has been thoroughly cleaned and everything looks good. I will need to hand cut all the gaskets before reassembling it.
This single lobe cam is something new to me. It operates both valves by actuating the levers shown above in the center picture. It also operates the oil pump shown on the right.
The cast slinger on the connecting rod cap dips through the trough of the oil pump to splash lube the rest of the engine.
The cylinder valves and head cleaned up nicely. The bore looks good.
The magneto plate was completely caked in mud. Here it's been cleaned up. The points will be filed clean, and I'm hoping the condenser is good. We'll find out later.
For as rough as this engine looked when I received it, it's cleaning up nice. Sure there's some rust, but I'm thinking about not doing a full paint and finish restoration. I may just clean it up, get it running and leave it as it is.
I had to hand cut all the gaskets. Some unusual shapes.
Here the internal parts and governor have been installed. Having no torque specs I tightened the rod cap nuts to 110 inch pounds, then turned the castle nuts a little tighter to align the holes for the cotter pins. The cam went in next. The timing marks are visible on the gears.
The oil pump can be seen in position after mounting the base to the block.
The magneto plate is reassembled. I was a little concerned about setting the flywheel gap with the coil being inside the flywheel. The center picture shows the alignment marks to do just that. I hadn't seen those marks before cleaning everything up. The plate is then mounted on the block. I had to make up a new high tension wire. The original was too far gone.
With the flywheel mounted we have strong spark. I torqued the flywheel nut to 55 foot pounds. The head went on next with the bolts being torqued to 140 inch pounds. The rest of the assembly was pretty much same old.
Finished for now...
And this is what I ended up with. It will start on a shot of starting fluid. In a few days I will build a running stand ad fill the tank for a real running trial.
And with the stand built it was fired up for the first time.