I think our Timetraveller has it right. While this is entirely anecdotal, it is contemporary to the problem and may be relevant this discussion: In 1999 I interviewed the 93 year old Canadian dealer who first sold my late 1948 B Rapide. I hope to do an article for MPH about this. He sold a total of 8 Rapides in late '48 and '49. He later sent me a letter with more comments. Among them:
"Another complaint was the oiliness. The motors leaked badly. .......I did write to complain to the company and was promptly advised by
return mail that the units I had imported probably had porous cylinders. What a remark to make????? I did not reply, considering the diagnosis
ridiculous"
It is hard to say from a picture only, but looking at the picture at post #21 it looks like the oil gallery/crankcase parting line area is pretty rough and could have caused some leakiness up to the muff joint. It also looks like some oil may have gone up the far head bolt, and possibly caused a weep from the joint
Being a medical device design engineer myself, I know how easy it is to make a mistake in a complex device that warrants what would nowadays be a recall. Just look at what GM is going through right now over something as simple as an ignition key switch. The initial liner hole placement in the ring area may be one of these oversights that even PEI missed, and the company later easily and quietly corrected with a woodruff key cutter. Two piece head bolts were a good idea to isolate frame stresses from the cylinders, but as it turns out they were over engineered, expensive, leaked, and were not necessary. Changing the two piece head bolts to a one piece enabled better sealing, aside from the economics. The restrictor disks were apparently another effort to stop the oiliness and redirect some of the flow to more needed places. If all this is true, these mistakes did not kill anyone, but I know it did kill any more sales after 1949 to this particular dealer. If the whole cylinder oil feed gallery could have been eliminated by something as simple as drilling holes in the liner below the castings, something that was less prone to leakiness and mistakes, that would have been corrected eventually, I suppose. I expect some of the grayer heads in the club could answer the questions Craig asks, since nothing is new in any discussion about any aspect of these machines except the new owners.
Ron
)-with a properly assembled engine whats the down side?
