Isaac Shultz's Sonex Project

The engine was all apart, scattered between 6 plastic bins of various sizes.  The first step in my Aerovee assembly manual was to thouroghly clean the mating surfaces of the case halves, and file away any flaws from the manufacturing process. I used Laquer thinner, gloves, and a paper towel to clean away all the old sealant. And shook the shavings out. Once it was stripped to bare metal, I moved on to the next step: I used engine assembly lube to goop up the various moving pieces inside the case, and the cam bearings. Then I test fit the cam just to be sure it turns smoothly and identify any problems before the case halves are sealed. Aside from getting molly lube on my hands from touching the cam without gloves on, it all went splendidly. The next step was to prepare the crankshaft's bearings, I cleaned, lubed, and fitted them.  Now begins the fun part. Most of the bearings on the crankshaft go all the way around, and they can only do their job if they don't move...

The engine I bought was already built, and had not been run. My dad and I planned to take it all apart to give me a better understanding of the engine, as well as to identify any problems before they got bad. The Arovee engine was heavy and awkward to move. at the time it was sitting on the workbench with everything installed. Going into this I had only enough sense to tell you which cylinder is the #1, 2, 3, and 4, and I knew some of the terminology, such as crackshaft. I frequently asked my dad "what do you call that part?"  we began unbolting stuff in roughly reverse order from the manual (if you're familiar with sonex plans, you're used to backwards) In under an hour we had stripped many of the external parts off and the engine had lost at least 20 pounds! A box was designated as the hardware box, so it'll be like legos trying to find the right bolts and nuts again when I reassemble it. the important part is that they're all together and no...