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Please could you help me with the installed cylinder liner heights for my Ferguson FE35 23C engine. I have 3 liners 0.002? above and 1 liner 0.004? below. The liners are new and my cylinder block was cleaned with no sign of wear to the liner recesses.Would you also advise installing liners with a permanant sealant like Loctite sleeve fit? All the best,
G B
Kent

Hi G B,

The allowed tolerance for the liner standout above the block is 0.001 – 0.004 in. Therefore you need to raise the one liner up by about 0.006in. 3 potential remedies/things to look for…..
1. Interchange the liners into the different bores and re-measure. This will tell you if all the liners are the same, or if it is the liner shelf on the block which is incorrect.

2. Easiest way is to add shims to the liner that is currently below the block. Of course, you then need to find a shim to suit. Our local engineers could not source any the correct size, but you may be able to find someone who can.

3. Third option is to grind the top of the block down (in your case about 0.006in) and then deepen the liner shelf in the other 3 bores by the same amount. Technically you will then need to reduce the top of the pistons by the same amount (this can help make your engine easier to start, as there will be a slight increase in compression). Your local engine machine shop should be able to do this. This is the solution that we used with the block from the tractor in the Engine Rebuild DVD. With this method you do, of course, also get the block ground perfectly flat which is not a bad thing.
 

skimmed-block

This photo shows the 4 cylinder block from a MF35 and has been  ground down to solve a problem with liner stand-out.  Note the cross-hatching on the new liners.

There is no need to glue the liners in or seal around them. The head gasket (when applied to the correct liner standout) will provide a perfectly good enough seal. Remember to get your head gasket the right way up – it will be marked TOP.

Hope that information is of some help.

Thanks for the very useful and informative reply to my email. As my cylinder block is still fully stripped down I think I’ll take your advice and get the block machined.

Also, what is the assembled piston protrusion height? I need to check what heights I have after my cylinder block has been machined so I can establish whether the piston crowns require altering.

G B

Perkins give a figure of between zero and -0.005in below the block on the 3 cylinder engine, but I cannot find a published figure for the 4 cylinder Standard engine.

I suppose that you’ll have to find out how much has been ground off your block and reduce the pistons by the same amount. Remember that when the engine gets up to working temperature that the aluminium pistons will expand more than the iron of the block, so it may make sense not to have a protrusion height of exactly zero.

Nice to see someone thinking and working to such precision. It is engines that are assembled with this sort of precision that become good starters.

Sorry I cannot find the exact figure you are looking for.

VTE