OIL FILTER TUNNEL LEAKS...Some thoughts.

[dave16mct]

[dave16mct]

Done with a hand held battery drill.
Dave

[shaunstaples]

Thanks Dave, I’m way off that yet, we struggled machining the groove and decided to go for a 1mm square groove as getting the tool right for a circle with radiuses difficult at 1mm by hand so after breaking a tool decided to go for a square groove thinking the corners would provide some expansion relief.
The best way we found to measure depth was with a clock gauge and had to lift the plunger and gently drop onto the o ring comparing surface height of face and o ring. It didn’t seem to correlate with the amount on lathe dials, as we were down enough before the dials said so.
I was thinking of shims between cutter and bush, assuming that the bush goes down to a definite stop.
Is the stud and nut on yours for a depth stop? If so you could use a mic between that and the back of the tool?
I’ve been looking for an old pair of scrap crank cases but not got lucky yet.
I did those tests today and the last one is still at about 1200 psi now, just got to find out why.
Please keep us updated how it’s going
Thanks again Dave

[dave16mct]

Ha, never thought to measure it that way! Yes that's a good idea. Yes the bolt and locknut is the depth stop. I'm using a broken 2BA tap ground down in the drill on the bench grinder. Then gave it a chisel edge. I'm not an engineer so it's probably not so precise e.g. I suppose the bush should've been reamed but I haven't got one. I was amazed at how well it worked even just spinning it with my fingers. Putting it in the battery drill gave a better finish to the bottom of the groove which also has a square bottom.
Dave

[shaunstaples]

I’m not an engineer either, my dad was and I inherited all his tools etc.
I just can’t get my head around packing the faces apart and such a vast increase in the holding pressure. Must be that the tight groove is generating the initial pressure 200psi that I keep getting but it can’t deform and get to the holding pressure seen today. I need to continue on size and shape of the groove, and see where I can get to. Every day a learning day for me.

[Les Howard]

Hi Chaps...Very sorry for disappearing over the last week or so... I have had some essential other work to do and lost track of thinking about the Forum. Anyway, some great posts by Shaun and very well-done Dave for making up that tool. That is exactly how I imagined it could be done if one wanted a DIY method without having the milling machine facility. The only thing I would perhaps done differently was to have the boss on the main cutter part go into the filter hole...maybe have it as nearly long as the half section tunnel? You wouldn't have needed the tubular insert then. This would have provided near perfect stability for hand drilling without the need of the "skidding" bolt that presumably prevents rocking off the cutter head? The cutter itself just needs to stick out the 0.8mm to achieve the groove depth, which would be achieved when the face of the tool reached the face surface. One step more improvement would be by fitting a shim or have the main cutter plate have a small inner ring protruding a few millimeters down so the contact of the rotating head at the end of the process simply touched the inside area of the O ring groove, rather than the complete face of the crankcases, this would prevent accidental scuffing of the main faces around the tunnel. ....Fantastic tabulation of your results Shaun...I need to study them further and come back on it...

[shaunstaples]

Been thinking and probably going to try this one next, can only think its ramming itself into the gap?

Test Corner off.jpg

[dave16mct]

Update: I trued the back of the cutting tool on the lathe which enabled me to measure the depth stop as Shaun suggested. I then cut the O ring groove . I've now rebuilt the bottom end with the O ring and using ThreeBond. I haven't used this before. Not as easy to use as Wellseal but I'm hoping it'll be effective.
Dave.

[shaunstaples]

Great job Dave, I just had to google ThreeBond, seen it mentioned but hadn't a clue what it was. The RTV Ive been using is Wynn's Black Gasket Maker. I tried a few different methods and it definitely needs to cure 24 hours to be effective. I tried testing for pressure straight after applying it and it was same if not worse than none at all. Also on the Wynn's one it recommends nearly tightening the faces then fully tightening after an hour which seemed to work ok.
Glad it cut the groove ok and I too hope its successful for you.