< This photo shows the Hess Marine short-block, when I opened the crate in Spring 2006. The subesquent rebuild by Nova Automotive wasn't even close to this quality. 
When hot the engine would leak coolant from around the head bolts. I didn't know if this was a lack of sealant on the stud threads or a split/cracked head gasket. I hauled off the head and again was surprised that the head and block were coated in RTV on assembly. The piston tops, valves and combustion chamber were thick with carbon. True, she had run for many hours with the idle screw tightened fully in (thank you Nova Automotive) but this was thick for 100 hours of operation.
A quick check revealed that the valves had not bee set when assembled. They were supposed to be 0.010" intake and 0.012" exhaust. All were set from 0.030 to 0.042"... Duh. No wonder the engine was running so poorly. Well at least the Apprentice had not set them too tight or the seats would have been burnt. I cleaned away all of the carbon then middled the pistons and poured in a 1/2" of diesel fuel to soak in overnight. In the morning most of it has soaked past the rings, to loosen up any carbon that may have been starting to gum them up. I set the valves and reinstalled the head with the studs properly sealed.
After installing the clean carb she started right up. After warmup I put her in gear at half throttle and tweaked the timing. Then at idle I tweaked the carb until she was ticking over at a slow and smooth idle. After idling for 20 minutes it was time for a beer.She has since been working like new for a couple weeks. After about 18 months I think I have finally solved most of what Nova did wrong. I finally have confidence in my Atomic 4 and again believe that it is the best little engine around.
Now she's all ready for winter racing and cruising. In fact last Sunday she raced for the first time since moving west. Kiskadee won Div 3 by 5 seconds. Yahoo!
