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So, when was the company sold?
Here’s what the Egge website states:
“Bob Egge and his sister Kathryn Weaver are third generation owners of Egge Machine Company, who took the bold step of bringing in a professional, experienced manager, Ernie Silvers, to guide the firm to the next level of professional growth. As CEO and President, Ernie is leading the company to new heights, while preserving the legacy of innovation and quality established so long ago. “
So the website says they didn’t sell but are letting someone else run the company.
I had heard in antique car circles that the company had been sold.
Maybe the new manager has a controlling interest, who knows.
But their quality is nothing like it was some 30 years ago.
Since these pistons are ‘tried and TRUE’ I’d not hold them in the same contempt as the most recently made ones. For peace of mind, just get a dye-penetrant crack-check performed on them, or buy a kit and do the check yourself..
My thoughts are that they have proven themselves to be good, and not likely to cause problems..
My understanding of the ‘Egge’ chronology of events.. unfortunately without reference dates:
First generation: OK cast pistons, like the ones Bill has. nothing exciting, kind of heavy, much like Jahns Pistons of the same era.
Next quality goes downhill, aluminum alloy is changed, pistons crack, or erode away.. I had a look at an Egge piston that the piston top had eroded away to the point that looking in the cylinder, I could see about an inch of the top compression ring, and even a bit of the second ring..
A new piston was made with an Invar steel strut, to control expansion, just like Pierce’s original 8cylinder engines had. I personally have not seen any failures of these.
Current batch apparently is pretty bad.. When they were 1/2 or 2/3 the price of good forged pistons, then maybe it was worth the gamble.. but the last time I price-shopped them they were almost identical in price to well known named brand forged pistons, so there is zero reason to risk buying or using the new offerings.
Bill: did you get any work done on the engine today?
Greg
Greg,
I pulled the generator, water pump and starter and found the water pump to be frozen. I’ve got it all apart and it appears to be just be all gunked up with rust and corrosion. The starter has a bunch of brazing on the nose of the drive so that’s one more thing to check out thoroughly.
I received the valve seat cutters from you (thanks very much). I’ll be cleaning the valve ports tomorrow and may cut the seats on Sunday.
The good news today is that the water jacket appears to be stainless. ALL of the gook shown above in the photo came off with a lot of water and a little scrubbing.
As awful as the water jacket looked it turned out to be mostly sludge and not hard rust. The water jacket cover is either stainless or VERY tough chrome plating. Take a look.
Bill
Here are the cylinder walls
Agree with Greg about the source of carbon on the intake valve stems.
Needs a little freshening but it is a beautiful example of a high-quality motorcar and it will respond very well to the best care!
BTW I visited a fine shop which rebuilds Rolls-Royce and other classic engines a couple of years ago; Arias pistons were being used there.
I’m getting to the fun part where I get to hang parts back on the car. I ran the starter today to circulate oil to the bearings. I’m probably at least three weeks away from having it running.
Other side
It’s alive! I started and ran it yesterday with just the radiator in place. No louvers or shroud yet. NO BAD NOISES and no SMOKE! Woohoo! There is still much to do but the photo you see is the car sitting at the end of the driveway just BEFORE I found out that it won’t go into reverse. The car seems to be in freewheel mode based on the position of the control lever (up) and I know that there is an interlock system that prevents the car from going into reverse unless the clutch pedal is depressed fully.
All of the linkage is in place and I can see that the interlock lever is attached to the clutch control rod as it should be. The dash control lever is attached to the operating lever that stick up out the side of the transmission, but I can’t get it out of freewheeling mode to lock it up. I’m very afraid to really lean on the control lever as I’m sure that’s how they break.
Am I missing something here? Is stuff just stuck together inside the transmission?
I was able to drive the car across the street to the school parking lot and turned it around so that I could head it into my driveway and park it for the night. I washed it for the first time since I got it in January.
Pic 2
Pic 3
Pic 4
Pic 5
Looking good Bill !!
Check the ‘pass-through’ plunger that the shift rail pushes on when you put the gear lever into reverse gear.
If the ‘pass-through’ plunger that should move and push on the reverse light-switch is stuck, rusted or whatever, the shift rail will not be able to travel far enough to get the reverse gear to engage.
Greg Long
Greg: : I found reverse. The freewheeling unit was stuck to the driven part and the first time I tried to coast I got engine braking even though it’s in freewheel position. The second time I tried it I got coasting. I did that two more times and then tried to get reverse. It suddenly gave way and went in. Although the car is not ready for the road I’m gonna jack it up on jack stands and run the engine and trans with the rear wheels up so I can circulate the oil. I still can’t get out of freewheeling but I bet it will also loosen up.
Bill
The car looks like it’s in great shape.
Engine compartment looks nice and clean.
Good luck with your freewheeling and reverse issue.
Sounds like stuff just hasn’t been moved around and used in so long that things have become stuck.
You know, it’s amazing what oil can do. My plan was to jack up the rear end and run the car with the rear wheels up. I figured that as long as I’m under there why not check the oil level in the transmission. What level? I couldn’t find any oil with my finger in the side hole. It wasn’t COMPLETELY empty so I drained what was there and filled it with 85-140 gear oil. Got to the back end and found the same thing in the differential, almost no oil. So drain and refill again.
Then I ran it on the stands for about 30 minutes. After that the freewheeling control lever began to work and I was able to get into conventional drive. Reverse now works fine.
I’m guessing that I should put the 600W oil in at least the diff. but I’m out of it at the moment.
Bill
Great news Bill.
If the gear box/rear were that dry, I would suspect the gaskets/seals are leaking to some degree and your deck will show that soon…but still a happy story!