Bobcat 632 engine options

[wlhequipment]

Hi folks.
I have recently acquired a Bobcat 632. It’s old, maybe late ‘70s early ‘80s. It has a Ford 1.1L 4 cyl gasser in it. Maybe 30-35 HP. It’s called a KSG416 engine. They made a gazillion of em back in the day, but parts are getting hard to find. It’s seized up. That’s all I know for now, i just got it. The cylinders are now soaking in penetrant in the hopes of freeing it up in a few days, but assuming it’s a klunker, my question is what other engine can I put in there? It has to be small, there’s not a lot of room in there. I’m thinking if I can find any old 4 cyl ford from that era, I’d be fine. Like an engine from an Escort or Capri or something like that. Anyway, what are your thoughts / engine suggestions? I’ll post up a few pics when I get the time. Thanks!

 

[Old Doug]

The older engines are hard to imposable to find parts for. I bought a 1830 case with no engine. I then bought a Ford car that had a bad manual trans i dont remember what it was but i think it was a replacement for the feista or escort. I didnt want to have fuel injection or a computer type distributer . I mayed a intake to use a carb and made a adapter to use a points type distributer fit were the other was. I then built a stand for the engine so it could be slid it in the case. I had it running but found anther 1830 for sale for a little over $3000.00 and bought it around 4 years ago. Its been great and i have used it alot. I ran into a problem with the case that could be over come but i never did it. The engine bay floor has a channel that connects the two fuel tanks its in the way it also is a brace. I drained and drilled it so i could cut it but stopped work after i got the running case.
I wouldnt use the Escort engine if i could they have alot of junk bolted to them and they seemed to have alot of problem. Alot of guys have put 2 cylinder air cooled engines in them but i have also heard alot of them say they didnt like them they never had as much power. Me case engine will give out someday and i will try the ford i have ready but i also have a 2.5 Gm engine i realy like them. I found another case with a bad engine its a bigger than the 1830 and thought about buying it and putting in the 2.5 but it needs alot of new hose and i dont know anything about it or how it worked or why its seating but the engine is locked up. It would be a gamble . Maybe my ship will come in before my case needs a engine and i can buy anther runner.

 

[wlhequipment]

Luck may be on my side, for once. I put a mix of ATF and Acetone 50/50 in each cylinder for a few days. The starter sure wouldn’t turn it, but a big a$$ pipe wrench on the pulley did. I don’t know if I broke rings or anything like that, but I cranked it for awhile on my jump pack. Cranked it enough to see the hydraulics were at least trying to work, too. I didn’t hear a lot of bearing clatter either, once oil pressure built a little. Up next is a new battery and a compression check. The cooling system holds pressure too, so that’s another good sign.

 

[wlhequipment]

I got the engine turning pretty well, I think, but still no start. My compressions aren’t good, but should be good enough to at least run a little. It’s an old Ford Kent 1.6 engine, and it has odd firing order. 1-2-4-3, and those compressions are 120, 90, 40, 120. All blowing by the rings. I obviously have an issue with cylinder 3, but I think it should run, sort of. I just can’t get it to catch. I’ve been trying feeding it straight starter fluid, and all it’ll do is just almost run. The muffler will even get warm. I’m feeling heat in all 4 exhaust ports, but it just won’t do it for me. It’ll stay in that “come on baby, come on baby” stage. Also there’s apparently some binding going on. When it cranks, it seems slow, like it’s having a hard time spinning. That might be from the machine itself, or from the engine. I don’t know yet. With the plugs and rockers out, I should be able to turn that well-worn 4 banger by hand, just by grabbing the crank pulley. I’m going to try that next. If I can’t turn it by hand, something is holding that engine back.

 

[Welder Dave]

I think it was basically an industrial 1.6L/98cid. Pinto engine. I had a 1982 skid steer with it. It ran pretty good.

 

[wlhequipment]

It’s seems like a pretty good little engine. I can’t find why it crapped out in the first place. I can turn it by hand, at the pulley, so it’s not like there’s something binding, as far as I can see. I think I’m going to pull the head this week and see what’s what in there. I know I have low compression, and maybe I can just throw new pistons and rings in there and off we go. Good news is, that can be done in-frame. Any damage to the block though, and out she comes.

 

[JL Sargent]

Probably a good idea to properly hone the cylinder walls anytime you install new rings.

 

[wlhequipment]

Probably a good idea to properly hone the cylinder walls anytime you install new rings.

Oh for sure. I haven’t even taken the head off yet, but I’m guessing there’s damage to the bores, and the block is going to go to the machine shop. The good news is, for some reason, this engine has a huge following, especially in Europe. There’s a good bit of aftermarket parts available for it, as in .030 over pistons, etc.

 

[wlhequipment]

I finally got into er today. The bores actually all look real good. The rings just must be stuck, and letting all the compression blow by. Hastings makes rings for this engine, available at Summit Racing, so good news there. I'm thinking I can drop the pan next week, and pull the pistons and have a better look.

 

[wlhequipment]

The engine is out. That wasn't as hard as I thought. Not as hard as some others have been anyway. Tear apart went smoothly too. Pistons and rings for 2 and 4 were ok, and 3 was the worst, with 1 being so-so. All this jives with the compressions I got. Lots of blowby all around, though. 3s rings were jammed in there so bad, I had to use a torch to heat things up to get em out. New rings coming (possibly today). The pistons cleaned up real well, and wrist pin bearings were good, so I'm not going to replace those. Rod end bearings were worn, so they're getting replaced, and the main journal bearings were actually real good, so I'm leaving those in. The head looks just fine, but I'm going to lap the valves at least and see how they seat. Everything is going quite well, actually.

I'm still a little befuddled at my slow cranking issue though. By cranking, I mean turn it over with the starter motor, as if I was going to start it. When the engine is out, it cranks smartly. I'm sure it'll start right up when it's done. So I was wondering how much force / torque it should take to turn the pump. I could not turn the pump shaft by hand with the motor out. Not even a smidge. I put a 12" pipe wrench on the shaft coupler and just a slight push on that, and it turns. Like lay 2 fingers on it, and give it a push and the pump turns. So, if I had to give it a number, I'd say 5-10 ft / lbs to get the pump to turn. Has anybody tried this? Is that normal? It sure doesn't seem like alot, but what do I know.

 

[wlhequipment]

It's been a bit longer than a week, I know. This having to work and pay the bills really gets in the way of my screwing around sometimes. Things are going pretty well. I got the new rings in, and the engine is back together. I have it set up on the bench at the moment, sort of temporarily connected to fuel, battery, etc for a test run, which I will do tomorrow. When I had the engine apart, I checked the rod and main bearings and they all checked good, so I put em back in. The bores were honed, the pistons re - used (because a new set cost almost a grand!), new rings put in. Gaskets and such too. I didn't do anything with the head. It really looked good to me. Once I run it a little, I'll do another compression / leak down and see where I am at. I can take the head off and lap the valves if I need to. Helluva lot easier to do that now, than once it goes back in. Not impossible to do, just easier to do it now, if I need to. I'll post of a vid of it running tomorrow (assuming it runs, that is).

 

[wlhequipment]

It's a runner. I little rough, there's a miss in there but it's alive.

 

[wlhequipment]

I got the engine in, and after running it in under load a bit, it really smoothed out, and had plenty of power. For a moment. I was able to lift the boom just enough to allow the wheels to turn without dragging, and I was able to get just a couple turns in, and the line for the boom went "pop". There are hard lines that run in the engine compartment, and the one that blew was routed kind of under the battery, where alot of dirt and crap had accumulated. Since that and some moisture is a recipe for rust, it popped, unsurprisingly. Also the gland nut for the left side boom was leaking. So I decided to try to take it off. That's when I found out the gland nut for the otherwise steel cylinder was freaking aluminum! So, of course, as soon as I applied the slightest bit of torque on the pin spanner, it stripped. I finally had some success though. No pin spanner would budge it, especially after the first time I tried and stripped the pin holes. That rendered the holes about useless. So, I tried for several days to heat-n-beat with penetrant and no luck, so I tried the pipe wrench approach, and that's the first pic. Pretty boogered, but still mostly intact. No luck though. I decided to try to weld some blocks to it, and use a wrench on the blocks, but because it was either just too dirty, or my aluminum welding skills are aweful, or most likely a combination of the 2, the blocks just fell off. I then realized I had a fairly decent bead on the edge of the gland nut. I put a better bead on the other side, and went after it with a pipe wrench again, and off she went! I'm not worried about the nut, because I can just fill it back in and clean it up on the lathe. It'll be fine. Also a GIANT F-YOU to Bobcat / Clark for doing this. It's almost like this was intended to happen and cause customers to buy new cylinders. UGH that pisses me off when I see that. Now all I have to do is take that cylinder apart, fix the nut, re-seal it, and it'll be good. The whole seal kit per cylinder is around $20. I'm happy.

 

[wlhequipment]

Here's my before / after repair on the gland nut. It's not perfect, but it seals just fine, and once it's got a little paint on it, those imperfections will almost disappear. They're in the wrong order, obviously. I don't know how to get that right. Anyway, you get it.