I’ve got myself a nice new winter project. Although cosmetically rough it technically seems ok and all parts are there. The previous owner even replaced one of the intake covers with a newer one in preparation of the newer fuel pump. Impeller seems new as well as all the ignition parts. Compression is 98 for the top and 96 for the bottom cylinder. Top seal is still good. The previous owner clearly spent time and money on this motor but never got around to finishing it.
The only problem is that it is really hard to turn the flywheel. I’ve removed the spark plugs and lower unit but still it turns very difficult. I don’t think I would be able to pull hard enough to get it started. As a comparison, I think it is about twice as difficult to turn the flywheel as my 1960 18 HP and perhaps 3 times more difficult than my 1958 10HP. Somewhere there is just a lot of friction. I’ve removed the intake covers, the pistons look clean and are covered with a thin layer of oil.
From what I can tell it does not look as if the crank case has ever come apart. Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this? Could it be that the piston rings have been replaced by new ones that don’t fit properly?
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