Hello all, I’m new here…

I have recently acquired a full set of Howard rotavators…. A litle Bantam and a 350, which cost me £35 for the pair, and a Gem with the JAP engine which was £75…. i’m now in the market for advice on getting the two larger machines going. The Bantam isn’t really worth the effort right now…

Starting with the 350: The Kohler K141T engine was seized, with the piston and valves rusted. In trying to take off the exhaust muffler, one of the bolts has snapped off leaving a stud in the head casting… that’s a small problem compared to the rest of it…

With a lot of effort I’ve managed to get the valves out but there is a lot of rust around them.

First question – do you think a Dremmel with a polishing stone attachment would be suitable to clean up around the guides – the casting etc? Perhaps a little tickle to the valve guides themselves to make sure they are clean…?

Second question – the piston bore has a ring of corrosion about 1cm beneath the top, when the piston has been set for all the years its been left in the rain… at first the piston would only go up and down by turning the crankshaft back and forth, but having scraped a bit of that corrosion ring off and use of emery paper I can now do a full cycle, but it’s hard work and is far from smooth.

Is the next step to strip the rest of it down in order to get the piston out, clean up the rings?

Do you think i will need to take it to a machine shop and have the bore polished again…

Any thoughts as to whether this is worth all the effort?!