The Crankcase #2

We finally got a warm(ish) day where it wasn't raining so I decided to take advantage of it and paint the crankcase halves.  In anticipation of nicer weather this week I had been prepping everything and making sure I had the necessary supplies on hand.  I had cleaned the case halves previously but they had a lot of WD-40 on them so the first step of the day was to degrease them.

Soaking in a coat of degreaser.

Masking is one of my least favorite parts.

Primed and ready for paint.

Both halves masked and primed.

Three light coats of paint.  I pleasantry surprised at how close the paint
color resembles bare cast aluminum.

Drying in the safety of the garage.  I moved them into the basement after
letting them air out for a few hours so they can continue to dry in a
constant temperature.

The Crankcase #1

I'm not sure what this piece is actually called but for the sake of this post I'm going to call it the oil separator plate.  It was originally mounted in the lower half of the crankcase with two screws in the center holes and basically riveted to the crankcase in the corners.  To remove it I had to grind down the "rivets" in the corners with a Dremel.  Easy enough to remove, but I was left with the task of remounting it for the rebuild.  I was tempted to just use the two screws in the center holes and some Loctite to make sure they didn't come loose but I was afraid that the engine vibration might make the loose corners vibrate.  The last thing I want to do after rebuilding the engine is to tear is back down to fix a rattle.  The best solution I could come up with was to drill and tap the corner mounts and use screws in all six holes.

Here is what the mounting points looked like after grinding down the corners
to remove the oil separator plate.

Another view of the mounting points in the lower crankcase.

Getting lined up to drill the first hole.

I didn't dare go down more then 5/8" because I didn't want to
risk punching through underneath.

One down, three to go.

Here is a shot of the plate mounted.