There are reasons that William Wynne strongly recommends trying to find a rotating core. I’ve had a rotating core in the past. And I disassembled it. It was quite usable in all the ways: From the crankshaft to the cylinders and to all the other ancillary stuff. But I wound up giving it away. With my current project I suspected what I was potentially facing by taking home a non-rotating engine. And this core was, to put it bluntly, a real bastard bitch.
I really do mean “bastard bitch” in the most technical way imaginable … the core fully met all of my non-rotating-core concerns.
Anyway I’m going to do a video about non-rotating cores for my upcoming YouTube channel. For now suffice to say that it was about 3000 whacks to get the heads off (mallet and wood block); 6000 whacks to remove the cylinders from the separated case halves (sledge and pry-fork); further I was required to destroy the connecting rods with a Saws-all; but at least when that was done the crank rotated. Multiple times I thought all was lost but William Wynne came up with ideas to keep going. Feast your eyes, imagine the blood (yes, real blood), sweat, cursing, and tears — and tame your lust for a rusted core.
Some pics link to bigger versions on my EAA builder’s log:
Disassembled, after 16000 hours of work.