Reply To: Power Head Cross Reference for 1958 Evinrude Fisherman 5516

[Don]

OK, just typed a response, but this website is not responding correctly.

Great information, alot of questions answered.  Were those taper pins bunged up when you disassembled it?  If so, I have no doubt someone was in there before.  Finding two washers under the connecting rod screws confirms this.

And yes, that lower rod is binding on the crank for sure.  I am confident that new rods with solve this issue, but lets try one more thing to be sure.  Bolt the upper rod to the lower journal and see how if rotates, if you haven’t done this already.  We will have to look closer at the crank if the upper rod binds on the lower journal.

Once the new rods come, mark them carefully, and bolt them to the crank to be sure they turn freely.  The new rods should come with new lock plates, they can be ordered separately if necessary.  Do not attempt to use the two old lock rings.

Now, we must look into that ring end gap situation.  I suppose it is possible that someone has bored these cylinders oversize and didn’t do the correctly.  Or perhaps, the rings used were not OEM and just don’t fit properly.  Usually oversize pistons are stamped with the oversize dimension on the piston dome, but maybe not on these older pistons.  So, we may want to measure the piston skirts and cylinder walls to ensure this powerhead is still standard bore.  If it has been bored oversize, we may be in trouble.  I suppose it is possible that someone used oversize rings, but I really don’t think they would fit in a standard cylinder.  You should not have to file the ring end gaps to get OEM rings to fit properly.

Thanks again for all your great pictures/videos/answers, I think we have gotten to the bottom of this issue.   Don