Nick Jones

Best use for a Delco dizzy! Cheers Nick

This was the pic that perhaps shows torque plate relevance Bores are actually pretty good by eye apart from damage caused by rust. Std size and, surprisingly, honing marks still visible in many areas. Car mileage is 139k I think - engine not necessarily original, but the bearings looked very well used when I first changed them so it could be. Agreed that the problem, whatever it is, isn't huge. The parts are at the engine shop now so I can't look, but the piston pins are definitely not broken, circlips intact and no discernible play in the little end bushes. Compression rings did seem fairly loose in their grooves. Oil rings somewhat stuck and well worn. The big-end shells, replaced last year were still looking reasonably fresh - certainly no obvious evidence of rod twist on them. I may still have the original shells - could look at them with this in mind. Compression figures for this engine were very good - all in the high 180s - early 190s IIRC, but it drank oil like a rabbit hole and had massive blow-by. It did make some odd clicking noises on the over-run that I thought might be busted rings, but none were busted - possibly that was the slack rings. No 5 had some scratches in the bores but not obvious what caused them. Dirt I suspect. Anyway, the engine man has a rod checking rig and will be checking bores and pistons for roundness etc. Not sure if he's able to check the relationship between bores and crank axis. Cheers Nick

Pictures: Thrust side other side Candidates are, 6 identically bent rods (probability low) excessive crank thrust movement (it's about .006" due to new thrust washers Jan 2011 so not likely) 6 badly machined rods bores not perpendicular to crank axis the last two being down to Triumph build quality - this engine has not been apart before. Thoughts? suggestions? Should I be worried? Have another block which has more bore wear but straight wear showing on the pistons. Have another set of rods too but those are the later ones with the hole and these are the earlier ones. Nick

You can vary the castor fairly substantially by varying the relative amounts of shims front to rear on the lower wishbones. A small increase has a big effect on steering weight. I always though the Transit ball-joint was the one (not sure which Transit if I'm honest!) but vaguely recall something about a Maxi as well? (They must be near extinct now - certainly can't remember the last time I saw one) Nick

Poor grammar though...... even my lead memory is fading..... Nick

Craig, If you just want the splined part to graft onto the Toyota part, a saloon or even Sprint 'box can provide the part you need. Might be easier to find locally? Nick

wear is mostly adjacent to the sides of the engine but showing a tendency to be diagonal rather than straight up and down as they should be. Nick

One for the experienced engine builders here: Following on from the pics on page 5 of this thread http://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic/5167-nick-mk2-pi/page__st__80 I dropped the block, pistons and a couple cranks (thanks Andy!) off for measuring today. The engine man grabbed a piston and immediately picked up on something I'd not spotted..... the piston has an asymmetric wear mark on the thrust and opposite sides (perpendicular to the wrist pin axis), as though it's been running at a slight angle in the bore. His first response was "bent rod", but when we found all 6 have exactly the same wear mark that theory wasn't looking so likely. So what the hell is it? 6 identically bent rods seems a bit unlikely....... though I guess they could have been incorrectly machined. Could it be that the bores are not perpendicular to the crank axis? Apart from the rust damage the bores are actually pretty fair. I'll try a swing by there tomorrow and get a pic to help describe it. Cheers Nick

Hah! I's more like a nuclear scientist than I thought.... Nick

An old head that's done loads of miles in leaded petrol days will have "lead memory" and last for ages without inserts if it's not messed with. If just pottering around then probably effectively for ever. If hard used (James ) then you'll get through the lead memory eventually and then recession will be rapid. For any head where the seats have been re-cut or even just re-lapped, you'll get recession pretty rapidly if the engine is well exercised. Sustained high loads/rpm is what does it. To avoid this you either need to use an additive (which may well kill your lambda sensor) of use inserts. I wouldn't do any work to a good working head until recession actually occurred (the original Vitesse head did about 30k with no recession before being swapped due to worn guides), but equally, if rebuilding a head for road use (no additives) I'd definitely have inserts fitted for the exhaust valves and use suitable valve materials. Nick

We seem to have a new local feature in the shape of this young (I think) male (I think) sparrowhawk. Rather magnificent isn't he - look at the talons! He appeared about 2 months ago and is now a regular visitor to the back garden. We have alot of sparrows living in our roof and next door have a large bird feeder........ The sparrows in the roof make a hell of a racket in the early morning so he can feast on them with my blessing! Cheers Nick

I reckon that'll be ok as is. Don't mess with it for now! Nick

Before chopping your new manifold, try it as it is. On properly made ones the slip joints seal as they are...... Reasonably easy to sort later if not. Nick

Beast made it to Stoneleigh and back (300 mile round trip) without incident. Was half expecting trouble as the engine doesn't sound fully fit with an odd mechanical rattle/rumble at 3k but in fact the bigger risk was probably the recently fitted diff which is even noisier than the old one. It wasn't too bad to begin with but got louder on the way up. Didn't seem to get any worse on the way back though. Took it fairly steady on the way up and didn't use much fuel - pushed harder on the way back and did... Too rich at top end. Saturday I stripped the original engine. Problems are due to the bores having been really quite rusty in spite of the POs claim that it didn't have to be "cracked off" when first exhumed. Hum. Reckon it must have squeaked a bit! Pity really as there is very little lip on the bores and honing marks can still be seen in quite alot of places. That is odd in itself as the bearings I took out of it (the originals I think) looked very well used. This might be due to crappy maintenance as it's really filthy inside. It's going to the machine shop Wednesday for measuring along with a couple of cranks. Might clean out with a hone....... probably going to be +0.020 though. Cam and followers are also dead. No.6 exhaust especially (end one again) but a couple of others starting to go too. I have a good used one luckily. New bearings I fitted 2000 miles ago look fine - especially the mains which are unmarked. Pics of bores. The engine did about 2200 miles after the long lay-up. No broken rings. All compression rings were free moving but the oil control rings were very sticky. Pistons look quite reasonable but the compression rings seem a bit slack in the grooves. No pitting in this one but a patch that doesn't seem to be seeing much ring contact Pitting here though and here and in this one you can see the witness marks where the rings were sat - and some scratches (not as deep as they look here in fact) Finally, one for the deck plate boys....... Cheers Nick

Yeah.... England looks like this alot....... mind you, I gather that large parts of NSW are good for boating at present (as were large parts of QL not long since) Irritating thing is that the weather was actually really nice last week and was pretty good today as well...... fate has a nasty sense of humour - but we know that! I was mostly pleased that the red thing dragged itself up to Stoneleigh and back (300 miles) without mishap. Something at the back is not happy though - yowls like a cat on a bed of nails - which gets wearing after a while. Seems the "new" diff is (even) sicker than the original. The "new" engine is also marginally less sick than the old one - in some ways anyway. It's "only" managed to work it's way halfway down to the minimum mark in about 400 miles! Bottom end isn't great though - nasty noises on startup and a harsh patch about 3k. Oil pressure could be better too - I've left the gauge under the bonnet where it can't upset me all the time. Forgot my camera so no pics - silly boy! Nick Nick

Would appear to have gone off smoothly......... at least I saw some of the participants earlier and no major incidents were reported! No doubt we'll hear more later. Nick

Viton should do it. Nick

Hmmmmm.... subtle.............not! Soon get covered in black dust though! Nick

I was going to ask where you were going to put all these new garage toys...... 'cause previous pics have shown a garage quite nearly full already....... But I guess you have answered that. I would chuckle, but my garage also needs a serious sort out and to do that would take a week - minimum - without cricket stops..... I'm not jealous of the toys at all........ (yeah, lying again.....) Nick

Mr Doig wins...... Nick

AAA are sometimes called "the emergency needle" 'cause they have a tendency to be rich at the top end..... There is a bit in Vizards A-series tuning book about gaining more flow from HS2 carbs - pretty quick and straight-forward stuff. Think he covers it in more detail in one of his other books but I don't have that one. Nick

Mr Jones' method is much the same as Mr Thompsons method. As he says, it's more a matter of getting them to seal proper than holding them on. I use this, with ceramic jointing paste and (also essential IMO) a good solid support on the gearbox to stop the rest of the system swinging on that joint. This works reasonably well. Lasts about a year. I did try the high temp silicone stuff but doesn't seem to be high temp enough - doesn't last. Another thing that will help I think, though not tried it yet is to use a flexi-joint at the back of the gearbox to further reduce the system swinging on the joint. They are a swine..... especially when you are using an O2 sensor and really don't want an air leak. Nick

No, because you machine a bit off the main cap mating faces first (or off both the main cap and block mating faces if you are doing properly and have very deep pockets) http://www.enginebuildermag.com/Article/1227/line_boring_equipment_a_boring_subject.aspx Nick

eh?? You appear to be special then...... We might need the help of a clever person...... Craig? Nick

I seem to have started one. Can you add to it? Cheers Nick