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Posted

Thanks very much Guys. yeah it could have been much, much worse, could have been me, the whole car, the house.

 

I suppose that's why I am calm(ish).  :-/

 

Of course it's going to take a long time for me to fix this one.

 

No Triumph driving for me this summer.  :'( :'( :'(

 

Insurance won't cover it as the car is still parked outside under the car port, instead of in the garage as the insurance insists.

 

Glad it wasn't inside!!!

 

I may never know what provided the initial spark, probably ignition.

 

I am still surprised at how quickly the oil burned from that oil gauge tee-piece and nylon hose.  

 

I also wonder if the ethanol in the fuel had anything to do with the ease of ignition.

 

Last night my wife & I finally started on clearing the crap out of the garage and today we have some friends coming over to help us clear most of the rest so that the car can finally go in there.

 

We will push the car onto the concrete in front of the garage, and I will use my shop-vac to suck, then blow that white powder away as much as possible.

 

Once the car is inside, I will remove the LH engine valance so I can get at the wiring, and carefully clean and disassemble the harness etc where it needs replacing.

 

So far, I can see it needs

 

1. Survey damage, (depressing).

 

2. Obtain replacement wiring

 

3. Make up replacement Oil Pressure Gauge hose.

 

4. Obtain replacement High Tension Leads

 

5. Obtain Accelerator Cables (melted covers)

 

6. Remove, strip, clean & rebuild Webers

 

7. Fit all wiring, cover in thermo-tec tubing under bonnet.

 

8. Fit new gearbox cover, using fire-retardant materials underneath

 

9. Strip & Repaint front LH bulkhead/firewall.

 

I fully expect to find other stuff.

 

I work 57 hours/week/6 days and have no spare money so this will take me ages, but hey at least I still have a car to work on.

 

L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted

Yeah well these were the household extinguishers that I had in the house since I bought it, 4+ years ago.

 

When there's a fire, you run, you grab the thing, you run back, you use it.

 

No time for anything else.

 

But I will replace them with something better if affordable.

 

The powder ones are probably fine for general household use, but will probably get something different to keep in the car.

 

L  

Posted

Bad luck Leon!  Really sorry to see that. I can see that gave you a really large and unwanted adrenaline shot......  Makes plumbed in extinguisher systems look like good value!  Wear decent gloves when clearing up - some rubbers (especially Viton family) can release hydrofluoric acid when burned and you REALLY don't want that on you.

 

What I absolutely don't get though is why it started there?  Unless you had a fuel leak there on your incoming pipe and stray spark.....?  Or it was a wiring fault and the loom went first?  Ethanol is less volatile than petrol (As I'm reminded every time I start my goddammed mower from cold) so that isn't it.  Or was it fuel dripping onto the floor and puddling at that point then ignited by a spark from the starter?

 

Posted

Insurance won't cover it as the car is still parked outside under the car port, instead of in the garage as the insurance insists.

 

 

Leon,

 

Empty the garage, push the car in, make a claim!

 

Wayne

Posted

Spent almost all of today 10am-7pm @ 92 degrees Fahrenheit, with 3 friends and wife clearing out the garage of all those damn cardboard boxes etc, unpacking, repacking, consolidating etc to make room for my car so that I can work on it, irrespective of weather, day, time etc.

 

Sucked with the shop vac, blew with the leaf blower, and finally jetwashed the engine bay of as much of that white powdered ammonium silicate (fine sand), as I could then pushed car into it's own garage for the first time since I have had it, 12 years on the road, 4+ years as a home 'owner'.

 

Now completely exhausted, gonna fry some pork chops, eat and go to bed to dream of Lucas colour coding!

 

Léon

 

glad to see that Steve has got away lightly with his trunnion disaster also.

 

nb. when inspecting vertical links, if there is ANY rust, even a few flecks, on that area above the thread, behind the rubber oil seal, then it MUST be replaced, as that's where the cracks start to propogate.

 

L

 

    

Posted

Got the car in the garage.

 

Worth remarking on as it's  taken me so many years to achieve this!

 

Now the fun starts - well as soon as I put a light up above the engine bay.

 

6 days back at work first though.

 

L

Posted

Leon, are you sure that's not the bathroom you've pushed it into by mistake? Patterned tiles on the wall, carpet on the floor, that must be a bathroom.

 

(You'll note that sympathy is now receding and banter based on jealousy is taking over again...... No offense matey....).

Posted

I hope your car gets better soon Leon.

 

I have stripped the carpets out of my Spitfire and wire brushed and painted the floor pans and sills and re-laid the carpet. I used POR15 - should keep rust-free for years! Fantastic paint.  :D

 

Its a job I have been waiting to do for a while - nothing exciting just needed doing as I was aware of a few surface rust patches. Now to just enjoy the car before its big sea voyage  ;D

Posted
Leon, are you sure that's not the bathroom you've pushed it into by mistake? Patterned tiles on the wall, carpet on the floor, that must be a bathroom.

 

(You'll note that sympathy is now receding and banter based on jealousy is taking over again...... No offense matey....).

 

Those aren't patterned tiles on the wall, that's the fugly curtain that was there when I bought the house, will change it later, more important things to do first.

 

The carpet is there because the previous owner turned the garage into a bedroom, and I am turning it back into a garage again, eventually, probably when I have messed up the carpet, and I have the money, that carpet will be replaced with something tougher.

 

L

Posted

Those aren't patterned tiles.....

The carpet is there because...............

L

I'm pleased you took that as good-natured teasing, Leon.  :)

 

I've just topped off my enjin oil and cranked her over a few times - just playing silly buggers - having static timed the dizzy into something like correct. The car promptly dumped 3 pints onto my garage floor.

 

'Twould appear that my engine purveyors neglected to put the stud in that hole under the dizz.

Where's that thread on screw-ins with allen heads for your block again? Canleys wasn't it?

Ho hum.  :-/

 

 

 

 

Posted

That a new engine Smithy?  

 

I measured the differences in some idle jet holders this evening pondering my next move on the carb jetting...

 

My current idle jet holders have 6x 0.75mm air holes, the ones I can use for testing are leaner with 6x 0.8mm air holes...

 

I can use 0.8mm MIG welding wire to bung up 1 or 2 of the 6 air feed holes to richen the high-end mix from the leaner holder for testing, then solder up some custom ones if I hit the sweet spot.

 

I could just buy 4 holders of the odd and never used size between my current one and a richer one that I know is too rich, however that costs money and would be too easy?

 

Holders I need are between 7850.1 and 7850.9. The 7850.4!

 

Working out the areas of the air bleed holes.

 

7850.1 = 6.15mm2 (1x 1.40mm hole)

7850.4 = 8.04mm2 (1x 1.60mm hole)

7850.9 = 10.602mm2 (6x 0.75mm holes)

7850.10 = 12.06 mm2 (6x 0.8mm holes)

 

If I bung up two of the holes on the 7850.10 holders I get a 7850.4...but the factory 7840.4 uses 1 hole of 1.60mm, my custom holder would have 4 holes of 0.8mm, same thing, different angle!

 

7850%20holders.jpg

 

Fails to explain that there is a varying size pilot hole up the centre of the holder. I wonder what the 7850.4 pilot size is?! The 7850.9 and 7850.10 are the same, being as the 7850.4 is the in the middle of these two, it should also be the same :)

 

Obviously the holders don't go 1-10 lean to rich :) This is italian mentality the number bares to relation to the richness :) its lean>rich 5-10-9-4-1-3-6-7-2-8

Posted

 

'Twould appear that my engine purveyors neglected to put the stud in that hole under the dizz.

Where's that thread on screw-ins with allen heads for your block again? Canleys wasn't it?

Ho hum.  :-/

 

 

Is that the hole that is supposed to have the oil pressure switch in it...?  :P  Should be able to get those plugs from any decent pipework/fitting place or even a decent nuts/bolts merchant.

 

Nick

Posted
That a new engine Smithy?  

 

I measured the differences in some idle jet holders this evening pondering my next move on the carb jetting...

 

My current idle jet holders have 6x 0.70mm air holes, the ones I can use for testing are leaner with 6x 0.8mm air holes...

 

I can use 0.8mm MIG welding wire to bung up 1 or 2 of the 6 air feed holes to richen the high-end mix from the leaner holder for testing, then solder up some custom ones if I hit the sweet spot.

 

I could just buy 4 holders of the odd and never used holders between my current one and a richer one that I know is too rich, however that costs money and would be too easy?

 

Dave,

 

Do you have a set of watchmakers/jeweller drills?  Seem to remember reading something years ago that advocated soldering up your jets and drilling them to the size you wanted?  Sounds a bit of a bodge to me.... but hey, if it works and saves lots of cash, why not  ;D

 

Nick

 

 

Posted

Steve & Leon,

 

Sorry to see the misfortune you have had with your cars :(, things like that could happen to any of us. At least no serious damage was done to both cars and owners which is the main thing.

 

Andy

Posted

Quoted from Nick Jones

Is that the hole that is supposed to have the oil pressure switch in it...?  

Nick

 

Naa Nick, you fiend in human form you - I just had to go look at it again. You got me going!

The pressure switch hole is blanked off. I'll invest in that later with a kit and a combined gauge with temp, p'raps. (I've got one somewhere).

It's a "stud" hole, mine, (ooooer missus. What else to call it?), requiring a number 22, herein. Phew!:

http://www.canleyclassics.com/catalogue.asp?id=vitesse2litre_engineblock&scale=large

Since Rimmers apologised for the oil on my floor and are sending me a new one without cost, I shan't pester the local factors.

Good of them eh? How kind! How generous! Good suppliers!

(There may be some non-subtle sub-text, above).

 

Quoted from davesideways

That a new engine Smithy?

 

Dave - ha ha you devil - not quite.

Sh*t.

I now have to admit it's a rebuild engine - I did an exchange with Rimmers for it a while back. Gasp!   :o :o

19 years ago.

Hence their generosity.

Ahem.

 

When it arrived it had a Draper ratchet handle trapped in the sump btw. (No kidding). Which was a nice bonus, of course, but that did make it rattle a fair bit.

And before you mention it (or anyone throws anything), would I do the same now? Get an exchange engine from the lads?

Yes. Right after gouging my eyes out with a salty stick of celery.

 

 

Posted

Prepping BIG T (saloon) for a trip to the paint-shop some time soon....

 

Fitted NOS boot-lid

All dors and bonnet/boot fettled for an acceptable fit.

 

Filled in a couple of holes from old door mirrors with fibre-glass putty... :(

 

Removed remaining trim..... my GAWD BL really scattered alot of trim on their cars :-/

Posted
Photos Sorbs!

 

 

Sorry, it takes a while to walk far enough to get all of the items mentioned in shot.

 

As for the car, well I had a cursory glance at the coolant hoses last night.  They all seem fine.

 

 

 

 

Posted

I drilled a couple of big holes here and there through the front chassis legs last night. My radiator's never going to flap about, I assure you. And I've just realised this thread is for weekly bulletins strictly speaking, so I'll try and keep a lid on my many other developments until Sunday.

 

Sorbs, a fine photo thanks, and everything looks very well fettled, although I'd say that Lapis Manculi is in need of a fierce prune (if you don't my mentioning it). You may want to mention it to your under-gardener.

 

I haven't had much time in the arbour since this torrent began, but Mrs S. has acquired another nice little Maple which I'll be potting out later, when the rain desists.

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