It's been an expensive year....

Just a few notes on things which have happened this year, posted in the hope that they may save others from making the same mistakes.

My car (as long-term readers will know) is a 1966 E-Type Roadster, owned by me since 1976. It's been through all the usual evolutions from old sports car in decent nick, to everyday transport, to rusting old heap which will get restored some day, to fully restored and well and truly used. Could now be a concours winner given a week's work, but I don't do Q-Tips and lining up the letters on the tyres. Good luck to them wot do, but I prefer driving the thing, not taking it to events on a trailer.

Roll back four or five years - had a sroke, DVLA said thou shalt not drive. So car stored for a couple of years. Didn't expect it to be so long before I got my licence back so didn't take the correct actions - just shoved it into the garage.

Fast forward- licence restored, driving again. E-Type running beautifully. Now unable to do even routine maintenance, entrusted the car to "Jaguar Specialist" for servicing. On third visit (yes, it does have rather short service intervals) it started to run on five rather than the six which Sir William intended. Thought it was probably a dodgy plug cap - happened before - but a compression test indicated 50/60 on five of them, but zero on no 3.

Head off, melted piston. Former aircraft engineer friend did a bit of forensic engineering and found stuck linkage to the middle carburettor. Therefore ran permanently lean on middle two pots, equals hot combustion, equals melted piston. For the want of a few drops of oil on the appropriate bit of linkage a pretty hefty bill.

So - all bolted back together, back on the road. Only problem was a loss of water. Not much - a kettle-full after every 100 mile fast run or so. Not really a problem, just worrying. Tried replacing all hoses, catch tank to see if it was rad pressure - all sorts of things. Finally jury rigged a device which indicated water coming into the cylinder on no 4. No option - engine out, strip down, found a cylinder liner corroded (from the outside). Only possibility is that it occurred while the car was laid up - if I had realised it would be so long I would have drained all the fluids.

Had to strip down engine completely before taking to engineering shop for new liners. Horror - all main bearings down to copper, including the thrust washers each side of the centre main. Big ends OK. Conclusion after much thought, later verified by measurement - crank which had been reground about

10,000 miles ago during first engine rebuild was actually three thou out of true. It's quite a long crank, and needs a supporting piece in the centre when machining - either it was left out or fitted upside down by the firm who did the job originally.

Anyway, all back together now and running well. Looking forward to terrorizing the natives again.

Hope this tale of woe helps others to avoid my mishaps!

Geoff MacK

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie
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"Geoff Mackenzie" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Was it filled with neat water or a proper coolant mix? I'm quite surprised if it corroded with coolant in there.

Indeed. I have no intention of owning an E...

Good news that it's healthy again.

Reply to
Adrian

Had the appropriate antifreeze with all the usual corrosion inhibitors. Head came off the studs easily which is usually a giveaway. I was surprised too.

Ah well, not to everybody's taste!

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

50/60? What units?

Ian

Reply to
Ian

"Geoff Mackenzie" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Oh, don't get me wrong - I love to see 'em...!

I can just think of ways I'd prefer to wrap an XK lump up. Like a Mk

7/8/9...
Reply to
Adrian

50/60? What units?

Ian

I assume psi, but I wasn't actually there when the test was done. However, you prompted me to get the report out and I see my memory is as useless as ever - the figures were 120 to 150, not 50 to 60.

Geoff

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

Ian

For a car of that age it would still be in PSI - when were Kpa introduced?? :)

r
Reply to
Rob

I'm about to overhaul a 3.9 Rover V-8 engine to go in the SD1 next year - and the two reasonably local firms I used to use for machining work have both folded. Another (that didn't have a good reputation so I never used it) is still in business but sends everything away. I enquired of them about having the crank and bores checked to see if they needed machining and they couldn't even do that locally. So appear to be nothing more than fitters these days. And there's no way I'd entrust this sort of work to a place where I can't talk to the actual engineer who'll do the work - even if it means travelling a long way.

I'm hoping to take Dave Baker's advice on who to use when I finally get round to it.

At the moment I'm building a Megasquirt for it. Imported the kit from the US. Not a job for the faint hearted. They don't even supply a circuit diagram. ;-)

PS. Glad to hear you're on the mend.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

"Dave Plowman (News)" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I know of a good place in Chesham, if it's any help.

Reply to
Adrian

Dave, stick it on a pallet and send it my way, guaranteed a good rebuild. Badger.

Reply to
Badger

Hi, Dave -

FWIW the firm I used for the machining was Southern Rebore, just outside Crawley which I think is reasonably near you. Obviously I can't give a personal recommendation until I've got another 50,000 miles on the clock, but they seem to very well thought of. Certainly my aircraft engineer friend has used them for donkey's years. The premises are clean and tidy, and the bloke who actually did the work - Colin - was very approachable and happy to discuss what he had found and what he proposed to do.

BTW, I looked up Megasquirt and still can't figure out what it is!

Geoff

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

Thanks - but I actually want to do it myself. I love engine building - but haven't had to do one for many a year. Last full overhaul I did was a B Series in an Austin 1800. And it was a cracking example afterwards - better than new.

Really it's just the crank grinding and re-bore I'll need - plus possibly testing to make sure the liners ain't leaking. Might get a new crank too rather than re-grind - if the present one needs it. It looks ok - but I don't have the measuring equipment to make sure.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Might well be - not really that far from me.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

It's basically an ECU which can be programmed as you wish. So will control both the fuelling and ignition on my SD1 - which already has a crude electronic injection system. It's actually little more expensive than a new distributor - but gives far more accurate ignition timing across the range.

Most distributors are no where near spec after some use - and even new ones have a pretty large tolerance in practice as regards the advance curve. And add in the fact that modern petrol requires a different one for peak efficiency from the fuels of 20+ years ago.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

"Dave Plowman (News)" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Sod's law, I can't find the phone number at the mo - but I'll get it in the next day or two for you.

Proper old-fashioned engineering/machine shop, run by a bloke who likes old bikes.

Reply to
Adrian

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk...

Better than new, eh? Comeon Dave, that's not really difficult enough to be a challenge, lol.

If you can feel anything by running the edge of one of your nails across the journals, then it'll maybe just need a polish, but anything that catches your nail will invariably result in a regrind, as polishing it out will increase the bearing's running clearance too much. I always check with new shells and plastigauge before commiting to a polish. FWIW, 3.5 crank is the same as the 3.9, unless it's a later serpentine engine, in which case the woodruf key is considerably longer due to the different oil pump arrangement. Bores - all 3.9's tend to wear the bores at the upper limit of piston travel, most will hone out just fine unless the wear is extreme, then it's rebore time. Block - no meaningful results from pressure testing I'm afraid, unless you can recreate the temperatures and pressures that exist during running. These things can suffer cracked blocks behind the liners, yet nothing will show unless combustion pressures and temps are present. (especially combustion pressures on the top face of the block, due to the head gaskets not sealing against the thin liner). It's rare for this to happen with a 3.9 however, the normal failure is a slipped liner, evident by a step between the block face and the upper edge of the liner. Also, check very carefully for hairline cracks running fore and aft from the main bearing bolt holes. Fit composite gaskets (if original ones were tin, skim heads by 35 thou first), ARP stud kits to main bearings (75lbft) and cylinder heads (70lbft) add a steel timing gear set, a RS Viper Hurricane cam and you'll have a smooth, free-revving but torquey and bomb-proof engine! (Don't use the torque figures supplied by ARP - their figures are quoted for the studs being installed in steel blocks, not ally!). For maximum gain, smooth the ports immediately behind the valve heads, especially the nasty lump in the floor of the exhaust port, and just tidy the castings up a bit - that alone is worth a good 8bhp on most engines. Badger.

Reply to
Badger

Indeed not. ;-)

Thanks for that - saved for later reference.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Oh Lawdy - so can't fix with a half a/f spanner and a big hammer. That's me dead in the water.

Geoff

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

Phew. I hate to think what you'd have been putting in the tank to need a 4:1 compression ratio!

Ian

Reply to
Ian

Years ago I used to use Paynes of Eynsham, near Oxford. They were good, they were cheap and - according to a friend who did a lot of expert engineering reports after breakdowns, he'd never found a fault in their work. I haven't been there for a while, but I heard just a few weeks ago from someone who had, and was very pleased.

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For what it's worth. Just a happy customer.

Ian

Reply to
Ian

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