The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Just bought an unused 1850 bare engine block from Wins. Wheres the best place to source components for rebuild or is there particular aftermarket parts I should.be avoiding, Ive heard much about rolon timing tensioner issues. Any guidance appreciated

I'd first of all try my local engine machining / reconditioning place. If they are ( for instance ) re-grinding the crank they can supply bearings to suit. And since they are dealing in this sort of stuff every day they will know where to get good quality parts if you ask for them. ( sharp intake of breath and Its gonna cost you ).
A bit far from you I think but Classic & Modern in Bracknell, Berkshire are very good from my experience.
Tony.

I think you are on your own to find quality parts. Search on ebay etc. Most machineshops have one or two suppliers. When ordering for example bearings they most of the time come up with county bearings, the only brand available. When you ask for vandervell or AE they call their supplier and their other supplier again only to hear that those are not available for years. Then they tell you they use county all the time with no problems and then you don't have the quality parts you wanted. Same with the tensioner. A rolon chain kit will be fitted. No machineshop will spend hours googling to find you original sprockets or a german quality replacement chain. There are AE pistons available and best is to have first oversize so a good machine shop can bore exact to size. You will have a better tolerance than depending on the std size what is now in the engineblock together with county pistons. A new block doesn't mean automatically a good engine when new parts are thrown in.

When i'm visiting my machineshop i bring my own pistons and bearings only for them to do the machining. Luckily my machineshop does grind and bore to the exact size i want and not what they think what is ok. For example on AE piston boxes have the bore size on them for that particular piston. But sometimes the rings supplied are already to their maximum tolerance so it can be that you have to use another set of rings and not the ones supplied with the pistons.

If you are planning to do a complete engine by your machineshop the best is you find the bearings, pistons, chain tensioner etc etc. Maybe you are lucky and a supplier does have old stock quality parts but don't let them get away with we use this and that etc. I think by now all old stock dolomite engine bearings in the UK are in Holland by now. County does make tri metal bearings and go well in some engines but not in a slant. Those are alu bearings. County bearings in KING boxes are trimetal but as rare as original ones.

Good luck with your search. And do check your new engineblock because some don't have (all) the oilplugs fitted.

Jeroen

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Classic Kabelboom Company. For all your wiring needs. http://www.classickabelboomcompany.com

There are some NOS 1850 pistons on ebay at the moment.

I have new Glacier (and some Vandervell) tri-metal bearings aplenty, but mainly in +20 thou'

Thanks Alun, I've Found some std pep hepolite ones on ebay also nos valves, Thrust washers, and std vandervell big end bearings hopefully on the right track so far.
.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saab-99-Triumph ... jY&vxp=mtr

And the mains.

Jeroen

_________________
Classic Kabelboom Company. For all your wiring needs. http://www.classickabelboomcompany.com

Sorry Jeroen my mistake have mains its the big ends I need

If I recall correctly (which often isn't the case these days!) Mike Barker had some NOS 1850 pistons a while ago...

It's worth listening img to Jeroen's advice about going to first oversize to get a good match: I guess the first task is to accurately measure what you have and go from there...

Ebay.com does have regulary these bearings. Enlarge the search by searching for saab also.
Glacier and AE are also ok to use. Sometimes in AE or glacier boxes you can find a vandervell set.
New rods do come with the small ends already fitted if needed.
Maybe you can think of using some ARP studs also.

Jeroen

_________________
Classic Kabelboom Company. For all your wiring needs. http://www.classickabelboomcompany.com

Im going to try to source as manu unused nos parts as possible which was why I was looking for std sizes is it the case that tolerances can be that far out that oversize is necessary even with a crankshaft that was new for example?

Never seen with a cranckshaft. Only somewhat bend but that is easy to fix for a machineshop.

Jeroen

_________________
Classic Kabelboom Company. For all your wiring needs. http://www.classickabelboomcompany.com