No, I haven't been sitting around here on my elbow, despite the lack of posts in this thread, work has been continuing on the second sprint.
After mucking around with the water pump, extracting the pump from the green 1850 engine to get the proper flinger and then rebuilding the water pump, it was reinstalled, clearances adjusted and all bolted back on. Not sure what it is with impellers, but another 6 vane one broke getting it off the shaft, all care taken, soaked in penetrene and heat used, but she shattered under moderate vice pressure. No more spares left.
Then around the the front of the engine. Crankbolt out, inspected the timing chain, helicoiled two threads in the block and cleaned it all up. I've made the decision not to undertake a full engine rebuild and I'm leaving the head on, fingers crossed the engine is sound. Finances are one factor in this decision, the other is holding myself back from undertaking another bare metal resto and trying to draw the line on how mch work should be done. With the engine turning nicely I'm taking the gamble and if the engine has to come out again, then so be it. I'm stuck on taking the cylinder compressions as well, the tester I've got doesn't have a long enough extension to seat in the plug tubes. Gamble.
The spin on oil filter saga was solved at about this time, so I've decided to go with it, as you can see in the pic. I also had to helicoil three of the 4 threads in the block for the left hand engine mount.
Inside the bay, the rudimentary welding work on the bulkhead was sprayed with zinc black and then rustproof black gloss.
the bulkhead pad was replaced with the last of the closed cell foam I used in the first sprint.
The gearbox was treated to a clean and an exchange of gear oil.
and the oil plug revealed a lot of debri. I have a spare gearbox if needed later.
clutch master was TIG welded to repair the broken flange and fitted out with a seal kit, likewise a kit fitted to the slave. The elongations in the push rods were welded up and redrilled, clevis pins stolen from the spare engine that had less wear were used.
then I dropped the subframe and cleaned it up.
finding Ian's holy grail of flexible steering couplings.....no rubber grommets. This is a good thing yeah ?
gearbox attached to the engine (I've never had any problem doing this, input shaft always slides home, handy stud on top of the gearbox adapter provides a hook while the gearbox is moved around to line up). I simply use a screwdriver handle to align the clutch plate by eye. In fact, I enjoyed doing it so much I took it off again as I handn't greased up the throw out cross shaft and bearing slide. This was a mistake as I pulled a back muscle refitting it the second time.
general view of the shed. The green 1850 (auto) in the background was driven around the paddock but the body is pretty much shot through. I'm planning on taking parts from both 1850s to build one going car. Water pump has been pilfered for the sprint resto.
engine back onto subframe.
the subframe to body bolts were in poor condition. The rear right bolt has seized in the sleeve and 3 weeks of penetrene, rattle gun and hammering didn't free it up, so I've left it in place. Means I didn't have to enlist 12yo son to hold the top while I torqued up the nut. Salvaged some dished plates to replace the rusted ones, used good looking mounting rubbers, as good looking rubbers are important
the lift. Such a satisfying afternoon doing this. It just works.
until you remember the stupid exhaust downpipe needs to be wriggled on half way through...grrrrr
this is the assortment of bits and bobs the car came with, all in a couple of tins. Working through them all trying to work out which bolt and nut fits where slowed me down a bit. Quite relaxing though. The car had come mostly disassembled and while most of the pieces were labelled and in bags, a few crucial parts were not. The brake servo for example, has slightly different threads where it mounts through the bulkhead and finding the nuts was time consuming. That and leaving spanners is silly places.
mystery dissie connections ! This is how they are set up, but this appears to be wrong according to the other sprint. I suspect the timing had been set up 180 degrees out. In any case, I've set up static timing on the dissie and checked with the valve timing and TDC on #1 and I'm about to rewire the plug leads. Can someone confirm I'm doing this correctly.