JGJ - 1975 Dolomite Sprint

[xvivalve]

His reasoning was skew gears always 'ride' and with the jackshaft having no end float its the other two that will rise and fall

[James467]

It's sound reasoning, the complete water pump assembly including the gear is new so all I'd need is a new gear for the dizzy which is readily available and easy to swap.

I'll do that when I strip and inspect the dizzy.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I have one somewhere.

[James467]

It's all kicked off!!

First off, the engine is back from Classic and Modern Engine Services, it looks superb!

Block has been bored and decked, new pistons as well. Crank has had a 10 thou grind, flywheel faced and the whole lot balanced. The rods have had new small ends and have been balanced as well.













I have everything to assemble the engine including the new club timing chain guides (thanks Nigel and Matt Cotton!) not going to build it yet though, I don't want it hanging around, plus there's some vapour blasting needed. That's next weeks job!

On to the main part of the show....

She's back from paint!! Yes, the rear panel and sills need painting, not worried about that at the moment.















Time to get reassembling, first job - rear axle, because I keep tripping over it! All freshly powder coated and new bushes fitted.









Nuts are all finger tight, I'll need to drop it to fit the exhaust.

Picked up the vapour blasting as well



Front subframe next

[James467]

As part of reassembling the front subframe I needed to refurbish the rack.

I've done a more detailed write up on this in NWL's thread.

All stripped and cleaned...



The old bearing vs the new, it did have play in and wear can be seen. I did soak the new one in oil before I installed it.



I have a tool to knock the new one into the end of the rack.... like so





New o ring and pinion bearing



Installed, rack centred and locked off



Cleaned the tie rod threads



Don't forget the nylon plug!



A lick of paint and it's all done, just waiting for the correct clamps for the rack gators.

[James467]

With the rack refurbished I can reassemble the subframe.



With a click of the fingers it's all back together!



And back on the car











Next job - brakes! I hate bending brake lines, but this tool makes it so much easier to straighten pipes. You have to disassemble it when you have pre made pipes though.





Anyway, they're all done, seem to be longer than needed so I will fit them, trim them down and re-flare the ends as needed.

Whilst the pipe bending tools were out I did the fuel lines as well, all ready to be fitted with the brake lines.



Just need to stick the bulkhead pad down, reassemble the LSV now and install the brakes.

Plan is to have a car ready for its MOT by the end of June.

[Bish]

I don’t think I’ve even got the patience to lay parts out like that for a photo! Exceptional attention to detail as usual. Lovely stuff.

[James467]

I don’t think I’ve even got the patience to lay parts out like that for a photo! Exceptional attention to detail as usual. Lovely stuff.

I mainly do it to make sure I have all the parts.

Then Alun gets a text message, "Alun, have you got one of these?"

[xvivalve]

Where did you get the bulkhead sound insulating panel?

[James467]

Where did you get the bulkhead sound insulating panel?

Looks like it's a Robsport one. Came with the car

[James467]

Time to glue the bulkhead pad in, one of the jobs I haven't been looking forward to!



It went better than expected!



I used TrimFix, which is a high temperature spray adhesive, very well regarded in the campervan world. If you're in any doubt to it's effectiveness, the inside of my van has been lined using this stuff, including the headliner. It has been in there for years and survived some very high temperatures, Bucharest was 45 degrees outside when we parked! That said, I'm not sure I'd use it on a vinyl roof though.



Started fitting the brake system including the LSV.







I drew this when I did NWLs LSV and it's been invaluable! I'll put it here again in case anyone needs it.



Just waiting for some clips to arrive but all the engine bay pipes are in.



As well as the steering column which I have stripped and rebuilt.

[James467]

Right, back to the project plan.

The engine block has been thoroughly cleaned then painted and is ready to be assembled.





Whilst that's drying the next job is to rebuild the carbs and have them ready to be fitted to the engine when it's built. As with most SUs the spindle bushes were tired and has a lot of play so I have replaced them.

Before you tell me that I haven't done this right - you have to make sure they're aligned. Trust me I know what I'm doing here, I have a tool and if you buy me enough beer I'll tell you how to do it!



Anyway, that's done, and the bodies have been put through the cleaning tank. Everything is ready for reassembly.

If you know me, then you'll know I hate polished dashpots — they're pointless. Unless you keep polishing them, they tarnish. I prefer the original look.



There are some other bits that I have cleaned but pretty much everything else is being replaced.

[yorkshire_spam]

I find the return springs and linkages on twin SUs a pain when re-assembling - looking nice though!
As you say, polishing is pointless. Whoever "restored" my Spitfire and showed it at concourse events had PAINTED things like the dashpots and alternator metalwork in silver. Yuck.

[James467]

I find the return springs and linkages on twin SUs a pain when re-assembling - looking nice though!
As you say, polishing is pointless. Whoever "restored" my Spitfire and showed it at concourse events had PAINTED things like the dashpots and alternator metalwork in silver. Yuck.

Well I have dusted the alternator, I found a nos Lucas repair kit on eBay. It doesn't look great, ok, I hate it but it will work better than a replacement.

[James467]

In this post,

James breaks his finger...

An engine gets installed and

spoiler alert!



Apologies for not posting for a while, I have been cracking on getting things done. I have an ambitious target of being in it at the Southern Dolly day on the 29th and as long as my headliner turns up I think that's achievable. It's a long shot but lets aim for it.

I'll break this down into a couple of posts I think starting where we left off, the carbs...



Yep, they're all back together

Inlet manifold has been vapour blasted (thanks to Mike at Fast Blasting in Farnborough) I'm very happy with them





On to the engine

Checked the ring gaps popped some core plugs in and dropped in the crank





All the rods and pistons have been weight matched and slid right in as you'd expect, rotated and popped on the back plate and flywheel and clutch







The clutch is a Sachs clutch cover and whatever Chris Witor sent me for the clutch plate. Jackshaft in, water pump fitted, pump cover fitted, rebuilt oil pump, filter etc...



Then it was on to the joys of the head and setting the valve clearances. It took four sessions/processes to get them set nice and tight, I have a spreadsheet and just update that, will try and attach it. It's a pain in the arse to get right and I wanted to spend some time on the inlet side before I set the head gasket, exhaust side can be done without disturbing the head gasket. I managed to get them to 0.006" Inlet and 0.008" Exhaust as per Jeroen's recommendation to me ages ago. In reality they are probably slightly wider as my feeler gauges are ok but do read on the thick side. We will see how it runs, if I have to open them up I will I have a few head gaskets if I need one.







With the head done I set TDC with the dial gauge and set the pointer on the timing cover so that it read TDC accurately





Check out that beautiful NOS Payen head gasket!



Excuse the red cam assembly lube but the head is on!



This is the way I torque the head, it makes sense to me. I think Alum told me to do it this way.

Starting from the centre tighten the stud then the bolt and work out. The way this works in (my mind anyway) is because the studs are angled when you tighten them the head will move slightly. So by tightening a stud then locking it off with the bolt you allow the head to move down onto the block without binding up. I tighten everything down incrementally and it went on without any issues at all.

[James467]

Onto the timing chain, it is a German pre stretched style, although I don't believe there are any issues with the Rolon chains. The tensioner is a nos AE stamped Reynold.

This head has been skimmed, how many times I don't know plus the block has been decked. That's going to change the timing, you can see that the chain is slack using the cam sprocket. The photo doesn't show it well but the bolt holes are very slightly out, I calculated it to be about 2-3 degrees.



I'm not elongating holes etc... so this is the solution. I don't need to get complicated with degree wheels, gauges etc... Just adjust it so that it removes the slack. Checking them side by side the holes are both slightly off, exactly as per the old sprocket when fitted.





Check sprocket alignment and fit the new club guides, set the tensioner and we are done!



Timing cover and head cover on including club guides



Shiny sump and the engine is built!