Now what I wonder?

Another couple of little tests and this car certainly feels like it should fly - wheelspin is no problem at all.

So, I need to tax it and then get it running with a few miles under it's belt.

A trip round Scotland should do it - La Carrera here we come.

But, but, I still have a pair of 2" SUs yet -should I really push my luck and go for these too? Maybe after the LCC and before the Little Devils I think.

Thanks Bryce

WOO_HOO

Thanks to Bryce BRP is back running again.

The valve timing was fine but with a bit of fettling - adjusting the ignition timing, swapping plugs, rotor arm and using jump leads we fired her up.

Now I need to do some tidying up and get that flippin exhaust manifold fitted with all 5 bolts .

Early days but a quick blast down my drive was very good - there seems alot more power and the engine revs freely.

So, the car is taxed May 1st then I can give it a run, service it and give it a few tweaks


Pendle and Pennine meeting, HRCR marshalling, Crich Club Triumph stand and most importantly, La Carrera here we come

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Head swap - the right thing!

Having looked at the options I took the decision to swap the entire head instead of swapping camshafts.

This should be the easier option but is still alot of work so, at 1.30PM Bryce and I started work.

First was to remove the head from the spare engine which we took our time over as we are novices to the Sprint engine. Having learned some valuable lessons though we then moved on to the engine in BRP.

We noticed that one of the lobes on the cam in the BRP cylinder head had been worn flat but worse was that one of the rocker shaft reteining bolts was loos - in fact, it seemed to have no thread on it! These two elements could certainly explain the noisy top end and justified removing this head on their own.




Having got it off though we then found corrosion in the waterways too as can be seen here.








The head from the spare engine, however, showed lots of little signs of being worked on and it has the new cam as well.

Next is a reversal of removal in that time honoured fashion and after 4 hours work we had the new head on, torqued up and the front sprocket back in place.

End of play.

Apart from I just couldn't let it go so at 7.30 I went back out and completed the reassembly of the inlet manifold and exhaust manifold etc. That exhaust manifold was a complete swine though, no matter how many times I tried I could only get 4 out of 5 bolts in - they might be a different combination each time but still only 4 out of 5. I will need to return to this.

So, all back together, 9.30 PM and I try to fire it up. No joy.

The engine will turn but no sign of anything happening. This could be for a number of reasons although I think it's probably to do with the fact that we put it all back together as close as possible to how it was to start with - that is, we didn't time the cam in.

After 7 hours work it's time for a break though so the best option is a week's thought and reflection, the battery on charge and then back to it next week.

Bryce, If you are reading this, are you available next Saturday afternoon?

Cam shafts - slowly slowly

I am approaching a job I am a bit daunted by at the moment - investigating the noisy top end of the Sprint engine. This will probably mean shimming valve clearances and checking the timing chain tensioner.

At the same time I'll probably need to remove the cam (lots of chances to screw things up with the timing putting it all back later). Now, if I do need to remove the cam I have a spare which is allegedly a "group 2 cam". I just need to do some research and try and identify it - if it is then I might as well swap it into my engine whilst I am fannying about with the valve clearances etc.






Here's some pics