Half and half

Continuing to make progress on the 2000's engine but on a steady basis.

Here's the bottom half fully built up (less front timing chain and cover) on the engine stand.

Looking good I think and now it's on the stand it feels like it's more of an engine again rather than just a collection of parts.

The sump is now back on but I can't put the new timing chain on until the head is refitted with all the valves and rocker gear etc so it can be timed in correctly.

I removed all the valves one by one, cleaned them up and then refitted with new valve springs. I had been told some work had been done on the head but as I am not really that clever I can't be sure! The valves all look very good though and some may even be new.

Here's a picture of "half and half" - half the valve springs replaced and half still to go.

It took ages to do the first one getting the colletts in but by the end I felt I could do another head!

OK - so close of business, all cam followers in, all valve springs replaced.

Next time cylinder head fitted, rocker gear and push rods fitted - that's the aim.

A right mixed bag!

A weekend of different aspects Triumph wise.

First, a little bit sad was removing bits from BRP. As the car is not going to be used for a long time now and at some point will go into storage when PMW comes back out to play it makes sense to do some moving of stuff.

The front brakes had already come off and are now on UNJ.

Then I fitted some old wheels to the front so I could take off the pair of very good Michelins fitted to original TR7 alloys so that they could go into storage.

Then I removed the rally computer as there's no reason to leave a useful bit of kit in the car. Same with an Avanti map reading light, a tow rope and medical kit which are now in UNJ (and can be used in PMW too when it resumes first line duty).

Yesterday was a return to building up PMW's original engine.

The biggest amount of time was cleaning up the front plate removing old gaskets but once that was over it was bolted on and attention moved to the new camshaft seen in the picture prior to fitment.

A liberal coating of lubricant and then with a careful insertion (!) it was in the block and all secure.

Next was the rear crankshaft oil seal and rear engine plate going on in quick succession. The oil pump filter was seriously blocked but the use of Fairy power spray, rinsing out and blowing through with an airline cleared that soon enough.

All of a sudden the end is in sight - OK plenty to do yet but real progress at last. I couldn't get any further though as the engine stand wasn't available so with time available I moved on to PMW itself to start stripping the engine down for it's removal.

Here's PMW coming out of hibernation.

Off with the radiator, battery, alternator, fuel pump and coil leaving the engine bay a little bare. Mind you the inlet manifold refused to play ball so that was it for this week.

Next week it's the Raider's Triumph (event, not car!) so no progress for a couple of weeks or so.

A Mini triumph

Today I spent the entire afternoon spannering etc but not on a Triumph.

In fact I made no progress on the 2000 engine rebuild at all.

No, I spent the afternoon waxoyling and generally fettling my wife's new car - a 1992 Mini as seen below.

Lovely car with only 18000 miles on the clock.

Possible addition

There could be a new addition to the fleet and this time not a Triumph!

Actually it's my wife looking to buy a small car to nip about in when the Peugeot 308 really isn't needed. Maybe a quick trip to the coast in the sun as well perhaps.

So we have looked at a 1992 Rover Mini today and it seems really good, very solid and with only 18000 miles on the clock. Lots of history with it and sitting on Rover "minilite" wheels - oh, and it's a very tasty shade of red too.

Real shades of the Italian Job!

Other than that though, a steady 3 hours again. Initially helping Bryce in his latest project which is a BMW Compact for a one make race series. Track rod ends proved very reluctant to come off but did so eventually.

Back on the engine rebuild for PMW it's slow and steady - old gaskets take some getting off I can tell you.

Pendle & Pennine - the Raider's Triumph

A Club Triumph weekend this one.

Friday night was the Pendle and Pennine Area Meeting which, as always, was  a great night with lots of chat and banter.

Then on Saturday morning  Andy Flexney and I visited one of the secret locations for tests on the "Raider's Triumph". Andy will be in charge of this location and we spent a fair bit of time planning the tests which will be interesting and fun, but not too difficult for newcomers.

Then we spent some more time talking cars with persons unknown (for now as it could give the game away).

After all that I went over to the workshop to continue the rebuild of PMWs engine. Thanks to Mike Charlton obtaining two more shells for me the crank ald pistons are now in place and fully torqued up.

Bearing up

So, with new main bearings and big end shells purchased I could actually start building the engine - hurragh!

One thing I have learned though is that if something doesn't feel right, stop, consult, think and make sure all is well. I had to do this a number of times as various components have to go on in the right order and they all have to be there!

Putting the crankshaft main bearing shells in seemed to go OK after I found one of the thrust washers has been spun back out whilst rotating the crank - no wonder it all tightened up. So, fixed that and then proceeded to lightly nip up all the main bearing bolts at a low torque wrench setting to start with.

I proceeded by tightening number 3 up first and rotating the crank to make sure it was OK. With this OK I moved on to number 2 (I always start from the centre and work out as instructed by my brother too many years ago) but this time the crank wouldn't budge - and this was with only 40 lbs/ft instead off 55.

On removal of the end cap I found one of the brand new Vandervell main bearing shells had been squashed as I obviously hadn't seated it right. I was not happy but at least it can be fixed now, even if it does mean buying a replacement and waiting until I can work on the engine again.

Numbers 1 & 4 went on all OK though.

Then all six pistons went in with new big end bearings after I had honed the bores and there was no problems with the crank rotating.

The clutch cover and flywheel have now been removed so that next time the build up can continue.

Interesting to see where metal has been removed from the piston connecting rods to balance them all out aswell as on the crankshaft itself.

Here's a picture of the bottom end build up in process with the missing end cap.

2000 engine assembly

Now started re-assembly of the original engine from PMW.

Here's a picture of the block and then the crank etc lightened and balanced. If you look closely it's quite clear where a fair bit of metal has been removed from the crankshaft!

Next step was to partially assemble the crank into the block using the old shells etc so that we could measure the end float with the exisiting thrust washers. The result was that actually end float was bang in the middle of the factory tolerances.

Then we took it apart again, gave the block a thorough cleaning and panted it - that's a shock given my normal way of going about things!

During the coming week I'll order the main and big end bearings so that reassembly can start properly next weekend.