MadaboutKitcars

Ever wish you'd never started a job?







Reconditioned my arse.

Ah, the famous "recently reconditioned" seller line.

Mr T - Sorry to hear you have a bigger job than expected on your hands.

I really hope you can get your car back on the road ASAP, as it would be a shame to miss the summer.
( In the vain hope that the summer might actually be suitable for open topped motoring. )

Good luck, Paul.

It does not look too bad Mr T, the right hand side three cylinders are running a little richer than the left hand three (carb set up), did you note the colour of the plugs as they were taken out or have you numbered them.

Are the cylinder bores worn, they don't look it in the photo.

A de-coke and lap the valves back in might get you away along with a new cylinder head gasket.

Hi Swifty, I had the carbs set up on the dyno, but the engine gave its best top end power with them running a bit rich at low revs as they leaned out a lot as the revs rose. I'm hoping the switch to 1.75" Strombergs will address that issue.

The bores are fine but four of the pistons look pretty burnt and pitted on their top surfaces, I'm guessing it's suffered quite a bit of 'pinking' in its time. I have a spare set of good pistons that I'll fit to be on the safe side as I don't want one to burn through on the move.

Plan is to rebuild the head with new valves and springs suitable for the 308778 mk2 cam I'm fitting.

Can anyone advise me on the best way to decoke the head? Is there some proprietary chemical paste that'll do the job?

So, a good couple of weeks work ahead of me to get the engine running again, hopefully with about 30% more power...

Before fitting the spare pistons check the bore diameter in case they have been re bored and require oversize pistons/rings then check the spare's you have. I would first remove the carbon off the pistons that look pitted in case it just a high build up of carbon.

A good practice is to mark up a large piece of cardboard 1 to 6 and lay all the parts removed from each cylinder next to the corresponding cylinder number, i always part reassemble the big end caps back onto the con rod the way they came off if the original parts are used again as each bearing beds in slightly differently onto the crank shaft. The main bearing casings on my engine were stamped up how ever the pistons, con rods and big end bearing casings were not. This way all the parts go back to the original bedded in position.

Some guys i know have used oven cleaner to de coke, myself have used a small wire de-burring tool in an electric drill, if you have a flexi drive shaft connected to a drill it makes life easier.

Going to try barbecue cleaning gel for the decoke, and trying to remove the carbon on the piston tops in-situ before swapping out the pistons sounds like a good idea to me.

Don't feel like getting on with it today and back to work tomorrow so there won't be a progress report now for about a week.

Overcame the enthusiasm bypass after watching this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlB1m9GRArI

Then went at the piston tops with a little penetrating oil and a washing up sponge. Half an hour of elbow grease later and...



Bit of surface pitting here and there but not as bad as I'd first feared so I should be able to get away with using them as is.

look's ok...... when buying a head gasket get a payen [rimmer] they are good bit more money but ... buy cheap but twice

Thanks for the advice Phil.

Just have a listen to this Alfa 8C replica ($500,000 to you chief) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81Yik1G4tr8

What glorious sounds! Think I might have specced it with a conventional pedal layout though...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-MK1-VITESSE-CYLINDER-HEAD-UNLEADED-KIT-CAR-/131199729726?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1e8c1d003e

Cheers Phil, had spotted that one but the resin repair put me off.

Mine should clean up ok, after all, it managed to put out 79hp in that state, so a clean and valve lap should boost it considerably, especially as one of the exhaust valves appears to be not fully closing due to the build up of crud.

I'll be rebuilding it with the mk2 cam and 1.75's next week and I'm currently looking down the back of the sofa for the £180 for Witor to flow balance my manifold. Might have half a chance of keeping up with your 2.5 then...

did not see that .....back on road soon then....

Hopefully by the middle of next week.

New valve springs suitable for the mk2 cam arrived today http://www.chriswitor.com/proddetail.php?prod=CW2906&cat=431 still waiting for a few more things to arrive in the post before the head rebuild can begin.

Also need to sort out one of the front arb mounts which pulled a hole in the chassis front rail. I've welded it all up but I'm not happy with the result so I'll be modifying the arb mounts into a full width cross bar to make sure it's all strong enough.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/X2Lucas-Rotor-Arm-Bedford-CA-HA-Hillman-Triumph-Vitesse-GT6-TVR-Vauxhall-HB-/191194768699?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2c8418a53b

Hows the head coming along Mr T?

Back on the road this week?

Just finished my most exhausting set of shifts Scottie, a run of 11 hour shifts with 3am finishes, so I haven't been able to get on with it. Four days off now though so I'm about to make a start. Hoping to be roadworthy again by Friday...

I know the feeling, good luck with it!

Spent most of today repairing the o/s front arb bracket, which had pulled a hole in the chassis -



Not pretty but pretty solid.

Made a start on cleaning up and lapping in the valves too -



Got three cylinders worth done, the ones on the left, they're not exactly new and shiny but a heck of a lot of carbon came off and they lapped in smoothly enough. Also changed the springs for new ones suitable for the mk2 cam.

Mr T - Sounds like you are making good progress.

I loved your "Not pretty, but pretty solid" comment, as that sums up most of my repair work.

Good luck, Paul.

Cylinder head refurb now finished and mk1 cam swapped out for mk2. Couple of observations:

1/ The Haynes manual neglects to mention that you've got to remove the fuel pump before pulling the camshaft out of the block or it'll jam after about 100mm of travel;

2/ Don't bang the timing chain cover back on with the palm of your hand like I did as it's got a ruddy great spike on the front, which is now covered in blood -



Something had been bothering me about my cylinder head too that I just couldn't put my finger on until this morning. Take a look at the picture below, the two valves on the left are the ones I'd decoked, lapped in and refitted with new springs and the two on the right are as fitted by whoever rebuilt the head last time -



The valve springs were all fitted the wrong way up, with the closed coils uppermost.

I'm beginning to wonder if that could explain why the engine wouldn't rev beyond 4,700rpm on the dyno, after all, they've got a right way up for a reason. Should find out tomorrow as I'm hoping to get the head back on and have the car ready for a test run by tomorrow afternoon.

I'll be refitting the 150 Strombergs to see if it'll pull harder for longer with the same carb set up that it had before. If there's a dramatic difference it won't just be down to the cam, which should only give me another 6 or 7 hp, but will indicate that the inverted valve springs were strangling the engine.

It will be interesting to find out any differences, as you say,
they are made and fitted that way for a reason!
Good luck with the test, and hope it comes out in your favour.

Mr T - The more I read about your "rebuild" engine, the more I worry about my own "rebuild" engine.

Unfortunately, I would only make things worse if I started to "play" with the engine myself.

So hats off to you for having the skills to get this sorted out.

I will definitely be getting a Triumph specialist to bring my engine back to life and check it all out for me.

Good luck, Paul.

Good to see your repairs are nearly finished and it will be interesting to see if there's an improvement in engine performance.

I looked at the ARB mounts on my chassis after reading your post and mine too are showing signs of stress fractures so I'll make up two new plates to weld in position, it must be a weak point.