MadaboutKitcars

Well obr, it is and it isn't!
When I put it to bed for the winter, it was suffering from an overheating problem, and having spent two years building it, and then have the head gasket go and the subsequent strip-down, rebuild etc etc, (which was made much more difficult because I had opted for the non-flip front), I just did not have the heart to start all over again.
So at the present time, it is till waiting for me to sort it out.
Now that the better weather is coming, hopefully I can get stuck in and do it. So will update in due course.
I am most likely going to get a lot of stick for being an idle sod and not working outside during the winter with freezing numb fingers, but I had enough of that over the build period!

So that explains why there has been no updates, plus the fact that I did start a thread called "Scottie on the road" or something like that, but because I've done bugger-all, that was not updated either!

Here is a pic from happier days:


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Thanks for the appreciation Barber!

And I painted it outside exactly where its parked in that picture!
Complete with stuck on bugs and bits of grass, but it buffed up well enough afterwards.
I REALLY must find some enthusiasm to get it sorted out soon.

I'm still waiting for the inevitable WCA flak............
And perhaps Mr T? :-)

Thanks to you Degsy!

But right now its an overheating piece of junk, and don't I know it!

Please accept my "condolances" on your engine problems, I really
felt for you when I read about it on your thread, as, how you felt then, was how I felt after my overheating issue was discovered.
It just crushed me and I simply laid the car up for winter, and was too pissed off to even update and record the event.

But of course I realise that it does have to be sorted out or I can't drive the damn thing!

Degsy, ref the screen, its a Morris Minor rear glass, if you want one,
just hack the thing off the back of a Morris and do several months of difficult welding etc and Bobs yer uncle!!

Thanks for the kind treatment Mr T! And congrats on your retirement, enjoy!

Ref your comments on the overheating, I never actually fitted a header tank, but ran the car fine for 600 miles or so
using the Heath-Robinson top pipe affair I cobbled up.

So perhaps its caught up with me.

Although since this latest heating problem, I actually have gone and got a nice little header tank, which I will get round to fitting (well, HAVE to really).

Degsy, I'm not sure whether some of the additives that are on sale will help, but it may be worth trying a few as the ones that are supposed to "coat the metal surfaces " may help.
If you are going to run it anyway, all you have to lose is a few quid which might well help the compression a bit.


I've never really believed in them and there is no substitute for a proper rebuild, but have a go.

Just run it Degsy, if its not overheating, you are way ahead of me!! :-)

Yes CP, it could be that but I had covered over 600 miles with no problems until it went wrong!

I've even invested in a kit that will tell me if there are exhaust fumes in the water, well "invested" is not really a word to be used with spending about twelve quid!!

Thanks for the input FB, I saw that WD program and did consider it! But like some-one pointed out, it is quite pricey.

CP: I think you are right too, it did not just overheat, it boiled over.

Mr T : I looked at the Canley options ages ago when I was sourcing fans, and in my opinion, all they are interested in is selling you their overpriced stuff.

They rabbit on about fans mounted in front of, or behind rads,
and how important it id to get this right, which is rubbish, as lots of modern cars have a split, some are in front and some are behind, and they all work well enough.

J tvr : I don't blame you for thinking that way about the front numberplate, but I gave it careful thought before it went there, simply put, if removed, the front cross-member is right behind it
and is exactly the same size, so nothing would be gained in extra airflow. Besides it worked perfectly well all the hot summer for 600 trouble-free miles.

What I am dreading is: finding a cracked block or head.

When I get my back-log of other stuff worked through, I will test for compression, and run the gas test, and if all is okay I will fit the header-tank I should have fitted in the first place.

Will report in due course!

Yes me too Paul, thanks for your support!

No I didn't Degsy, I hope you are not right!
When I eventually get round to it I will let you know!

Is it really that important then?

Thanks for the input fellah's, I do hope the head gasket has not blown, as it was replaced just a few miles before this overheating problem! And as I said earlier, it was an absolute bitch to work on, as I had not opted for the the flip front on the car, and had an awful tricky time trying to get to all the nuts and bolts in the constricted space I had to work in! To do it all again would be a real bummer.

Zag and RRB, I am using just water and antifreeze as normal.

I believe the the waterless coolant is around two hundred quid a go.

But as I said before, up until the head gasket went, I had driven for 600 trouble free miles during the hot summer months, and the powerful fan I had fitted worked really well, and dropped the temp quickly when it was required to.

As a matter of interest, when I stripped the head off to sort the gasket, there was a 1 inch gap of gasket missing between cylinder 1 and 2, so it had been on the way out for a long time by the looks of it.

Thanks for that Jagtvr, I check the water twice a week in my
"modern" car (which is 25 years old!) Never had an overheating problem, and my van which is 17 years old, I check perhaps twice a year!
But I always watch the temp gauge and it usually stays fairly constant.

In a humorous vein, I looked at that link and saw the kit, and noticed that there were an awful lot of adapters for loads and loads of cars, but could not see one for an XKSS.................

Not that I have an XKSS of course..............

Well I finally charged up the (well flat) "new" battery, and the XK started fairly easily. drove her out into the sun and opened the bonnet prior to doing the test to see if there were exhaust gasses in the coolent. Before the engine had time to heat up, I opened the radiator cap to check for pressure and the water shot out!!

Doom, gloom and despair! My worst fears realised! I think I kind-of knew this would happen anyway, which is why I left the car for so long without doing anything.

So it looks very much like there is something warped/twisted/ cracked or blown, so its head off time yet again!

Before anyone asks, did I get the head crack tested when I refitted the skimmed head after the head gasket blew?

No I didn't and of couse regret it now. Couple of hundred quid down the line and still no drivable car, am I peed off? You bet I am!

BUT, I have a plan, I want to move forward and do not want a repeat of what has just happened, so............

Instead of taking the head off yet again and chucking more money at it, with who knows what results, I will go another route.

I have never been a fan of a three bearing crank engine anyway, so my plan is to find a 1300 engine ( by all accounts they have more than just three crank bearings) and get it rebuilt, fit a new clutch at the same time then do a one for one engine swap.

That way, I think is the best way to avoid more nausea in the long run.

So, if anyone out there knows of, or has a Spit 1300 engine available, please let me know. The sooner I get my hands on one, the sooner I can sort this unfortunate mess out

(Obviously a re-built or performance 1300 engine would be an advantage, but a re-buildable one will do)

So come on you guys, dig deep in the back of your man-caves and see if you can help me out!

At least I now have a positive plan to move forward, and this has helped me get over the initial despair of this morning!

I was thinking the same Barb! No point in worrying though, I have to go onward!

Oxford, that sounds like good news, I am based in Hereford, which is not a million miles from Oxford?

Do you have any info on said engine?
Too much to hope its a 145BHP half-race???? (Humour!!)

Don't even go there!!

1300

Thanks for the input Mick, I do appeciate it, but I think that Oxford may well be able to hepl me with this one!

Thanks for that Degsy! (what is written below goes into more detail to try to
explain why I chose the 1300 and am sticking to it)

I did not know that the 1300 also only had a three bearing crank, but what I DID know, was that the Spitfire 1300 engine loved to rev highly, and was quite happy to do so, and, in fact was so good at this, that in 1965 at Le Mans, three 1300 engined Spitfires came 1st, 2nd and 3rd in class, and would have come 4th but the car crashed before it finished!
And they did all this by revving the little engines at 9000 revs for 24 hours at over 100 mph!!

This is because, whether those 1300 engines had the lighter crank or the the heavier crank, the cranks were made from EN40B steel. BLMC upon introducing the “1500” engine in 1968, increased the stroke and downgraded the crank steel to EN16U an inferior steel, because it was cheaper.
Knowing that the steel was inferior BLMC increased the size of the crank to compensate, but left the bearings the same size.
This had the result of slowing down the revving, wearing the bearings out faster, and mainly introducing the dreaded “crank-flexing” which often destroyed engines when the oil broke down.

So whilst the 1300 will rev quickly and live long doing so, the 1500 will not due to the longer stroke, heavier crank, and effectively smaller bearings.

By all accounts, ALL 1500 Triumph engines were referred to in the trade as the “floppy-crank” engine.

So, that is the reason I am still sticking to my plan for a 1300 motor.

I do not wish to insult anyone who likes the 1500 motor, and, by all accounts there are several ways to increase the longevity of these engines, and apparently some people do actually race 1500 triumphs successfully, but for me, the easier route is to just use a 1300 engine having been burned twice by the 1500.

Wednesday

The thing I like about this site is that it seems to get results, I will explain:
A few days ago I made an appeal for a Triumph 1300 engine, and within about ten minutes, I was offered such an engine by Oxford 1360!
I mean come on, it doesn't get much better than that does it?

So today I popped down to the Oxford man-cave and for a few beers or so,
struck a deal for said engine.

At the same time, I was able to see in the flesh, the green monster!
It is more impressive in the flesh than it appears in the pictures, and will be an absolute cracker when completed.

Once I got the engine home, I removed the remaining two spark plugs and gave each cylinder a good shot of WD40 and left it to marinate.

Although I have developed a lot of skills over the years, engine re-builds is not one of them, so I will need to find a decent builder to work on the engine to get it into good shape.
So one more step in the right direction, I now have the engine.........

A pic of the green monster and its builder and one of the engine:



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