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6th July, Action.
Well, fairly limited action really, decided to have quite a
quiet weekend. Sort of played about with odd bits of wheel painting and a bit of
scoop shapery but that's about it. Hope to collect a set of pistons and rods in
the week so next weekend could be another rebuild (just for a change!).
13th - 14th July, Action.
Got a set of pistons & rods from Allan Ross from the
Rover-V8 yahoo group (he keeps trying to talk me into a supercharger - but I am
resisting !!), so spent the weekend putting things back together. It will just
be a rough build so the engine can be run to check that everything works OK,
then it will be stripped for new rings and bearings, and maybe even real adapter
plates :-)
Everything went together, albeit slowly because it was a very
hot weekend with too much very cold beer to tempt me. Finally got it all in and
connected up mid afternoon so had chance to give the engine for a few 5 minute
runs. No oil leaks from the adapter plates (I've got the hang of sealing them
now), just slight dripping from one of the driveshaft seals.
A few pics
19th - 21st July, Action.
OK sounds daft, but hang with me on this one, there's reason to
the madness (prob'ly). The point of bunging the engine back together last
weekend was so that it could be warmed up, flushed out then stripped. Oh yes,
and to check that it would actually still run, in case there were any other
major parts needed!
So (Friday), tipped some scary high detergent flushing stuff in
and warmed the engine up, all sounding OK at low revs, but a bit of a big endy
knock higher up. Not terribly rattley, but slow and regular so it's probably
only one bearing that's gone.
Damian popped over to continue adding steel to the inside of the
imp (probably enough to build a small oil rig now), so I took the opportunity to
bundle him into the drivers seat so I could see & hear what Doris is
like from the outside. After a few short test runs in the car park I came to the
conclusion that it just isn't right (even ignoring the big end knock).
The car looks like a Mini, moves like a Mini (and p155es oil
like a Mini), but sounds like a loud Range Rover. The exhaust sound is a delight
as it pulls away, but after xxxx years of A series powered Minis my brain
refuses to accept the combination. BRILLIANT! This will just be so entertaining
at Mini shows ;-)
Did a quick run myself in first, with far too much throttle, and
Damian confirmed that the lateral weight distribution is good as the black
wheelspin marks were equal in length. Hope the neighbours didn't want a quiet
evening...
Saturday, more scoop sanding. The scoop shape is really starting
to work now, but as sculpture isn't my (or Elaines) thing it has been quite a
steep learning curve. The worst thing is finding that you have got one side just
how you want it, then realising you have to try to copy it for the other side!
At the moment the basic shape is good, and the drivers side has the right shape,
so all that is left is match the other side and fill in some small air bubble
type holes.
Also decided that one of the wheels had to be stripped due to
nasty paint reaction. The other three were fine just having the lacquer keyed
with P240, then whire primer, orange & lacquer, however this one would not
play. Most of it took the primer OK, but there were a few scratches in the
surface that just went all bubbly and evil, almost like the lacquer under the
surface was still tacky. A can of Nitromors should solve that little problem.
Leaving one wheel out so that I can match the orange of the 4th wheel, I
proceeded to lacquer the other two, quite heavily for a nice shiny 'wet' look,
of using 3/4 of a can on each. *thinks.. really must get some proper spray
gear*.
On Sunday I started to take the engine out & apart again,
well I had to, it's what I do at the weekend !
With the inlet off it was a good opportunity to try the bonnet
& scoop, to get an idea of proportions. After the minor hernia problems
associated with a concrete prototype we were pleasantly surprised with the look
of the thing - it may just work.
Delving further down into the engine we found the cause of the
knock, two big ends had got quite badly scored bearings with a kind of
nasty overlapping thing on one of them. Judging from the size of the particles
found in the bearings (about as big as Belgium) I think the new pump gears will
have to go in along with the spare set of big ends, mains & rings.
Oh well, that's a job for next weekend...
Selection of snaps of
the weekends frolicks.
27th
- 28th July, Inaction.
Erm, didn't do much on Saturday because ...<Spag thinks of an
excuse> .. I had to do some important PC type stuff to ensure continued
'quality' web updates (OK I scraped XP back off so my 95B machine would still
work, bloomin XP doesn't support 3dfx 3500TV cards which means no video capture
!!). Also accidentally got involved in some beer consumption. On
Sunday we actually made a 1/2 arsed attempt to carry on with the strip &
rebuild of the engine, however fate seemed to be conspiring against us. Firstly,
the Spagley propulsion labs (read shed) seemed to have turned into some sort of
solar powered kiln making progress very uncomfortable, as a result we limited
our activity to finishing the stripping of the engine. With the engine in
manageable chunks it was moved in to the relative cool of the kitchen so that
the bits could be checked. Oooh (technical term) the main bearings have definitely
suffered and two of the big end journals on the crank are stuffed... Seems like
the bits of piston ring did quite a bit of damage, so the spare crank needs to
be found for the rebuild - when it's a bit cooler !!
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