1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

You have already proved that you can instal and remove an engine.

Therefore you can instal a R5 Engine. Now, I must admit to spending way too much time researching this but, from what I can gather the only fabrication needed (if keeping the original gearbox) is possibly enlarging the slot in the bellhousing to enable the fan belt to be removed easily. SLightly more complicated if you go with the gearbox but, for somebody that has carried out the rust repair and fabrication on the Princess nothing that you can't cope with. Again, look at the link I shared earlier where the guy put an R5 Gordini engine and box in his R4.

Not twisting your arm on this but it would just seem that taking a running engine out of a 5 and putting it in your 6 would provide instant (well near instant) gratification in the driving whilst fettling rather than the not driving whilst fettling category.

However, it is your car. I like it either way but then if it was mine I would have had a R5T engine in there (mid mounted) and a 7 year project....

Here if you need some assistance.

Now enough procrastination man!

P.

Renault news
Brief though it is. I've been a bit of a noob and have half the parts of the engine at home and half at the unit, so I can't measure the journals. Spesh, I know. What I have been able to do is measure the crankshaft with the micrometers and found that all the bits that run against the bearings are all uniform with no sign of ovalling or distortion. I hope that means I can avoid a crankshaft regrind. I've also found that the problem journal/bearing in the engine is the same one that had a stuck piston when I dismantled it, so that's probably related to the HGF etc.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to plan any engine, stock or otherwise, until I've learned how to investigate this one. If I can understand what went wrong and what's needed I'm in a better place to resolve that. I just need to get all the bits and all the tools in the same place... which I managed to forget to do today and only realised after I'd done the 4 mile drive to the unit.

Princess news
I've ordered a compression fitting for the pipe to replace the bodge and very suddenly found that the car now needs to be put outside again. I don't have enough time to finish off all the filler before the paint goes on, which is very annoying. In protest, the pipe bodge has started to leak and now the car can't easily be moved because it's resting its arches on its tyres.

Not to worry, I did what I could with the filler on the car to make it look as presentable as I could in the time I had and then used the paint I do have to get a weather proof coating on the primer and bare metal areas before it does go outside. This is not the way I wanted to do things, it's the way it has to be. I'd rather a quick bodge-paint now to flash rust and bigger problems later. It means I'll likely only be able to bring the car in for a single day to get work done or work outdoors which is not an ideal situation but one I've worked in before.

Photographs quite well, all the same. The filler work that's left to do is the final fettling, the bit that takes ages to get right. The bulk of it is done. It's not too shabby from a few feet away. I'll reinstall the rear lights tomorrow most likely when the paint has hardened a bit.








To be honest, you can't really see the bad bits that much in the photographs and the purple is surprisingly flattering when it comes to imperfections. I'm likely switching to the Rustoleum beige in favour of the Halfords paint because it's a nicer, brighter shade that compliments the purple and it's cheaper. It's also nicer to work with and gives a smoother finish straight out the tin.

This R4 engine is bugging me now, I'd like to get to the bottom of it! Let me see if I've got this straight:

So if you rebuilt it without putting the big end cap on number x cylinder it should all turn nicely when torqued down correctly.

Put big end cap on cylinder x and it's too tight to turn when torqued down but loosend off by 10lbfts and it's fine?

If so there must be an issue with either the rod, big end cap or shells on that cylinder

It must have been running when it stopped so we should be able to rule out things like someone filing a bit off the bearing cap to tighten up the tolerances.
It obviously wasn't tight when in use or the bearing would have been down to the copper and the crank would show it.
Could it possibly have distorted the shell when they spun?

The Princess I think is looking quite well, got to admit I wasn't taken with the rear lights when you started but now it's done I must congratulate you on your vision . Said it before but I do like that purple colour.

Renault

I tried swapping the big end caps to see if it changed which one binds and it makes no difference, it's always the same one which, if memory serves, is also the piston that was most stuck. A bent rod could be the culprit. There's no sign of machining work on the bearings and the one that span on first reassembly isn't the one that's affected. In fact, if you move that cap between the rods, it only binds on the one suspect which leads me to believe it is related directly to that one and not the bearing itself. I've got a micrometer for measuring the journals, if I remember and have time tomorrow I intend to get that done.

Princess

Those wing mirrors are not going back on, I have decided. Just trying to do the suspension with them fitted, and general fettling, is so awkward. I just need to get the door mirror plinths made up and send a template off to a friend down in Bristol who has offered to make me a pair in nice shiny metal in exchange for some work I did for him earlier this year. The door mirrors will offer more rear visibility and keep the front end looking smooth and uncluttered, I hope.

---

There might be a delay in any progress. The Princess being booted out of the unit may be quickly followed by a demand that the Renault also be put out of sight (kind of tricky with no engine, gearbox or steering rack). I'm used to this now, it happens a lot. I work hard to earn the use of the unit in my free time, carefully agree on what work I can do over what timescale and then, before the time is close to up, I got told to pack everything up and move whatever I'm working on. This normally happens when a car is in bare metal or can't be moved, so I have to bolt the whole thing together and hastily get some weatherproofing on it so it sits outside for a couple of months before I'm allowed back in.

It wears a bit thin. If I don't help out at the unit then I won't have access to the space and tools I need at the moment and while I started out wanted to help out even without this reward, now I feel like it's not working out for me and that the work I'm putting in is being taken advantage of. Recently, the same root cause of this problem (not Mike, I hasten to add, he's just as frustrated by this as I am) decided to tell a potential customer that I'd weld up his Sunbeam no problem without even asking me. You can't do that. I feel like I'm being taken for a bit of a ride just lately and when I'm this close to having both cars sorted one way or another, the frustration is magnified.

I would have liked (and had been promised) use of the unit to do the cambelt on the Rover recently. The reason that was done at home on the driveway was to avoid the ballache that is the unit right now. Realistically, I want to walk away from it. Unfortunately I have too much riding on it right now so I have to keep things sweet at my own expense. I'll be happy when I can just drive my cars.

Now its got some purple on there its really starting to look rather cool, and with those lotus wheels its going to have a really good look when its finnished. As said, youve got a good vision and i think i can see where your heading with it. I like it.

accord83 : I've got a copy of the Renault bits of this thread on there, really early on I was offered an engine but didn't have the cash to go for it, the logistics were a bit of a nightmare and I wanted to find out what was wrong with this one. I should have tried harder to buy it I suppose, the car would be running by now if I had.

The Renault is going to be coming back to the house now that Mike has managed to get in touch with the guy that usually transports cars for him. All I need to do is get the steering rack and ball joints refitted on the Renault so it can roll and steer and give the transporter guy 48 hours notice. It'll cost me about £20, all being well. I'll bring the engine home in the back of the Renault at the same time, put the car in the garage and work on it here rather than fighting with the unit situation.

Princess was driven out of the unit, clutch has now started slipping (another job I'll likely be doing at home) and I had almost no turning circle because of how low it's got on the leaking side. Replacement displacer is working, happily, the leak is definitely from the bodge so that compression joint can't arrive soon enough. Princess is idling better and needing less choke now that it's been moved about a bit more regularly so I hope I'll continue to see improvements on that front, it never was a car that liked to be stood about doing nothing. When I have the Princess home I'll finish off the paintwork that needs doing, I can take my time properly that way. I got the nearest thing to a compliment on the Princess from one of my harshest critics today too of something along the lines of "I never thought I'd see you get this far", which is like a normal person saying "wow, that's really coming together now! Well done.", so that's something.

Waiting on info for a possible metal thermostat housing replacement on the Rover, I have a 50 mile maximum range before I need to put more water in which is a bit rubbish, especially since it's so nice to drive just lately. Bit of an up-and-down day today all in. Always feels good to get behind the wheel of the Princess even for just a little bit and it's amazing how much difference just seeing it move and having a coat of paint on it makes to doubters' opinions.

Sorry, no pictures, I completely forgot to take any camera with me.

Compression fitting arrived today and I was going to replace that bodge pipe on the Hydragas pipe on the Princess. Unfortunately what I thought was a 12mm pipe is actually a half inch pipe (12.7mm) so the fitting I bought is not suitable. I've found an imperial compression joint but it's going to have to wait until I get paid before I can get it. Hints on where I might get a single 1/2" compression straight coupling suitable for 400psi welcome, there may be a cheaper alternative out there I haven't found yet. Imperial fittings aren't the easiest thing to source online outside of the USA.

Some of the Renault engine has come home in the boot of the Rover, the rest of it is sat in the boot of the Corsa which will be coming back tomorrow by which time the Plastigauge might have arrived so I'll be able to make some progress on all of that. Couldn't quite fit the engine block in the Rover's boot, in hindsight I should have just put it on one of the seats where there's more space.

Had an interesting conversation tonight with a friend of mine about Metros. Coincidentally, in my searches for suspension alternatives not only did I find Hydragas replacement coilovers for Metros and Minis, I also came across a snippet of information about 'individualising'. I'd dismissed this having not found much more about it until my friend asked if I'd considered it.

On the Metro and MG F, the hydragas displacers are linked to give a nicer ride, MG Fs have damper assistance to help give better handling too. Thing is, if you remove the connecting pipes and replace them with schrader valves on each displacer you can control the height and to some extent the spring and damper rating of each corner individually. There's no reason this can't be done on the Princess too since it's the same fundamental system just fitted to a larger car. You lose some of the comfort and wallowing and it won't soak up the bumps quite as well but it also means if a displacer does fail you only lose one corner, not one side of your suspension.

It's out of budget at the moment, though not expensive (we think about £30 a corner for the valves, need to double check prices) and completely reversible if I want to go back to a connected pipe. I fancy giving this a try because reports on MG Fs is that it improves things quite a bit on the handling front and that's always been a little bit of a weakness with the Princess.

Give Mark at Hydrahose a call 01245267381.

Tell him Paul with the Orange 56 sent you - probably charge double...

P.