Lotus Elan, range rover, TR7, Streetka, mx5, minor,

Today we pulled the engine and stripped it, results were unexpected.

Firstly pulled the head, all came off easily enough, what we found was suprising.

1 piston was a different make to the rest, no2 had pitting up the back of the bore and they all had radial markings.





Also it looks like the head gasket was leaking which might explain why it's been difficult to start lately.




We then drained the oil to find it only had a litre in it, it was half way between min and max on the dipstick so that may explain the oil pressure issue, it has the wrong dipstick!

Dropped the engine and box out which went easily enough.



Then we pulled the flywheel and backplate of followed by the oil pump which looked perfect inside. Next up was the sump, which relealed this mess.



Upon examining the bits we were suprised to find it was pulverised rubber rather than swarf and it was everywhere inside the engine.

Pulled the front cover off to find even more, it was the back rubber ring of the timing wheel which had disentigrated.

Then proceeded to remove the crank, appart from the big end bolts which were way too tight and rounded off it came appart easily enough, this revealed a pleasant suprise, the crank and all it's bearings look like new.







So the conclusion is, oil pressure was probably a combination of low oil and bits of rubber but no damage seems to have been done. We do though need a re-bore, new pistons, the block and head skimmed and a new timing chain set (duplex). While we are in there Andrew is also thinking about a mg metro cam to support an eventual plan to add a hif44 su etc.

Tomorrow I will mic up the crank to check it is definitely ok and then we will have to find a machine shop, the one I usually use closed last year when the owner died, any one any experience of Thurstons in Ongar or Robertsons in Colchester.

Brilliant work. Make it look easy.

Engine block and head dropped off at machine shop, first thing the guy noticed was the odd piston was also a different compression ratio (7:1) van ilo the 8:1 car the other 3 were, with that Andrew  has decided on a re-bore, block skimmed to clean up where the gasket leaking had damaged it, the head fitted with hardened exhaust seats, a 3 angle cut on the inlets and skimmed by 1.5 mm to give him a bit of room to improve the combustion chamber (basically remove some of the shrouding of the valves) plus the whole lot chemically cleaned.

My wife has finally been given a date for her breast cancer operation on the 18th so we are now n full on sheilding mode (requirement from the hospital)  so the last couple of days have been rushing around getting everything we can think we may need, locally  my dad will go and get the engine parts back , we have the new cam, a cooper s oil pressure relief valve and a damped cast crank pulley, the rest will be ordered from ESM today.  In the meantime since the weather has warmed up a bit I have started rubbing the front wing on the Lotus back, it's coming out OK  with only a couple of areas needing further filling so far





The whole front end  (bonnet and rearward of the doors have been replaced) is bubbling but that will have to wait until later in the year, purpose of this is to get it looking tidy enough to use this summer.

This arrived yesterday, it's over an inch thick, looks like our plans are pretty much in line with Vizards recomendations, we should hope to get somewhere close to 65hp eventually, doesen't sound much but it only weighs around 800kg so should go reasonably well.

Hopefully we will get a chance to clean up the bits we are re-using tomorrow, and get the spare engine round to strip some hopefully not chewed up big end bolts out of.

Won't be much else on cars for a few more days, I appear to have agreed to re-do the downstairs bog, tiles on plaster board walls mean gutting it and re-boarding the walls which is now done along with the new plumbing, probably start the tiling tomorrow.

Thanks for the thoughts, doctor is confident of a good outcome, after 3 months all we really want is the opp over and done with.

On the car front we got the spare minor engine out and put it on the stand.




This is the first engine I bought which had got water in the crankcase rusting most of it. We pulled it to pieces, one piston took some persuading and most of the cam followers and little ends are tight but otherwise it was suprisingly servicable



We are thinking of using this crank, the original one has a slight ridge on the centre main.




You can just feel it but it's probably only a thou or 2.

The one out of the rusty engine has no apparant wear at all there is some marking to the journals but it's only on the surface. Otherwise there is a bit of surface rust but nothing major.

Only one way to find the old one, buy a new one!

My wife had her operation last week which she is recovering well from, we will get the full biopsy results in a week but the surgeon was optomistic. This has meant little time for cars between looking after her, housework and working from home. We have though thrown the best of the left over minor engine parts together, suprisingly the rusty bores honed up well so with some new gaskets rings and a timing chain this could be a servicable engine, for now we will coat it with chain oil and store it away. Before I do that though it will be used to test fit the mx5 gearbox, should get a bit more time over the next week as I have 5 days holiday to use before the end of march.

On the others used the TR to go and get my jab at the weekend, with all the restrictions and weight from the LPG system removed it seems much quicker, might need some new back tyres soon!
Only other problem has been the street ka, if it's left for more than a week or so the battery goes flat, its charging at 14.5 v even at idle, the drain is only 15ma, the battery though dropped from 12.7V yesterday to 12.3 this morning, it is an unbranded one which was on the car when we got it 3 years ago so we have splashed out on a new bosch one. (£50).

Yeah fingers crossed for the wife. Sounds promising though

I've never quite understood what causes electrical drains. I've got them on pretty much all my cars though and it's a pain in the backside!

Dug out a spare rover v8 front cover, pulled the pump off, it was lightly scored but a few minutes with some wet and dry on a sheet of glass got it to this.




Still one small scratch but I don't think that will have any great effect.

On the minor while the engine is out awaiting the return of the machined parts we had a go at trial fitting the mx5 gearbox today.

Spare engine and box bolted together using the latest iteration of adaptor plate with the starter in the standard minor position.



Lifted it up into the car, it fitted , clearance both sides







Its going to need about 15mm trimmed off the transmission tunnel to clear the shifter mounting plate.





It also hits the bolt in trans tunnel in several places, I will eventually cut the top out of this and weld a new one in

The modified gearstick position isn't far out either again I'll get it perfectly central when we modify the tunnel.




Had to cut a fair chunk out to clear the steering rack, plan is to make a steel cover to bolt in and restore some strength.



So things left to do are:

-Make cover for cut out in gearbox around steering rack
-Make cover fof starter bendi cut out
-drill starter mounting holes and remaining gearbox to backplate holes.
-Make mounting for concentric slave cylinder
-make gearbox mounting (standard x member moved about 9" rearwards)
- get a propshaft made.
- Modify gearbox tunnel.

Sounds a lot but really only a series of simple tasks.