1970 - Triumph - Herald - With a Spitfire heart

So last time I promised adventure and the obvious place to find it was in Sheffield.  Dan (logicaluk) suggested we go visit Dave at Spitfire Graveyard and Dan blagged a ride as he wanted a diff as well.



Dave only supplies engines on an untested and un-warrantied basis as cores for rebuilds.  The original plan was to buy one engine but once there we decided to get two and improve the odds of having enough parts.



Many thanks to Dave for his help, guidance and patience while we ooohhd and aaahhd at his treasure trove.

I admit to being a bit concerned with all that weight on board and three people but the Avensis coped superbly.  Sptifire Graveyard is down deep in a valley but even the hairpin bends on the way out presented no problems.  The Avensis may have all the appeal and style of a fridge, but it's damned efficient at its job.  Quick pit stop half way home and I timed that photo perfectly:



The key to success was a scavenged breeze block under the front of the engines and a couple similarly scavenged knackered tyres:



We had chosen the engines based on the least crank end float and did very well out of it.  We connected a starter and did a cold compression test.



The first was a Dolomite 1500 engine (different flywheel by the way) that gave 60 PSI - not so good.  The second was a Sptifire 1500 engine and had 120 PSI on 3 cylinders and 80 PSI on the last.  Oil down the bores raised all four by 10 PSI suggesting the bad cylinder issue was in the head, which is a good thing as we had three heads to choose from.

Dan then went beserk with his favourite battery ugga dugga machine.





Barry is doing the engine build for us so he then took over the dismantling, inspecting and measuring:





Out of the three engines (two purchased and the original one with the cracked block) we ended up with:

    3x good cranks
    2x good blocks, one +40 thou bores and the other stock.
    1x good cam
    1x OK water pump and housing
    8x good +40 thou pistons and conrods
    2x fuel pumps
    1x alternator and starter
    1x good flywheel, clutch and pressure plate combination
    2x ok heads
    1x fantastic distributor that will get new internal gubbins
    1x fantastic set of rockers

We seemed to have lucked out because spitfire engine we bought had lots of new components but for some reason combined with a completely shagged cam.  We can only guess at what story resulted in that combination ending up at Spitfire Graveyard.

Still lots of parts to buy such as an oil pump, timing chain and sprockets, lifters, steel bridge, etc. but for £70 an engine we got most of what we needed with lots of future spares included.

As it now stands the block and two heads have had core plugs removed and then been acid dipped to remove the gunge.  Barry and Mrs Badger start the big build on Friday, while I'm stuck in front of a laptop earning the pennies to pay for it.  

I swear though, if this 1500 engine fails I WILL fit a 1600 MX5 engine and gearbox!

Until next time

Carb spa, seems to have been a success. One of the needle valve seats has a slightly dodgy thread but seems to have nipped up, fingers crossed.
I'll take them back tomorrow and hopefully complete the tune up with Chris

Thanks Dan, somehow again I missed this, perhaps I should bookmark my own thread!!

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No problem, this is done, lovely little Herald

Great work, just one thing to be careful of, not sure if the triumph engine has a jack shaft driving the distributor but if it does make double and treble sure the dizzy is secure with that new clamp, we wrecked a the bottom end of a brand new minor engine after 3 miles when the dizzy seized, was pushed out and the jack shaft dropped into the crankcase smashing rods, crank, block and sump to pieces.

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No problem, this is done, lovely little Herald [/quote]

Many thanks, oh munificent great one.