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Friday, 29 July 2016

5 year anniversary

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It's 5 years since I bought my first E Type.

Here she is in her previous owner's shed.

And here she is yesterday after the detailler has finished with her, prior to sale.

Current state of play

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Series 1 3.8l roadster.

Ground up restoration complete. Prepping for sale.

Series 1.5 FHC.

The original car I started this blog for.

Finally completed. Final test drive today; it is beautiful. Ready for sale.

Series 1 4.2 FHC.

Having rebuilt the engine and gearbox, we finished assembly on Friday. First test drive was good. Motor is quiet and responsive and the gearbox is precise.

Never selling that one!

MGA.

Finished and tucked away at my Dad's house for winter.

I really like this car. Probably keeping it long term too.

So.

What next???

Cam timing

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Rob cams1

Rob cams2

Rob cams3

You may recall the picture of the wear on the number 5 bore of my block. Here is a different view. Note the hone marks are present, indicating very little actual bore wear. When measured, while all the other bores were perfectly machined at 2 thou over piston size, this one was machined at 5 thou over. This isn't wear, this is a cock up by the engine machinist. Unfortunately the work was done in 2004 for the previous and now deceased owner, so the culprit will never be known.

Rob engine bore01

A nice demonstration of hairline cracks between the bores. The crack demonstrated with UV light.

Rob engine block crack02 The extent of the crack shown after the block has been remachined to fit a top hat liner. Bizzarely, four of the six bores had been fitted with top hats already, although one was in bore number one with a normal liner next to it. This is where the crack above was.

All six bores now have interlocked top hats; no more cracks. This is what the last machinist should have done; maybe he forgot to finish the job properly after a hard night out.

Rob engine block crack01

The crank about to be installed. The bores were taken out to 30 thou oversize, and done properly this time.

Rob short motor2

Here's the completed short motor awaiting the head. The rebuilt gearbox can be seen behind.

Rob short motor

Shim collection. Jealous anyone?

4.2 head shimming

In other news, my original red series 1.5 is just about ready for sale, having been resprayed. It looks really nice and I'm just fettling a final few things.

In a fit of pique it broke down last weekend while on the way to the car wash, with a throttle shaft clip falling off resulting in no throttle.

Doing my best McGyver impression I fixed it with a paperclip.

McGyver

The engine for the Lightweight replica is pretty much finished:

LW Engine01

LW Engine02

LW Engine03

Shipwright's disease again

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I never liked the gearbox in my Silver 4.2. The shift was loose and sloppy and it grinds when you push it into first. So when the clutch started to judder a bit in first, I decided to bite the bullet and rebuild the box and replace the clutch.

Rob, who I bought the car from had had it fully restored about 10 years ago, and since then it has covered about 12000miles.

The other thing that had annoyed me with the car was that it was always a bit tappety. Otherwise the engine is strong, and runs and pulls well. Of course the patented Jaguar undercar anti corrosion system is working well, it leaks oil from everywhere.

So...since the engine's out anyway we may as well do the head with new long skirt oversize buckets, as these were'nt available when the last rebuild was done.

And.. since the head's off, why not strip and rebuild the short motor with new rings and bearings and a maybe it will leak less.

Patented Churchill bonnet securing prop for better access. I think it is an old seat runner.

Rob engine bonnet prop