Story so far series 1 resto

[lancianut666]

Hi all
Put some oil in connected up the starter motor and an oil pressure gauge cranked it over and no oil pressure!!!
So I loosened the oil filter cannister a bit tried again and some oil was pushed out so the pump was working...tightened it back up cranked a bit more and got about 35psi.
Decided to take the filter right off and guess what? there was no filter in the cannister. Hmmm...
More fun tomorrow as  I have some wheels in the form of a Suzuki Ignis genuine one owner with 12500 miles on the clock and a full service history on the test drive it felt like a wheel bearing had gone or the discs were warped...turned out to be a huge split/bulge  in the front tyre some new tyres have cured that but methinks it was a lucky escape and is a warning against using old tyres. The tyres looked to be at least 17 years old like the car!
Good news about the compression is that we have some! as it blew the sparkplug lead connectors out as it cranked over.
Clarkey

[lancianut666]

pic

[Jaydub]

Well done Clarkey, sounds more promising than the previous attempts. Are you going to give it a brief start on the stand to make sure it`s OK before installing it in the car? You don`t need any water for a few seconds of running, as long as it has oil pressure. Good Luck.

[lancianut666]

Might wheel it outside so I can run away if it all goes horribly wrong...

[lancianut666]

Got side tracked today with the Suzuki but managed to get the oil filter back on and have left the engine to drain overnight to get all the old oil out.

[lancianut666]

Back on the case this morning so fresh oil/filter in and gave it a spin over...no oil pressure of course so we loosened the oil gauge feed pipe a bit and a spin produced some air bubble at the banjo so we nipped it up and 35psi was there again. So heeding Jaydub's comment about checking the oil up to the valve gear we watched carefully as the engine was spun over. The inlet side was fine with lovely oil coming out at each rocker. However the exhaust side had not a drop so I took the shaft off and found the oil feed hole blocked with swarf.. Oh Dear... The shaft was removed and all the rockers removed to find 2 of the other oil holes clogged up with what looks like aluminium swarf. I guess when the head was skimmed some swarf has got into the oilway??? So put the shaft back on and unfortunately oil was only coming out of the first rocker arm swivel point the other 3 being bone dry. As the battery was flat and you could fry an egg on the starter motor I gave up for the day..
Clarkey

[lancianut666]

And the rocker shaft

[lancianut666]

At last some progress... I took the rocker shaft off (again!) to check for more swarf in the oil feed holes to find them clear so it transpires I had put the shaft in reversed so a quick flip around and hey presto oil at all the rockers Phew! So next the tappets were adjusted and finally check for a spark all done OK. Tomorrow I will check the ignition timing and get some petrol.
Clarkey

[lancianut666]

Well a promising start to the engine start up lot's of bangs from the exhaust but no running and I still reek of petrol as it ended up everywhere. I think I need a third hand to pour in the petrol whilst pressing the starter and jiggling the throttle.
Clarkey

[lancialulu]

Well a promising start to the engine start up lot's of bangs from the exhaust but no running and I still reek of petrol as it ended up everywhere. I think I need a third hand to pour in the petrol whilst pressing the starter and jiggling the throttle.
Clarkey

Hope you are wearing nomex underwear and have a big fire extinguisher handy....

[Mikenoangelo]

..turned out to be a huge split/bulge  in the front tyre some new tyres have cured that but methinks it was a lucky escape and is a warning against using old tyres. The tyres looked to be at least 17 years old like the car!

Clarkey

Yes - no matter how good or new they look always check the age of tyres when buying a second hand car. There are coded numbers on the sidewall which show when the tyre was made -if there are no such numbers the tyre is very old, a particular problem if the car has come out of a collection. The usual opinion is that tyres should be dumped after ten years, no matter how good the tread. The argument could be used when negotiating the price of the car.

If you are restoring a car and anticipate taking some time, don't start by buying new tyres as you will waste some of their life.

Our Augusta, bought from Italy in 2018 was advertised as having new tyres - they were new - in the 1990's!

Mike

[lancianut666]

Hi all
Finally managed some Appia time I'll let the pictures do the talking

[lancianut666]

Oh the joys of owning an engine crane...

[lancianut666]

Getting the angle of dangle is crucial...

[lancianut666]

And it is in took a bit of pushing and shoving as it was not at a steep enough angle and I forgot to take off the passenger side engine mount but when that was removed it went in just need to fasten it in and connect everything up.
Contented Clarkey