All running after 'a few' problems

07/04-2008

Getting the engine back into the chassis went all smoothly but then the first problems showed up. The starter had a very hard time turning the engine over and lots of theories were brought on; Not enough juice on the battery, the bearings were tightened to fast, the piston rings were not fitting, the chain were to tight, the oil pump wasn't working, etc., etc.
After a lot of checking, re-torking and general troubleshooting we finally got oil pressure and the engine started easily with just a few turns of the starter. We weren't quite glad about the oil pressure though as it wasn't high enough and during right cornering it dropped completely. After consulting some old e-mails from the previous owner it turned out we needed a high pressure pump and the installed one was a standard. A new one were ordered at Burton, 'FP200A - HIGH PRESSURE/HIGH CAPACITY OIL PUMP: X/FLOW, PRE-X/FLOW, BDA, LOTUS TWIN CAM', amongst some other minor parts.

The trouble didn't end here... Next the clutch stopped working and a new round of troubleshooting started and during the process the clutch were on and off 7-8 times, new parts were produced and tested. Finally it turned out the clutch wasn't rebuild correctly from the repair shop. The problem were solved by adding some 2 mm. shims. This fixed the problem and everything was running fine.

After installing the new oil pump and the rest of the parts from Burton the oil pressure was also back up where it's supposed to be but more trouble showed up...

The shims fixing the clutch problem killed the starter, see the pics below. This time the solution were straight forward; Get a replacement starter and it turned out one was at hand from the other car in the garage. The Morris is using the same starter and due to the conditions of that project it will not bee missed right away, see pics below.

Now all is finally running perfectly - knock on wood :-)


Thermotec exhaust wrap added:


New fuel pump installled:

Assembly has finally started

10/03-2008

As I haven’t updated the site with the status on the 2008 winter projects I’ll give you the brief version here;

The clutch were send out to be rebuild and have returned and are supposedly as good as new. That went smoothly and it was sent off to the engine shop so they could weigh the engine in with the clutch installed.

The engine rebuild on the other hand were some journey. First problem that stalled the project was the fact that the bearings needed to be oversize in both directions and the shop couldn’t find that kind of bearings. I started looking for a replacement block or another crankshaft but luckily the shop found the bearings somewhere and the project could go on.
Next issue came up when the piston rings were needed. The pistons didn’t have any indication on what brand they were and the hunt for a set of rings began. With help from the previous owner and some old invoices we fond out that the pistons are from JE Pistons, jepistons.com/, and they were bought ad Dave Bean, davebean.com/.
Dave Bean was able to supply a fresh set and finally the engine was returned from the shop last week. During the weekend we put assembled the engine with new seals, new water pump and new distributor.

While the engine have been in the shop a lot of cleaning have been done on the car e.g. the engine bay and the foot well are all nice and clean now.

All in all it looks like the car will be running again during Easter :-)

Out with the engine

6/11-2007

The engine is now lifted out of the chassis.