Motor Kaput

Gentlemen,

I took my BT7 to Russ Thompson as it was running very badly. I was hoping Russ would tell me that the car was just mosly dead. As Miracle Max said there is a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. If you are mostly dead you are slightly alive.

It turns out the motor was all dead. So I took Max's advice and went through the car looking for loose change.

Lucky for me, Steve Gerow just had his motor rebuilt by Russ, therefore much of the needed research has already been done.

Here is my question, if you were having your engine rebuilt what are the things you would make sure to do?

Your advice or recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Jeff

What are the leak-down results? Do the connecting rods make knocking noises?

Running very badly is open to interpretation; a bad condenser can make it run badly, and that's a $6.00 part.

I have been nursing the car along for some time. She has burning oil, smoking more & more, fouling the #3 plug regularly and leaking increasingly more oil. There was 0 psi on #3 and when the case was pressurized it was leaking at the valve cover. I have been interested in rebuilding the engine for a couple of years and Russ had encouraged me not to. I think the time has come.

stretchit2

IF Russ said it was dead it was dead

How deep are your pockets?

Me - I removed and stripped down and then rebuilt the engine myself. Found that I had a Racer Brown camshaft in it - kept that for re-use.

Had the engine re-bored to +60 thou - had to because of some deep scoring in one of the bores.

Had 6lbs taken out of the flywheel and had the crankshaft reground.

Bought the following new. - Pistons & crankshaft bearings - obviously, Camshaft bearings, DW HP oil pump, a Texas type cooler fan, water pump, rockers. Timing chain and associated chain dampers, a DW Aluminium sump. a fancy harmonic balancer on the front end, rocker arm set up, plus an oil gallery tube that had to be installed by Bill Rawles - this is a worth while thing to do because the gallery passes through the water jacket of the block and feeds the Rockers and can become porous with time necessitating another strip down plus untold repairs.

Had the flywheel, crankshaft, con-rods, pistons, harmonic damper and associated bits and pieces, all balanced statically and dynamically. The head could have been ported but I did not bother at the time.

Other things to think about - after market seal at the rear of the engine, easier to do whilst the engine is out and stripped, replace the clutch plate. Also check out the dizzy - I did not at the time but a couple of months after completing the rebuild, I was directed to the possibility of a broken star spring, clamping the moving plate to the fixed plate, and on inspection, one of the legs was found broken off in the bottom of the dizzy - ouch, plus ware on the hinged arm connecting the vacuum section to the moving plate. I bought a new vacuum unit with the hinge section and also a used star spring (you can not buy new) I set about repairing the old hinge arm whist waiting for the new one to arrive - the vacuum bellows were fine, and I used a 2mm drill and a piece of a 2mm diameter nail to act as the pin, (the old one was almost cut in half) - I now have a spare unit.

The only other thing to look out for - is to make sure that you line up the crankshaft sprocket and the cam sprocket correctly & put the timing chain back correctly. AND TAKE PHOTOS TO PROVE IT, I had a sleepless night as a result of not taking the photo, as I had difficulty in starting the engine after the build, turned out that I was a bit off when reinstating the dizzy - phew.



Bob

Russ did my engine similar to Bob's, including .060 over Venolia forged pistons. I previously had installed 1.6 high lift aluminum rockers, kirk headers, DMD 2-carb manifold, aluminum sump, BJ8 flywheel & clutch, rear seal kit, damper rebuilt by Damper Dudes. Didn't do the gallery tube. Head ported to match the manifold gasket, as was intake. DWR8 278 degree cam and regular tappets (cannot recommend too highly).

One could also consider DW's lightweight tappets requiring different pushrods.

FWIW - according to my calcs, .060 over ups displacement to 184 cubic inches - just a shade over 3 liters.

Bob H wrote an excellent summary. If you have unlimited funds you can replace/upgrade just about everything but, to me, the challenge is to replace what should usually be replaced--bearings, gaskets, seals, etc.--then pick and choose wisely where to add some extra reliability and power (reliability, for me, is paramount, as I often drive many miles from help and occasionally am out of cellphone coverage anyway). One of the big decisions is what cam to use. You can, of course, re-grind your existing; the BJ8 cam grind is supposed to be the best overall stock Healey cam, but might require larger carbs, etc. to get the full benefit. I went for the DWR1 cam, which is supposedly 'a bit better' than the stock BJ8 cam. Given the stories about cams failing with modern oils I liked the fact they are gun-drilled to provide oil flow to the lobes and lifters (whether that helps prevent wear and failure remains to be seen). Be sure to replace or resurface lifters. I also, in hindsight, would spring for one of DW's improved chain tensioners. I sprung for forged pistons from DWR because I think the stock 4-5 ring pistons is a ring or two too many. We found the forged pistons to be considerably lighter than the ones in the car (they were 0.030" over, so I don't think they were original).

None of the 'usual suspects' sell brass 'freeze' plugs for the block (although I didn't try BCS; if anyone has them David would). I bought a set of steel ones but my builder refused to install them; apparently they don't seal as well and/or rust out pretty quickly. My builder found some slightly oversized brass ones in metric sizes, and turned them down on a lathe to fit. Something to consider.

FWIW, several of the forged piston makers are on this side of the pond - in so calif, as it happens, so it would make sense to buy those. My Venolias came from Long Beach.

Freeze plug factory has brass and SS plugs:
https://freezeplugfactory.com/expansion-plug-size-chart/

RockAuto has the Dorman brass plugs.

Avoid the DW aluminum valve spring retainers - they break. I've seen it.

steveg said:

... Avoid the DW aluminum valve spring retainers - they break. I've seen it.

Click to expand...

Wow. That seems like a bad place to use aluminum on the face of it. What does it save, 0.1g?

Bob_Spidell said:

Wow. That seems like a bad place to use aluminum on the face of it. What does it save, 0.1g?

Click to expand...

The broken one I saw was on a 100 with a complete DW head. I remember thinking - what's that supposed to do, help it rev?

I think it's important to establish your goals at the outset, particularly when it comes to performance improvements. A better cam might be good, but to take advantage of it, you might need improvements to the head to increase flow, and then either bigger carbs or richer needles to provide more fuel. Meanwhile, all that has to go somewhere, and headers and a free-flow exhaust come into the mix. But it's not as easy as bolting on individual parts. Once you start making engine mods, you have to consider timing, with perhaps a new distributor curve and different spark plugs or gaps. And to make this all work, you have to have the expertise or be willing to pay someone with that expertise to undertake the educated guessing and trial and error to come up with the right settings. Some people enjoy working out the puzzles that modifications bring on, while others would prefer to be able to set everything to factory specs and eliminate the extra expense and work.

Perhaps you should've had a V8 with power to $ ratio more favorable. Gonzo

gonzo said:

Perhaps you should've had a V8 with power to $ ratio more favorable. Gonzo

Click to expand...

There are certainly cost advantages to a V8. It's going to take lots of money to get 250 hp out of a Healey six, while almost any V8 will make that with ease. But with the V8, you need to factor in body mods, new transmission, all the hundreds of details that go into a swap and the comparative cost benefit of the V8 might not be that much. Either way, "Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?"

Replacing a tricarb 6 with a v8 = more power, less value.

Gents,

First of all, thank you all for your input. The BCF is completely amazing. The amount of knowledge available from this community is incredible.These are all great suggestions and serve to remind me of what a neophyte I am.

Thank God I see Steve Gerow almost every Saturday. It's great to have your own mad scientist on your team. With Steve serving as my advisor I am sure I will make the right choices.

I hope to hear more suggestions because I think this string will not only benefit me, but will serve other future readers that query the site for this type of information.

BTW, on a lighter note I meant to provide this link in my original post:

https://youtu.be/d4ftmOI5NnI

stretchit2 said:

Gents,

First of all, thank you all for your input. The BCF is completely amazing. The amount of knowledge available from this community is incredible.These are all great suggestions and serve to remind me of what a neophyte I am.

Thank God I see Steve Gerow almost every Saturday. It's great to have your own mad scientist on your team. With Steve serving as my advisor I am sure I will make the right choices.

I hope to hear more suggestions because I think this string will not only benefit me, but will serve other future readers that query the site for this type of information.

BTW, on a lighter note I meant to provide this link in my original post:

https://youtu.be/d4ftmOI5NnI

Click to expand...

Garsh - I just went with the stuff Russ suggested.

100% agree with what Rick advised. What do you want to do in the car? Don't start your rebuild journey until you know where you are going.

Some more suggestions that I uncovered during my research and incorporated in my rebuild:
1. Gapless piston rings(from Total Seal, $120) installed instead of the 2nd (or even first?) ring.
2. Uprated or 'umbrella' valve stem seals (from AH Spares, $35) instead of standard O-rings. Double check that the valve guides are placed within spec and not high.
3. My machinist cleared out some restrictions above the valves. I didn't get to see it being done, so don't have exact details. Probably standard stuff.
4. I will run Mobil 1, 0W40 FS, if I have adequate oil pressure. It has moderate zinc content and superior lubrication (4th highest rating per 540ratblog tests. Mobil 1 15W50 is rated much lower at #175, but it has higher zinc levels (per Mobil.com) and should give higher oil pressure, but less flow at start up).
5. Damper (or dampener) rebuilt by Damper Dudes. They also balanced it.
6. I worried that new paint might burn off the exhaust manifold, and didn't want to spend $300 on ceramic coating. Found a spray graphite product named Slip Plate. The carbon bonds to the cast iron and is highly hydrophobic. Easy touch up also.

Good Luck.
Douglas

I am basically cheap. I would have gone for a top end rebuild. Possibly new valve guides but at the least new seals just those two fixes would go a long way toward helping your oil usage and smoke problem for a small fraction $$$ of the previous suggestions

steveg said:

The broken one I saw was on a 100 with a complete DW head. I remember thinking - what's that supposed to do, help it rev?

Click to expand...

We use a Comp Chevy Hi-Pro complete valve system, springs, retainers, etc. The valve's are a little longer, so a 1/4" spacer is used to elevate the valve cover. Good to 7500-8000 rpm.