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frankenstang57
Jedi Warrior
Offline
You guys might remember this car from when I first mentioned it here in March.
https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcforum/ubbthreads.php/topics/553116/2
I removed a motor from a Herald I had sitting around.
Well the 1147 had some serious issues, also read, I discovered why the it had a broken rocker arm and why it was most likely parked.
They'd spun the rod bearing on #4, the piston hit the head until it broke off at the #1 ring land. The top wedged against the head, out of the way. Dratz! On a good note, the motor looks salvageable. No gaping holes where there shouldn't be.
So it was back to the mud-dabbler infested 1500. As mentioned before, the motor was the original out of the junkpilespit. I had no knowledge about this motor other than it came out of a '76, the car was 50% stripped, around 40k(or 140k) on the clock, and had a badly bent lower control arm. I figured the bendy damage was the cause to park the car. Motor was probably good, or a builder at least. So what the heck?
I reluctantly robbed the Webber set up and exhaust manifold from the j.p.spitfire since I was missing an exhaust manifold. I had sold it a couple years ago thinking, what the heck, I'll just buy a header... Still going too, but $$$ is lacking.
So I "Chassis Saver'd"(POR 15 imitation) the floor with added fiberglass matting. I'm happy with the results. My paint shop guy swears by the stuff and it's about 2/3rd's the cost of POR 15. Next I picked up a clutch for a '74, hydrolic rebuild parts, and new brake lines from spitbits. I splurdged and bought a new Robbins top as well. Thanx to KSIS I have a functioning top bow and tailights!(thanx again!)
So I got the motor in, brakes working, clutch working, tunnel in, new ignition switch, gauges, painted the needles on the 1500 speedo and tach, sorted the wiring somewhat, threw some of my crappy temporary carpet int, and rebuilt the top bow. The motor had 20 psi oil pressure on the starter without the plugs. Good news! I started the motor and blew the oil filter off. I didn't notice this for about 10-15 seconds and shut it down. It appears I had a bad combo of filters/adapters. I refilled the motor and replaced the filter with a known good one. The motor fired right up the second time, OP went straight to 65 then dropped to about 45. The motor sounded terrible, even after running it for about 5 minutes. bcliff came over today and set the valves. We concluded that it has a pretty bad rod knock.
I'm wondering if a set of new bearings will calm it down. Anyone with experience with 1500's on the cheap? Second choice, rebuilding the 1500. I really don't want to, I want it on the road. If I was going that route, money spent on the 1147 would be a better idea. Then again, I have a few $$$ spent on the 1500 install. Last choice is yanking the 1296 out of the j.p.spit and running it. This I really do not want to do. What would you guys do? Remeber, it has to be cheap! Thanx for looking!
Building is fun! Plus its bragging rights later.
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