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How to turn a running car into yard art...

sd80mac7204

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Got the chance this evening to finally drive the Spitfire from my parents over to my new house. Can't put the car in my garage yet since the previous owner filled it with junk and trash but at least the car is on my property. Even though the light was fading I decided to do a tune up and install a cylinder head oil line kit that I have had for months. Turned the car so that the side of the engine I was working on faced the setting sun and got to work. Ended up finishing up the oil line attachment in the dark going by feel. My little project was working well until I gave the line one last little grunt to make sure it was seated..... .....SNAP!!! Shattered the fitting on the end of the flexible hose and rendered the car undrivable. Made sure to leave a big sign on it this morning to make sure my dad didn't try to take it if he stopped by... Guess it's time to go part hunting...
 

Andrew Mace

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Forgive me, but you might "take the hint" and put everything back together WITHOUT that external feed. It's mostly regarded as a relatively poor "band-aid" solution to a problem that generally doesn't exist! In fact, these feeds often cause more problems than they solve. :smile:
 

TR3driver

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Amen!

Here's the result of the external oil feed I tried on my TR3A:

BrokenTR3piston.jpg
 

3798j

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Saw a Spit doing a pretty good impression of a crop duster with one of those installed. The pcv was actually sucking all that extra oil and feeding it right back to the cylinders.
 
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sd80mac7204

sd80mac7204

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Hmmm... So I should take this as a sign from above and leave it as it was. Well I have train club for a bit tonight but after that I guess I'll tear back into it. Thanks guys!
 

TR3driver

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karls59tr said:
Randall How did an external oil feed result in that piston damage?
Oil has a very low octane, so even a relatively small amount of oil in the cylinder can raise octane requirements. The external oil feed put way too much oil up top, which combined with badly worn valve guides and an aftermarket valve stem seal that popped loose resulted in one cylinder sucking oil under cruise (high vacuum) conditions. That apparently lead to only that one cylinder suffering from detonation (aka knock, ping, etc) under conditions where I did not hear it. The detonation eventually (likely only over a few minutes) broke the ring lands.

This is mostly guesswork of course, but it fits the facts. I took the external feed off, unblocked the original feed line (which is metered by the camshaft to put only a very controlled amount of oil through the rocker shaft), and installed a different head (with less wear in the valve guides). The blocked feed line was the whole reason I installed the external oil feed; a "band-aid" that did not work out.

Never did pull the block apart to find out why the feed was blocked, but I theorize that a previous mechanic installed the rear cam bearing wrong. I ran a long drill bit down through the passage to open it up.
 

Brosky

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This is why most people who install them on TR6's end up removing them, especially of you use an alloy valve cover with no internal baffle. That, along with worn guides (as explained above) will put more oil into the cylinders than you would ever want.

This is what comes out of an intake after oil line and alloy cover is used for a month:
 

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sd80mac7204

sd80mac7204

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Wow..... That is a lot of oil.
 

Brosky

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I went from using a quart every 900-1,000 miles (54,000 mile engine at the time) to using a quart every 300 miles. There is the proof of where it was going.

There was more in the front two ports, I just missed taking a picture of those after they drained out.
 
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sd80mac7204

sd80mac7204

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I have an oil leak between the head and the block and was hoping that the oil feed would allow me to avoid pulling the head for now. I don't really have the funds to have a mechanic do the job or the confidence in myself to do it. I do have all the parts though.
 

TR3TR6

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Now thats what I call a lube job. It's not really funny. It's amazing what these vendors will try to sell you to "improve" your engine!
 

Geo Hahn

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sd80mac7204 said:
... pulling the head for now. I don't really have the funds to have a mechanic do the job or the confidence in myself to do it. I do have all the parts though.

I would say -- that is what this Forum is for. If you have a place to work on the engine and are not in a hurry I should think it is a reasonable project that uses ordinary tools and carries few chances of surprises.

Note: I have never pulled a Spit head so someone will correct if this is not so, but appears it would be quite stright-forward.

None of us had ever done a head gasket until the first time we did (how's that for philosophy?).
 

aeronca65t

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I raced my 1500 Midget (with 1500 Spitfire engine) for 7 years and never used an external oil line to the rocker....none of the reacers I knew used this either.
Never had a bit of problems with the rocker arms.
That's probably 200 hours of track time mostly over 5000 rpm.

The last thing in the world you want to do with a Spitfire engine is bleed off oil pressure from the bottom end....the rods and mains need all the oil pressure they can get!
 

sp53

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Like Geo suggested the forum is the place to learn. And I will add with the exception of a few, most people on the forum understand what it means to have a healthly ego, and those that do not have improved, so go for it. The project will be a lot easier than you think. I owned a 71 spit and it was easy. Heck the engine was the size of a bread loaf and the whole front end open forward.
 

startech47

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Make sure you have a system to keep the valve train parts in order, as they have bedded in against each other and are now matched sets.
 

billspit

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To sucessfully use the oil bypass rig, you need to block off the regular oil passage in the block. It's not worth the effort.
 

bobhustead

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sd80mac7204 said:
I have an oil leak between the head and the block and was hoping that the oil feed would allow me to avoid pulling the head for now.

Get a manual (haynes, etc.) and follow it. If your leak is not a flow and your oil pressure is ok, just make sure you add oil to keep up with the loss until you can fix it.

Bob
 
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sd80mac7204

sd80mac7204

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Tore the remnants of the feed kit off last night and put new copper washers on the parts that needed them and started the car. Other that the usual leak everything looks ok. Going to take it on a run Saturday and see how fast it leaks oil. If I get time I will try to change the head gasket Wednesday before I go to the TRA meet Thursday. Has anybody tried to use a Fel-Pro gasket set before?
 
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