• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

seized my engine???!!!!

Share this page

Well oil looks good. Tried the no plugs and no starter thing. I am really convinced that A bearing had to seize. Very uncommon that it will not make noise or lose oil pressure. What ever seized did so as the engine cooled. But it did never run hotter than 185. It was only 20 degrees out the other day. Theres really only one way to confirm the right way. And that is indeed Take the engine out. Will give me a chance to see whats really going on. Plus Ive got a few things I was ready to install anyways so. As much as I hate to do it, Its gonna come out. Think Im pulling only the motor this time though. I am going to leave the Trans in place for now. Ill give you guys an update hopefully by the end of the week. I just have so many other things going on with construction on my house that this will be on the back burner for a bit.
 
Well if you spun a bearing, should have shown up in the oil and pressure, why not just drop the chain cover, gonna tell you a lot
 
You will find it easier to pull the whole unit. It will make life much easier on the re-install.

mark
 
You do have a point there. Iam gonna have the front of teh car dissemble anyways to get the lump out. Pulling the chain cover first is not an inconvience. I just dont want to drop the pan in the car. So much easier on the stand. But as for the chain cover you are correct. Either way it will be interesting.
 
SilentUnicorn said:
You will find it easier to pull the whole unit. It will make life much easier on the re-install.

mark
Click to expand...

I do always pull the engine trans together but I have always put them back seperatally. Just find them easier to handle on there own. Especially since I am trying to avoid scratching that new paint yet. This time Im gonna opt to pull the engine only.
 
I'm gonna be watching this thread closely - just took my engine to the machine shop!
 
Tony:

Different engine.
You have the 1275cc BMC "A" series engine.

Scott's engine is the 1500 Spitfire-based engine.
 
racingenglishcars said:
Just as an off shot, I'm betting on a thrust bearing.
Click to expand...

Thats a good guess with a 1500, just for grins Scott did you record the crank end play in the engine when rebuilding. Most of the time if a rod or main bearing turn, you would have seen debris in the oil, and most of the time this would seize the motor anyway.
 
Problem with this motor is I picked it up as is. Was rebuilt two years ago and Prepped for fast road use. I put it in my street car while I finished my chassis and put some good milegae on it. I have all the reciepts, and everything I checked out checked true. Thing that worries me is the thrust bearing was "supposedly" pinned. The machining of which may have adverse affect on me not pinning a new one. I would probably put my money there or on the use of cheap crank bearings. Previous owner did put quite a few bucks into balanceing the rotating assembly, lightening the flywheel and setting up the top end, but if his shop used a "universal" engine kit that could be my problem. I hope the crank was only taken 10 over at max so I can hopefully take it to 20 and have it micro polished and mated to v2 bearings before the reinstall. that is if that is my problem all together. I am very skeptical. but i hope to be in that motor inside a week to see whats really going on.
 
Hap,
I'm in a similar situation with my 1275. I bought it rebuilt..but the more I think, the more I wonder if it was done right.
Would you have any tips for obvious things to check that would indicate the rebuild was a "quick and dirty" without having to completely disassemble?
What I can see are new AE 21252(1?) pistons, a clean surfaced flywheel with new ring gear and what look to be new exhaust seats in the head with cleaned original valves.

I'm guessing without tearing it down and putting the mic to things, there's no way for my un-trained eye to know the difference.
 
The 1500 for race use doesn't really need the thrust bearings pinned because you not going to be sitting at a red light with your foot on the clutch, hardly any of the Triumph race engine buider mess with pinning them, but you do have to pay attention to wear in this area, and make sure that end play is within spec. Another thing with 1500s is for racing they need more clearence than the 1275s, they need a good .0025" on the rods or things can get ugly at the track, but for street and what you've done so far with this engine, it shouldn't have given you problem there. But one thing is for sure if you spin a bearing you will see gobs of debris in your oil, and hardly ever will it seize a motor, just cause a knock and see a big time drop in oil pressure. I've got a feeling it some sort of obstruction in there, not necesarly a spun bearing, and the thrust bearing would be the first thing I looked at.
 
Hap Waldrop said:
The 1500 for race use doesn't really need the thrust bearings pinned because you not going to be sitting at a red light with your foot on the clutch, ....
Click to expand...

Something I am habit of with the 1500. Dont sit at a light with the clutch depressed and they last much much longer. Pinned or not.
 
64rocksprite said:
Hap,
I'm in a similar situation with my 1275. I bought it rebuilt..but the more I think, the more I wonder if it was done right.
Would you have any tips for obvious things to check that would indicate the rebuild was a "quick and dirty" without having to completely disassemble?
What I can see are new AE 21252(1?) pistons, a clean surfaced flywheel with new ring gear and what look to be new exhaust seats in the head with cleaned original valves.

I'm guessing without tearing it down and putting the mic to things, there's no way for my un-trained eye to know the difference.
Click to expand...

Well, I have a customer right now, who bought a very nice Swiftune Road Rocket engine from a fellow who said it had exteremly low time on it, but my customer wanted me to confirm this as much as I could without a totaly disassembly the engine, so I pulled the pan, and looked at the rods bearings and the center main bearing, in the case of his motor it was exactly as described by the seller, you could do the same for the cost of oil gasket set, I suggest getting the Payen oil pan kit that comes with the two rubber oil pan pieces.
 
Well Scott something to keep in mind for this motor that was prepped for road use is when using it on the track is too behave yourself with the aount of revs you run, these motors when under race condition these motors need more clearence on the rods and mains to survive, so to say the least, you need to baby it on track.
 
I've probably said this before:

I use a shift light set to 5800 RPM for the 1500 in my racer (basically stock and unbalanced) and I change rod bearing and thrust washers every season (about 25 hours of real use). Mine are not pinned. Limiting RPM is key on these things.
New oil and filter every weekend, of course.

I'm building a 1275 for vintage racing right now....that'll easily give me another 1000 RPM over the 1500.
 
Dear Scott,

Your slow progress on this matter is totally interfering with my life. Will you please get to the bottom of this engine seizure ASAP so I can stop obsessively checking this thread every 10 minutes.

Thank you,

Morris
 
Morris said:
Dear Scott,

Your slow progress on this matter is totally interfering with my life. Will you please get to the bottom of this engine seizure ASAP so I can stop obsessively checking this thread every 10 minutes.

Thank you,

Morris
Click to expand...


This stuff is addicting isn't it? I like to have 2 or 3 threads like this that I watch all the time. Some cars and some boats: they change depending on who has a cool project going.....
 
Addicting is not strong enough, it is obsene.
 
Back
Top