• 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

Slight Vauxhall Latest - and a question

Share this page

JPSmit

JPSmit

Moderator
Staff member
Silver
Country flag
Offline
Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

I haven't been posting too much about the Vauxhall, but, I know this crowd like shiny things. You may recall the engine was seized before I got it. More precisely, there were two engines, one good one - stripped and "pickled" and another spare, seized. Guess which one they left and which they brought with them? So, thirty thou overbore later and new pistons courtesy of ebay and we are good to go. Then I found out that swapping the new pistons to the existing gudgeon pins was really not a DIY job, so, off to the engine shop we went and, an hour later we were good to go. So, without further ado:


before:





and now:





Oh, and, the distributer, two actually, went off to be rebuilt and re-curved this week at Advanced Distributer - I am excited about this and, realized today that the pistons came from the UK, this week I sold parts to the UK and Austria, I am getting advice from New Zealand and all the corners of this board and of course the shop and the car are in Toronto - got to love the Interweb!


Hope to start building this weekend
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Oops and the question. The original engine had a rope rear seal - I have a rubber replacement (it is an effective conversion) what should I glue it in with?
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Congrats on the gudgeon pin installation! (how often do you get to say that?)

I can't be sure of how your Vaux seal is set up, but Hylomar is almost always a good choice.

https://www.hylomarsealant.com/
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

The conversion should be good. There is a reason no one uses rope seals in engines any longer. I'm with Nial though a little Hylomar is never a bad idea.
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Quick question. Is there a permatex alternative to Hylomar? They don't seem to carry it here. (Rant: I went to a parts shop instead of Canadian Tire - as I wanted knowledge and not a part time teenager. Went to the oldest guy there and he was still clueless! - arrrggghhh!!! I guess you pay peanuts, you get monkeys - that said I walked out. I don't reward ignorance any more)
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Got a line on Hylomar - some guy named Tony, says he'll meet me out back and that he only carries the best offshore Hylomar - OK I made that up, but, apparently Mark saw some recently - and is looking on my behalf. I on the other hand ended up with a touch of the flu, so, not much getting done anyways. :(
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Hey John-Peter... completely off topic but every time I see you post I get reminded that I want to bring this up. Did you take your avatar picture yourself? If so, I submit that you have visited Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, perhaps to visit Road America?

I recognize a Wisconsin county road sign when I see it (we seem to be fairly unique in that we use letters instead of numbers for county roads) and I live about an hour from Elkhart Lake. And I believe that's the only County Road JP in the state.
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Hylomar ~is~ a Permatex product, JP. If you come up empty-handed WRT the Hylomar, Nial's suggestion of the #2 Permatex would be a good "fall-back."

I've found the elusive goo sporadically, if I see it in a parts store I buy it. Harbor Freight down here has stocked it in the past. Haven't checked them in a while tho.
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Answerman said:
Hey John-Peter... completely off topic but every time I see you post I get reminded that I want to bring this up. Did you take your avatar picture yourself? If so, I submit that you have visited Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, perhaps to visit Road America?

I recognize a Wisconsin county road sign when I see it (we seem to be fairly unique in that we use letters instead of numbers for county roads) and I live about an hour from Elkhart Lake. And I believe that's the only County Road JP in the state.
Click to expand...

Well spotted, indeed it is. I was there in 2011 for the 50th anniversary of the square bodied Spridgets - got to meet a few from the boards. These were my other pictures worth keeping



and

 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Yesterday I reassembled the crankshaft - quick question - The crank seems very tight in place - how easily should it move?
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

It shouldn't be too tight. Did you plasti-gauge it? And if so what was the clearance?
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

waltesefalcon said:
It shouldn't be too tight. Did you plasti-gauge it? And if so what was the clearance?
Click to expand...

.002. tolerance is .001 - .0032
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

And is it "tight" thru 360° or only in one area of rotation?
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

DrEntropy said:
And is it "tight" thru 360° or only in one area of rotation?
Click to expand...
at this point it isn't budging at all - at least not by hand. Heading out of town tomorrow so maybe will get back to it sunday pm. The last bearings have "sides" for the thrust - and it seems like that might be where it is binding.
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Well, nothing like being away for a day or two to help you think. Decided to loosen up the bolts and start over. Loose it rotated, torqued the centre bolts to 40lbs, it rotated, tightened next set - it rotated, basically torqued and rotated one set at a time, and, it turns fairly easily now - certainly by hand with not a ton of effort. Thanks for advice.
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

The only resistance you should feel is the inertial mass of the crank. Any friction probably suggests a problem. Hope that made sense.
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Bayless said:
The only resistance you should feel is the inertial mass of the crank. Any friction probably suggests a problem. Hope that made sense.
Click to expand...

it does, i think i am getting some friction, partially from the rear rubber seal and partially from the thrust bearing. The fifth bearing has kind of an upsidedown "u" shape to it, with the sides being the thrust part of the thrust bearing and it seems they are just a little snug, which I think is a good thing at least initially
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

There might be a very little resistance from a new seal even if well lubricated. I think the thrust bearing though would be like the mains, really no resistance other than the lube. I really think I would want to open it back up and look for any problems especially since you said it tightened up after the last main was torqued. Better that than destroy it first time you fire it up. I don't remember all that you have done but it could be wrong bearings or maybe needs to be line bored. When I had the Prefect motor rebuilt several years ago, I had to replace one main cap which required line boring. The shop bored to the wrong diameter and had to change to other bearings, Taunus of some sort.
 
Re: Slight Vauxhall up-date - and a question

Good thoughts. I think I will get a second set of eyes when I get back.
 
Back
Top