Spitfire worked on the spitfire

[waltesefalcon]

Ok so about a month ago I notice a miss in my spitfire when under a load. I go check out everything and decide it must either be a burnt valve or a blown gasket. I pull the head and find out it was the gasket, it blew between number two and number three. I decide I might as well do a valve job while I have it off, so I do a nice valve job new stainless exhaust valves, hardened seats, new magneseium guides, new springs, the works. Then I take it to a machine shop and have it resurfaced. Well then I get caught up with school final papers and studying for final exams. So for three weeks it sits, while I do school work. Then last Sunday I figure I am studied up enough to spend some time with the spitfire. So I pull all my covers to address some oil leaks, esp. the front main seal which was leaking. So I pull my crank pulley and strip the block down bare. I then clean up the block and put the head back on it paint them, and put my mainifolds back on. Next day I take my covers over to my parts store and bead blast all the covers, local parts stores are the best. The when I get home I paint all the covers and tap my new front main into my timing cover. Now its back to studying for finals. So today I go out expecting to put everything back together and get it running, so I do all that no problems till I am putting the very last thing on. It would seem that the privious owner had had a leak at the thermostat housing and had tightend down the bolts, becuase when I put my new bolts in it it stripped out the threads in the water pump housing, so I cuss alot and stomp around some thinking about how I am going to get it running today. Well I switch to a coarse thread bolt and manage to catch enough to tighten it down some, I am at this point very concerned so I cross my fingers and hope for the best. Well I start it up and it runs great, that is if you don't mind the copious amount of water pumping out between the water pump and thermostat housings. So tomarrow I will have to drill out the thermostat housing to 3/8, the water pump housing to 11/32 and retap it to 3/8 then bolt it all back into place. Anyway I am irritated now because its always the little stuff that gets you and here are some pics of the motor as I worked on it and now that it is finished, almost.

Notice my cool blue and white colour scheme, I decided that triumph colurs would be cool, esp since thats what the car will be painted when its all said and done. And yes it is dark ford blue its the closest I could find.

Cheers,

Walter

P.S. Ok so I apparently can't run my computer, can anyone tell me how to upload my pictures, I know I can do cause I've done it before.

[ 05-09-2004: Message edited by: waltesefalcon ]

[ 05-09-2004: Message edited by: waltesefalcon ]</p>

 

[78Z]

don't crack the thermostat housing!!! I spent months finding a replacement for my 74.

you can upload pictures into the member gallery or to a site like https://img65.photobucket.com then right click on the image, select Properties and and copy the location. In your post press teh IMAGE button below and paste in the picture location.

 

[waltesefalcon]

Thanks 78. I'm not really worried about the housing if it cracks which I doubt it will, I have a friend who has a box with about 20 of them in there from different years.

Cheers,

Walter

 

[piman]

Hello Walter,
can't you put a thread insert and keep everything else standard? I use a kit called Recoil, which is easy to use and inexpensive.

Alec

 

[waltesefalcon]

I could but I am really cheap.

Cheers,

Walter

 

[78Z]

Engine parts painted white!

Must show the oil leaks well eh?

 

[aeronca65t]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by 78Z:
don't crack the thermostat housing!!! I spent months finding a replacement for my 74.
<hr></blockquote>

That's really true! When I cracked the thermo cover in my 1500, I looked high and low before I got a phone number of a guy who had one.
As it turns out, we were never able to meet up due to schedule conflicts, so he sent his girlfriend out one night to meet me after my night class. She met me in a nearby parking lot in her Mini. We were both laughing, because it probably looked like a "drug-buy"......she gives me a little box and I give her cash. Only with British cars!

Keep up the good work Walt! Looks good!

ps-Do you really have magnesium guides?

[ 05-10-2004: Message edited by: aeronca65t ]</p>

 

[Bugeye58]

C'mon, Walter. You mean "Manganese" for the guides, don't you? Kind of a coppery bronze color. Magnesium would last about ten minutes if used as a valve guide material. If it didn't ignite!
Jeff

 

[waltesefalcon]

Ok Jeff, point out the obvious error in my commentary, and my repeating it in my reply to Nial. You do that and just see if I care, yeah go ahead.

You are right though they are Manganese, why they have to have two different metals have such simalar names thats what I wanna know.

Cheers,

Walter

 

[Bugeye58]

Walter, they do it just to confuse us! Before somebody climbs in here and corrects me, the guides are actually an alloy of manganese and bronze. I've been running them in all my stuff for quite awhile now, and am quite happy with them.
Jeff

 

[waltesefalcon]

Jeff,

Yeah I got them for the fact that the manganese bronze alloy is a good bearing surface, and supposed to be fairly tough. I think I will be very happy with them as I get the head broken in properly.

Cheers,

Walter

 

[waltesefalcon]

Jeff,

Yeah I got them for the fact that the manganese bronze alloy is a good bearing surface, and supposed to be fairly tough. I think I will be very happy with them as I get the head broken in properly.

Cheers,

Walter

 

[waltesefalcon]

Ok so my repair job on the thermo housing went off without a hitch I put about 50 miles on it yesterday and about 20 on it so far today. Nial, yes I do indeed have magnesium guides. Those things are expensive too.

Cheers,

Walter