Nick Jones

That all looks good to me. Gasket fail point might not be especially obvious given the short running time Another way of water getting into the oil is that the studs that hold the rocker cover on sometimes go right through to the water jacket and may need a bit of sealant on the threads. A couple of the studs that hold the timing chain cover in place also go through to the water jacket (the top two or three on the manifold side) though it’s rare to get an internal leak without an external one too. Neither of these would explain the bubbling in the header tank. Do you actually get an exhaust smell from there? Are you actually loosing water or not enough run time to tell? Did you re-use the original mk3 head studs? If not you need to make certain the nuts aren’t running out of thread before the head is fully clamped. Also it’s essential to use top quality nuts with hardened washers under them. Or better still, the flanged nuts available from Mini Spares which are a more reliable option in my experience. Nick

A Mk 3 Spit engine should be a flat top block without recesses around the bores. It is possible to fit the gasket for the recessed block engines by mistake, identifiable by the tag stick out at the back. Because the fire-rings around the bores are thicker this usually gives good compression but oil and water leaks internally (and sometimes externally) that could lead to milky oil, but not usually bubbles in the header tank Nick

Were there any shells left in no 3 and had they spun in the Con-rod? If there were still shells in there and not spun, which seems improbable given the movement in your original video, you could just stick some new shells in there and pry. I’d advise against though it as the rod is quite likely battered out of round. If shells gone or spun the rod should be considered scrap. I struggle to see how you can have that much movement and no debris in the sump….. Nick

As already suggested, check the rear toe settings. Should be 1 -3mm toe in at normal running height. Also well worth checking that all bushes (radius arm, inner wishbone and spring eye) are good. Are the lever arm dampers still in place? They are not the greatest even when in top shape…… Tyres wise I’ve always run 175/70s on mine, first on 5.5” wheels, now on 6”. It’s very stable and progressive even when caning it on the track. Can’t quite keep up with Clive but he does have a few more horses and a bit less weight….. Nick

The original white one is nice - but £15.5K? Then there is this... https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1457889 .... which is even more!

Errr….. I mostly do 6 pots….. no. 5 is the favourite there, though they can also get problems with the front two due to being furthest from the pump. Dunno why 5 really. On the 4 pot it’s not surprising that the the middle two cylinders are most prone to problems as both are fed from the centre main and that tends to wear fastest due to taking the most thump. Why 3 fails more than two, I really don’t know…. Though when I blew up the 1500 in Herald many years ago it was indeed #3 that kicked its way out (with very little warning) and dumped the fuel pump on the chassis rail. Looking at the movement in that “bearing” I’d say the shells are completely gone. Possibly the crank will clean up, but the rod will definitely be scrap. I can probably find you a stray rod (or even a set) if needed but whatever you end up using, get the machine shop to check the rods are straight and the BE bearing holes are round. Nick

This…..

I belong to the "do nothing until a problem emerges" school of thought on this. On engines that have done plenty of miles on leaded and not been touched since (minimal or no valve seat grinding and certainly no re-cutting), you will get 10s of thousands of miles before recession sets in - if it ever does. And then only if you do high speed mileages. My original Vitesse engine did at least 25k fairly hard miles on unleaded (on top of an unknown but large mileage on leaded fuel) and never showed any sign of recession. Head was changed for other reasons in the end. However, if you do have to do work on the valve seats, especially the exhaust ones, you will remove some, or all of the lead memory and it's a good time to get inserts fitted. A few years ago, we did a minimum budget engine build for my sons 1300 Mk IV based on an FD engine. The head was medium rough and the exhaust valve seats were pretty pitted. As he wasn't planning on keeping the engine very long I just tidied up the ports and ground the valves in best I could. They really should have been re-cut as a minimum. Fast forward about 3 years and the car has done around 10k miles - not very much of the that being high speed, open road mileage. But life changes and suddenly it's commuter transport being driven hard on fast A roads every day and pretty soon it's taken ill. #1 & #4 exhaust valves have no clearance left at all and 2 & 3 are tight. Reset clearances and all is well again - for a whole 200 miles, when the problem recurs. Rinse and repeat...... several times. The car is needed every day and there's no budget for head work. Additive to the rescue. Recession stops...... unless you forget the additive! Something similar happened with my GT6 except I haven't got to the recession stage yet - only about 2.5k miles. I do put additive in that if I'm going on a long fast run. Otherwise I don't bother. The cure is the same as the prevention in the end anyway. Nick

Good compressions. Borescope looks ok too - as far as quality allows. IMO the light is picking up on the honing lines, highlighting them. Nick

😳☹️ Wish you a quick and full recovery

So the part that failed was NOS and previously unused…… That is REALLY irritating! Any evidence of anything that might have got caught between the gears and caused the break? Broken circlip under 3rd gear? Nick

Just to add…. I’ve run standard, non-adjustable Armstrong dampers intended for a Herald (or any other swing-axle car) on my roto Vitesse for 30 + years with no issues at all. This using chassis extension brackets copied from a TSSC one many years ago. Its possible that not all manufacturers “equivalents” are identical lengths but they ought to be close. The GT6 roto ones are definitely too long (and rather hard to find). Agree with your assessment of the Spax btw. Had a pair briefly on my GT6 and the ride was spine-crunching! Nick (South Somerset, nr Dorset)

The other thing that can be a factor in that particular spot is whether the spigot bush in the back of the crankshaft is a) present and b) in decent condition as it plays an important supporting role in keeping everything in line. Nick

Oh dear….. how very upsetting 🙁Were all the gears from the same set or have you mixed parts? Even if all the same set, new bearings means that the gears will be meshing slightly differently, applying forces to the teeth differently? This can cause noise (which sometimes improves after a period of running) or, rarely, if you are unlucky, sudden breakage. Seems you are unlucky ☹️ Have to agree with you on Triumph gearboxes….. (though 1500 single rail not normally the most troublesome). Getting hard to find parts in good condition. Nick

What Clive says. Great day out. Taking my Vitesse on the 10th for its annual “exercise”. Nick

Worth considering whether your alternator voltage regulator is doing its job. The old Lucas ACR series alternators, or rather the more recent lookalikes from various sources can have rather poor voltage control. The EI units don’t like high voltage spikes. I’ve noted that while people have multiple failures, others have no problems over high mileages/many years. I suspect there is a reason for this. Certainly I logged some pretty shocking spikes when hunting glitches in the early days of my EFI - over 20v at times. Nick

This. The jiggle pin or plain hole in the thermostat matters in these circumstances. You sometimes get away without if the thermostat just plain doesn’t seal well enough to stop air passing through it. Nick

Castor oil is the sovereign cure for constipation…… if a bit on the violent side….🤐

Not on 6 pots thankfully. Think it’s on all 1300 and 1500 4 pots, though doesn’t seem to cause as many problems on flat blocks. Nick

It is a remarkably stupid design feature - unless your aim is to increase HGF. Causes more problems on the recessed blocks. Quite a few have filled them with brass plugs so the gasket fire-rings are fully supported. Nick

I think there is a small problem with the (Heritage) sill pressings currently available. There’s not quite enough material at the back to get them to meet the wing nicely and have the door fit right in the bottom rear corner. On 3 out of the 4 we’ve done in the last 5 years we’ve widened the rear 3 - 4” of the step ( tapering to about 5mm max at the rear) to get the fit right. The 4th was a much older pressing with a BL sticker and worked as it was. Nick

Never seen on a Herald or Vitesse, May have been standard on GT6. It is possible to get a saloon water-tight….. convertible….. I really don’t think so Nick

The port spacings are actually the same. I have fitted an 8 port 4-2-1 to a 6 port engine simply by extending the clamps with weld and it worked just fine. To do it the other way round will be harder and involve significant & irreversible chopping down of the flanges of the 6 port manifold. Better to sell the 6 port (which is rarer) and put the proceeds towards the correct one. A decent 4-2–1 will bring benefits from lower mid-range upwards. 4-1 is top-end only. Both will need different carb needles to get the best from them as well as a freer flowing air filtration. As Clive says, it does depend on how you plan to use the car. Nick

I’ve replaced them one at a time on a 4 cylinder engine for this exact reason of swapping to the Mini spares flanged nuts. That engine had been run for a few hundred miles and we had a couple of failures of new standard nuts when attempting the re-torque. I removed the nuts one at a time and refitted/retorqued in the standard tightening order. Worked fine. Nick

Unless you can set them on fire……😳