scooter

Now very illegal to sell.

Ah the ‘good old days’ 🤣

Modern tyres contain much less natural rubber @ 15%, than days of yore. Heavy truck tyres contain much more, @30%. Although modern polymers provide an excellent alternative, no one’s found a synthetic compound with the flexibility and durability of natural rubber. See your old rubber bushes lasting 50 years and new replacement failing in a few years. See modern tyres often failing MOTs through cracking after a few years.

No.

Electric fans are rubbish. want an old classic to have starting and overheating problems? Fit a ‘more efficient’ Electric fan. electric fans on moderns provide very little cooling, nearly all of it comes from the much bigger radiators now fitted.

50k is better than they lasted from new!

GL4 oils? Use a modern synthetic, light years better.

Easy on the front, use saloon hubs, problematic on the back.

WIX. Often available from the small non chain retailers or eBay. very good filters with a following in the States with the Datsun guys,

I was exposed to asbestos in huge quantities during my time in the Merchant Navy lagging boilers and pipes, 40 years on, nothing. It's really an overrated issue for brakes. I actively source nos asbestos brake pads and shoes, they are vastly better than repro ones. Do you decarbon your own engine using scrapers and such like? Really nasty stuff that carbon, full of nasties. Commercially, you would dip the head to remove it and treat the residue as hazardous waste.

You have a vastly higher risk of contracting skin cancer from old engine oil than you ever have contracting measothelioma from asbestos brakes. Do you fill your car up with unleaded petrol? It contains Benzene, an agressive carcinogen that you breath in in large quantities while filling up. The issue with brake fitters was down to using airlines to blow dust out of the brakes constantly, day in, day out that put large quantities of asbestos dust into the working environment they were breathing in every hour of their working day. Very simple precautions remove any risk to infinitesimal. Wash out the brakes with brake cleaner rather than brush or blow out the dust, use a dust mask. They have still to find a superior material than asbestos for brake linings. Some of the synthetics have a higher friction rating, but they are scary expensive, they wear at a frightening rate and destroy disks with equal rapidity.

A combination of very poor oil technology, poor metallurgy, poor surface finishes and loose tolerances. We forget how poor old cars were when new. Who now talks of 'getting a good one' if they have bought a new car that doesn't drink oil and leak like a sieve! Modern oils and machining technology, along with better rings and bearings allows us to dramatically improve these old engines.

Aye, you always had the rack of 1 pint tins of oil beside every petrol pump.

A pint a month was much the norm for cars back in the day. You routinely checked your oil when you filled up with petrol and topped up as needed.

I have given some thought to having a new drain plug brazed on in a more accessible location.

A problem? Nothing wrong with the Triumph runs oil all down the chassis rust prevention system.

Crankcase ventilation on most all old cars is insufficient to stop pressurisation and oil leaks.

Some Vitesses had a Delaney heater too. Supposedly a better heater, which really wouldn't be hard!

Loctite RTV and Permaseal will keep even a Triumph engine dry.

BRT bearings are a good national chain. There used to be a good link on this site http://www.74tr6.com/waterpump.htm To a water pump rebuild with modern parts

It's all good getting more heat out of the radiator as long as it can get out of the engine bay. Note how the factory fitted cooling vents on the side of its factory cars to allow the heat out. The aerodynamics of old cars tends to produce a high pressure area under the front of the cars that produces a dead air zone in the engine bay. A chin spoiler improves things significantly.

I use a Vitesse 6 header tank on my MkII Vitesse.

Shafts, high quality sealed bearings and ceramic seals to rebuild pumps to far better than they ever were new standard are available from bearing factors. If you are fitting a new impeller, make sure you turn down the fins that go across the middle of the aftermarket ones. It causes turbulence and cavitation reducing efficiency.

That makes perfect sense. It is indeed an automatic engine. You learn something every day!

Just bought a spare 2.5 short engine, MMxxxx but the end code is HEA. Any ideas?