Conor L

Was good have a little nose around this at the Gaydon Gathering Tuesday night!

I too decided to run my Spitfire around last summer with the bonnet in grey primer, glad to see its becoming a trend haha

Spoiler alert, it's all sorted now 🤫

With the success of the engine back in and running again after around 4 months I decided to crack on with some of the smaller jobs needed to make it a little more road worthy. First off was the hazard switch. Originally my car came with a wooden dash from factory however I have fitted a black plastic item from an earlier mk4 as I prefer it. This left me with a bit of a problem as the earlier mk4s didn't come with a hazard switch. Before fitting the dash I had drilled the hole using the old dash as a template but seeing as the wooden dashboards are thicker I needed to make up some sort of spacers so the switch would sit in the right place. Had a mini tear down and decided to tiger seal some wooden spacers behind the dash which would allow the switch to sit right but also allow me to screw the switch in for future removal if necessary. All back together and it's nice and secure. Next on the list was seatbelts, pretty easy job just had to remove the seats and make some holes in the carpet for the bolts, didn't take many pictures (sorry) but that's another little job done which pretty much finishes off the interior. The last little thing that needed doing was to find a way of securing the wiring to the front part of the chassis as all of the original metal tabs had broken off during the rebuild. Found some reusable cable tie clips on ebay that I thought would do the job, similar things are used on modern euro boxes. Drilled a 6mm hole, touched some paint up on the bare metal bits and clipped them in, Looks pretty tidy and not likely to snap off if I ever need to pull the wiring. Got a little bored 1 evening so I decided to take some low light shots. Thanks for reading

Well it's been a little while since I updated this (around 9 months) and a lot has happened both car and personal. After reading my own thread to jog my memory here we go. After the engine was stripped I took the block & crank to my local machine shop for an inspection, after around 3 weeks they got in touch with a verdict. Bores needed another 20 thou taken off and the crank could be saved in the end (phew) so we are now running a +40 overbore, +50 big ends and +20 mains. I collected the block & crank after the work was carried out and reassembled the engine with a mk3 profile cam from canleys added in too, here's some pics of the rebuild. It was around this point that certain life events started taking place (around mid July 21 & unfortunately not in a good way) without saying too much I was signed off work for a few weeks to refocus which allowed me time to shoehorn the engine back into the car. Started building up the ancillaries including rebuilt carbs and a full stainless steel Bell exhaust system from the club shop as I wasn't happy with how the old system fitted. Radiator repainted and fitted, filled with coolant and oil, oil pump primed, distributor refitted and set and we were ready for start. But 1 small job needed completing before I could turn the key and this was to install a duel gauge to the dash so I can monitor the oil pressure. With this job ticked it was time to cross everything and see if that shiny engine would roar of be a nice ornament. Get in! Certainly the boost I needed. After a quick tune up the engine sounds sweet and makes a fantastic noise doing so thanks to the new exhaust. More updates to come so watch this space Thanks for reading

It's been a little while since I updated this but that doesn't mean things have ground to a halt. The main thing that happened is the engine. For a fair few months now I've been battling with a very irritating noise, to cut a long story short I discovered a lack of oil pressure so out come the engine for a tear down and assessment, Whipped the head off and all seemed pretty normal, removed the sump and number 1 big end cap revealed this That might explain my loss of oil pressure! Dropped it all of at the machine shop around 3 weeks ago. Chased it up this morning and the news isn't good! He's said I'd better off finding a replacement crank and the bores need an additional 20 thou taking off them too which is fine however nowhere seems to have stock of +40 pistons. So I'm in a bit of a pickle as you can imagine. I know Moss sell recon cranks however I'm thinking it'll be more cost effective to find a replacement engine and use all of my good bits on that instead. What's your opinion? In other news I've stripped the boot lid and doors back to bare metal ready for paint, also I'm having the bonnet acid dipped after all of the local blasting companies refused the work I'm expecting that back next week so we shall see what I'm left with! And finally we have some sad news. If you've been following this thread you may remember a good mate of mine helped with starting the engine and also fitting the windscreen, unfortunately he passed away after a very short fight with cancer 3 weeks ago so RIP John Slater 22/5/21

Well I've had a listen today with my stethoscope and cannot put my finger on this noise! To be honest I've got to the point now where I'm just going to leave it and focus on sorting other things out before it goes back to have the rest of the panels painted. It's running nicely after a fiddle with the carbs and pulls really well so hopefully the engine is strong and whatever is rattling around will eventually fall off and the noise will go haha. Many thanks for all the advice it has been invaluable! I know this isn't the right page but I'm in need of some richer fuel needles as I can't get these ABT 1s rich enough when trying to set the mixture. Specs are stainless tubular manifold, foam filters, mk3 profile cam, head skim (if that'll make any difference) what would you guys recommend based on experience? Also will the dashpot springs need changing too?

Haven't had the chance to take a look as I've been working and the weather has been awful. Will have another listen around with my stethoscope later on. I know the fuel pump lever arm is in the right place but I'll still listen anyway. Something that has been previously mentioned is piston slap which has gotten into my mind however I would've thought I'd have seen that on the bores when the head come off 🤔

Just had a little play around with no joy I'm afraid. @Pete Lewis just tried to push the gearstick into all 4 gears without the clutch which made no difference unfortunately. @Iain T I've previously ran with no belt (runs so smooth amazing what a difference it can make) again no different also listened with the stethoscope all seemed normal. To check my theory of mixture I backed off the fast idle screws so the revs wouldn't increase when the choke was pulled. Drove it around my close (clocked up a mile now aha) and only made a difference on full choke which is when it ran rough (expected) I did also hold the revs right up (3k) and you could hear a slight noise then too then it was tick tick tick tick as the revs come back down. Thought that was enough for the neighbours and put it away

Yeah thats why I took the sump off to reassure myself like you say its annoying but nothing major which is a plus!

Also just going to throw in an odd ball here when driving with the choke out there's no noise at all and pulls even better but as soon as you push it back in again you get the tick tick tick tick as you let off. It's running standard needles and I am aware I need to run some richer needles so maybe the fueling being too lean could cause an issue? I could be talking nonsense though

Well think it's about time I updated this. Finally manged to get some free time to reassemble the engine replacing the cam followers, pushrod all the gaskets etc. I thought beens I had to drain the oil anyway I'd whip the sump off and inspect the bearings, all seemed normal with no signs of any wear and the little ends seemed good too. Remeasured the end float just to be on the safe side again all seemed good and within spec. I've also had the manifold blanking plug thread sorted so that is now nicely sealed. Fired into life today, reset the ignition timing and... noise is still there 😕 but not as bad as it was which I guess in 1 way is a plus. Just give it a spin around the close the funny thing is under load all is good no noise engine pulls really well and feels strong but as soon as you lift off the throttle it goes tick tick tick tick. I'm happy the internals are good so I guess the fault finding continues until the car goes away again at the end of this month for the remainder of the paintwork to be completed.

Just been out to have a look at the push pods and cylinder head, number 3 push rod is slightly bent remaining are fine. Cylinder head on the other hand is quite black/oily especially in number 4. Head was converted to unleaded, new valve guides, checked over and skimmed by a reputable company here in the Midlands (as seen on car sos) pistons tops are dry with just a bit of carbon on them. Is it possible that the head is leaking oil?

@Pete Lewis I've been doing some thinking about this and I reckon they've been a bit sticky might be related to the engine being say for over a year ½ before starting eventhough assembly lube was used I don't think being sat for that time would help. The holes where the followers sit are clean & dirt free. @daverclasper my stethoscope was about £6 from the bay of E and is a must for finding noises accurately as nothing was noticeably obvious with a screwdriver. The noise was coming from just under the engine number, next the the core plug on the right side of the distributor very very noticeable with the scope. It was a very loud tap whereas the front lot were quiet.

I literally live by this! I've wasted no time at all this evening and pulled the head off which reminded me why I love these cars compared with the modern stuff I work with. Unfortunately I was unable to get the followers out prior to removing the head. My findings so far are that the bores are really clean with no scoring which for some reason I was worried about, some carbon on the piston tops which I expected, block surface is good, fished the followers out and can see that number 7 in particular hasn't been spinning with some vertical marks all round it number 6 is similar but not as bad, all the rest seem OK as does the cam lobes. Question is where to go from here? Replace all the followers for standard or 1s with the little hole in? Got a bit late tonight so I'll inspect the head and straightness of the push rods tomorrow after I've service my neighbours Audi. (Number 7 is on the left in the last picture)

I previously tried sliding the followers out with a magnet when I checked previously with no joy as the head gasket covers up the holes a tad. Not to worry though as it'll give me the opportunity to have the inlet manifold sorted and I may as well upgrade the head studs whilst I'm there.

Today the noise that has been driving me mad has been identified! Stethoscope arrived this morning and it appears that number 6, 7 cam followers are tapping like mad. Fine on initial start but after about a minute of running they are not sounding happy. Bit frustrating as they were new along with the cam when I built the engine but relieved its nothing too serious. Also funny how I didn't hear this with my trusty screwdriver so the Stethoscope was a good investment. Thanks for all your patience and advice. Thinking I might pull the head off and sort them out properly instead of just leaving it. Car isn't due to go away until the end of next month anyway so it'll give me something to do haha.

Tonight's bed time reading is sorted, thanks @Bob Owen I have ordered a compression tester and a proper automotive stethoscope which hopefully be more effective than my trusty screwdriver. Will update in due course.

Or maybe fit a louder exhaust 🤔

Pleased that I'm not the only 1 experiencing a funny noise. Just as a bit of an update I decided bite the bullet and upgrade to the duplex timing chain set up as I wasn't happy with the amount of slack in the previous chain (which was new!) I reset the cam timing using the workshop bible which confirmed that the timing was out (the engine was running a little rough just before I inspected the old chain) reassembled everything including a new water pump as my nos item was leaking, fired it up, reset the ignition timing and it runs wayy smoother than before. Unfortunately the noise still persists 😕 Another thought I've had is the head has had some work done including hardened valve seats and new guides so I'm thinking about doing a compression test to see if everything is in check there. Engine seems healthy running and pull quite well so if the compression doesn't highlight anything and I can't see anything then I might just run it and see what happens. Car has been booked back in to have the remaining panels sprayed at the end of March so that gives some plenty of time to ponder.

Following Pete's advice I've removed the timing cover to have a look and see whats going on before this I did spin the engine over by hand and I'm happy to say that it turns over very smoothly with good compression which I am happy with. 1 thing i did notice was there's a bit of free movement around 5 degrees or so when rocking the crank back and forth (this was before I removed the cover) anyway I removed the cover and measured the slack in the new chain using a straight edge and tape measure result is 9mm of slack so just under that tolerance according to the book. Removed the cam sprocket and the chain does feel a bit loose when fully wrapped around. I was expecting to see a bolt loose on the sprocket as Pete also suggested which in turn would also answer the 5 degrees free movement but all the bolts were nice and tight which I guess is a good thing. I'll leave some pictures of my findings. Back of the sprocket is smooth and seated nicely on the cam (new camshaft) there was a bit of condensation inside the cover which I'm not worried about. Chain & tensioner were new as part of the rimmer bros rebuilt kit I ordered over 2 years ago. If the chain is at fault would it be worth upgrading to the Duplex set up or leave it as stock? I do feel like we've eliminated quite a few possible causes now fingers crossed we can find the cause of this soon.

@Pete Lewis I did check the starter when I took it off last night all seemed ok which I thought because I had it rebuilt last year. I need to take the front off anyway as the water pump is leaking so I could easily take the timing cover off whilst I'm there, good suggestion! @Iain T noise is the same with the clutch up or down.

Just been out to have another look, wanted to check the flywheel and clutch pressure plate making sure they hadn't come loose with the starter removed, all seems normal I even turned the engine over by hand checking to see if any of the clutch bolts had come loose again all seemed fine. I've pulled off a HT lead 1 at a time to see if the noise goes away but noise still persists. I've even whipped the fan belt off to rule out the water pump and alternator again noise is still there. My trusty long screwdriver has come out to have another listen on the sump, around the distributor, bellhousing/engine back plate along the centre of the block all sounds normal. Noise is definitely louder on the drivers side than the passenger.

1 thing that might be worth mentioning is that on a cold start there is a definite knock for a couple of seconds then goes away. From what I've read that because the oil filters don't have a anti drain flap it takes longer to build the oil pressure because the engine has to refill the filter so I assume this is 'normal' unless a filter with the anti drain flap is fitted. Not sure if this could be related but like Pete says it's a different sound to that. Could be some fuel for thought.

I guess that seems more likely too if something has come loose during engine running which would be the most likely culprit based on its definitely louder towards middle/rear and lower down?