Algy

Well I have a set at last so have the 1600 hubs and caliper mounts spare that I will probably put on ebay.

Still no luck finding any 2ltr mountings.

Well stuff a stoat, what a lot info. Well I am still looking for a set of 2ltr carriers the same as originally fitted. Spitfire Gravyard can't help at the moment. The alloy opption is out on two counts 1. Do not look like original and 2. Out of stock any way and Possible 3. Cost a lot (I could probably buy a second hand front suspenssion set for their price. If any one wants the 1600 ones I have, they have been grit blasted and painted and the threads are in good condition, just let me know.

Thanks Clive. I am very busy myself. I will try to get to talk to Spitfire Graveyard. How do you recomend I sell the 1600 ones on flea bay or other?

Thanks for that but I am trying to keep the car original as best I can.

Just another check that you can do it with the oil filler cap loose run the engine and feel or hear if she is chuffing. It could be a blocked breather. I was told of an old trick for stuck rings but never used it. It was to put a table spoon of white viniger into each cylinder when warm and leave it there for a short time rocking the crank back and forth a few times, apparently it softens the carbon and any aluminum corrosion. Then turn the engine over on the starter with out the plugs to expell the viniger and take it fir a hard run. Then give it an oil change. As I said I have never done it but have seen it done a couple of times back in the 70's and it seemed to work.

Hi, Has anyone out there any idea how I can get my hands on a pair of 2ltr Vitesse calliper carriers. My ones seem to have had a hammer to them as one is bent and the other cracked. No one seems to hold them in stock new, so second hand would be the way to go. I don't need uprights as I have a good set of them but they are 1600 Vitesse and the calliper carriers are different.

Right so I fabricated the union to go onto the end of the manifold out of brass stock. It took a couple of hours a lot of which was me thinking about the method, whether I should turn it out of a single piece or as I opted to use two. A flat was filed onto the main body to receive the spigot. The inlet spigot has a restriction hole 1/8” diameter the same as the multi branch union has. Thanks to Pete Lewis for reminding me. I threaded the two parts a 5/16 UNF and filed a flat down the thread so the solder would run through the joint from inside to the outside, making it strong and sealed. The reason for the fairly small thread size is to produce a good shoulder for the solder bond. The spigot was hard soldered (a low temp silver solder) and then set up in a four-jaw chuck and the excess turned off the inside of the union. A good clean and a pit of a buff and it looks okay.

I would add, if you are going to change the timing chain, replace the sprockets and adjuster at the same time and if you plan on a cam change or doing a lot of miles use a duplex chain. Best way to find out if you are really worried is to take the timing cover off and check the sideways play in the chain (across the link not the way it is bends) and for sharp edges on the sprocket teeth and groves in the tensioner. But if you have gone to all that effort, in the car, it is not much more to replace and sleep sound. Driving the car hard is not much of a factor for chain wear, milage is and normally shows in other areas, such as smoke from exhaust. If it is sound, I would go with Nick and enjoy driving it until you start to loose performance. Give it regular oil and filter changes.

I should have taken the clue from the original bits that was bent down from the pump, I thought it was damaged when removed from the car by previous owner but thinking about it, it would have kinked. I will try to make one from stainless (less rust). The restrictor is in the union on entering the back of the manifold, or rather I should say it will be when I have made it, but I did find the diameter from a multi branch union. Thanks for reminding me about that.

So, I have done some more work on the engine. I stripped the old distributor and found that I needed to make up bushes for the main shaft as it was extremely worn as are the bob weight pivots; as I was intending to convert to electronic ignition, I decided it was not worth doing the work and bought a full kit. See photo with the HT leads made up and coil fitted. Next up was the inlet manifold that I have had vapour blasted. Last two photos. So, I decided to trial fit the manifolds and all was not well, the stainless coolant pipe did not fit around the exhaust manifold, it sort of wanted to go through the rear branch. I will need to make up a new pipe, 1” lower, bent down by the pump and with a 90deg bend inline with the rear vertical, to take the pipe between the manifold and block. So glade I did a trial fit!

I forgot to say who did the work on my head, it was Ivor Searle Ltd. I have to say that they were happy to work to my specific requirments and all was done to high standard.

Thanks Pete, Will get one, might not fit it until the engine is back in the car (in a few months time). Got to do a bit more repair work then get the chassis blasted and painted. Regards Algy

Well I have my cylinder head back and I have done some more work. P1) Washers which I reduced in external diameter and then hardened and tempered, quenched in oil, for the cylinder head nuts (heavy duty of course). P2) The before and after for the washers. P3, 4 & 5) The cylinder head, with hardened seats ported and skimmed, to give a CR or 9.75:1 P6) The head bolts after torqueing down in stages with 30mins between each round, I started with 15lbft then 25lbft, 40lbft, 44lbft then left over night and retorqued to 44lbft. P7) Rocker shaft studs fitted, using the locked nut method. P8) Push rods and rocker shaft fitted and then the gaps set to 0.010” using rule of 13. P9) Rocker cover fitted. I know it is not the same as the original, which was a alloy one so distorted and corroded that it was not usable but it is close enough. P10) the water pump gasket got some sealant. P11) The water pump fitted; the upper bolt is a shorter bolt than the final fit as it will be changed out, once I have got the dynamo adjuster made up or bought and fitted. There will be a delay again as I am working on other parts of the restoration but I will keep you posted on the engine as I progress.

Just a mad idea. You don't have a stuck float or leaky float needle do you? It might explain a heigher fuel consumption, although so would almost all other engine faults, as you use more throttle. It might not be the fuel now coming out of the pump but what is already in the carbs.

I was told of something like this in the past. I would check your plugs and see what colour they are, it gives a big clue, although now you have used easy start probably not accurate. The problem that was found (with a car that didn’t want to start, only ran for short time on easy start and produced pale blue white smoke), was water in the carb’s and glass bowl of fuel pump. The owner had no idea how the water could have got in, it had had a short (3 month) lay up with a near empty tank and then filled with fresh fuel and had used half the tank. The symptoms almost exactly the same as you said you had. Might be worth checking your carb float chambers for water or dirt also your fuel pump delivery, as water can stop the valves working (a problem I have had with Lotus and electronic pumps and Land Rover mechanical).

I am only going on my experiance. BSA 250 not good until dropped CR to below 10:1, wifes was okay just needed retarded ingnition but hers was a 9.75:1. BRM Lotus Elan with 10.2:1 CR ran bad no matter what we did with ignition but loved high Octane fuel at race track or Octain boost added, converted to standard Lotus head and was driveable on public road and in trafic. I supose it depends on the engine and the freshness of the fuel. It sounds likeTriumph engines are more tollerant, from the coments on here, can't think why though.

Hi Pete, Just had my pal around, to him there are some bits that are very much the same but a fair amount that is completly different (mainly in measurments and floor area), his was on a Burlington plan chassis. Typical though he has sold his last year, so will not get the side by side shot now until it is finished and take the car to a show (I don't do shows very often). John, Yes you are right 99 RON may just about be okay as long as you keep the fuel fresh. But unless you are using the car for competion the extra you get from the higher CR is, to me, not worth the extra strain on the engine and the loss of driverablity in hot weather and cost of fuel; lets face it most of us will be driving the cars in slow modern traffic and even if we tuned the car to an inch of its life, still would not keep up with a hatchback in the trafic light drag race. But a fair point anyway.

Did you allow for the over piston volume and the volume of the gasket as I think you will find that will drop the comprestion ratio down from 10.3 to 9.5:1. You don't realy want a CR that is over 10:1 unless you are using AVGAS / 100 Oct fuel. CR= (C+S)/C C=Clearance volume - which is chamber+ Gasket + Over Piston S=Swept Volume - (Bore/2)XPISquared X Stroke

I have come accross a simular problem in the past, when it is humid and even when the temp outside is fairly high in summer, when driving at moderate speed. The cause was carb icing. Another possible cause can be vapour lock, if the carb's have not got heat insulators or shields. One other cause can be condensor or coil breaking down. These are just some thoughts but not got a lot of experiance with Spit's.

Thanks Pete, I had not thought of the spring type pressure plate set up.

I think you may be right about the asbestos, looking at the one on the right and definetly about the length of the splined section, short would mean wear and problems later on. As long as there is some quilting, should not be a problem. A friend I know fitted a paddle clutch to his car and we ended up changing it after a couple of months as that was digital on or off as was anothers friend's, who had a clutch without quilting (a real dog in town). They had bought them thinging high performance would be better, also with high performance pressure plate so the force required to operate the clutch was high as well, which did not help when trying to slip the clutch to set off.

The one with no groves (one on the right) appears not to have quilting of the plate between the friction material, that is a negative as that will not allow as much progression on engaging the clutch (but was standard on competion clutches). I have had apprentices think the quilting is a fault. Also the take up and over run springs look stronger, on the one on the right, again leading me to think old style competion.

I have not seen any. I wouldn’t want reinforcing around the stud holes but it would be nice to have a folded metal ring around the exhaust ports. The big problem for this gasket is it has two very different jobs to do: sealing high temp / high pressure exhaust gases and low temp / low pressure inlet mixture, unlike a cross flow engine.

So a bit more engine building! P1 Using Loctite 574 on the timing cover gasket, again used very little. P2 The timing cover went on easily and no need to any tool to hold the tensioner out of the way as described in the manual. Bolted on and torqued, do note the two different torque settings: for the bolts going into the plate only 8-10 lb/ft and for the ones going into the block 12-14lb/ft (as normal I set the torque wrench to 9 and 13lb/ft respectively and carried out a retorque about 1/4hr later to allow the gasket and sealant to settle). P3 A drop of oil smeared around the spacer. Note the orientation, when I stripped the engine it was the other way around. P4 I checked the pulley timing mark and it was spot on, so there is hope that this is not a loose one! P5 I have reconditioned the water pump housing and fitted a new pump. I did not want to use the old one as the chances of a degraded gland seal was extremely high. The housing had been ultrasonically cleaned and electro zinc plated before paint.