Sparky_Spit

Hi Bfg - the instrument panel voltage stabilisers and the standard mechanical ones do need to be mounted with "up" at the top. Also, the securing screw provides the earth (-ve) connection to the unit so make sure there is a good clean area free from paint/dirt/rust around the screw hole. Lastly, you can buy solid state versions of these built into standard looking cases, or you make your own using a 10.1v zener chip.

Pete - the holes are not punched into the gasket; what you see in the pictures is a near perfect circle of the gasket material that was over the jigging hole burned away, as it had no support nor heat sink from below. This is on a normal Payen gasket. I think the same holes are on 1300 blocks as well (although I'm prepared to be corrected?) , but are not such an issue as they are not recessed blocks like the 1500 and late MkIV. Wim - Some googling of this problem led me to a US website for MG MIdget 1500 racers having the same issue and using valve guides inserted with epoxy and then machined flush with the top of the block. Gareth Thomas also advocates doing the same.

Hi Wim - I had similar problems with the gasket fire rings burning through just where the meet the blind jigging holes near cylinders 1 and 4. I suspect that the resulting lack of support for the gasket material behind the fire ring creates a weak spot. I filled mine with brass plugs, epoxied into place. See Advice please - gasket fire ring failure on new engine - Engine and Ancillary talk - Sideways Technologies (sideways-technologies.co.uk) Mike

When I was a lad I used to run my scooter on a TVO (Tractor Vapourising Oil, Paraffin basically ) /oil mix, from the farm where I worked on Saturdays, to get to and from college during the week. If I was particularly skint I'd use my brother's cricket bat oil (linseed?) instead of two-stroke oil. I needed to be careful to run it on petrol to start it up, as it wouldn't start with TVO, and I had a fish tank air-line tube and plastic 3-way tap which I switched over from a Fairy Liquid bottle of proper petrol/oil mix to my "free" home brew once I was a few miles down the road, and then did the reverse just before getting to my destination. I did have to change the plastic fish tank airline tube every now and again as the petrol used to melt it over time. Those were the days...

Luckily that is the easiest bit to cure if it isn't. Just rub down the pump body on wet and dry paper on a perfectly flat surface, as per the instructions in the link I posted. One of the most satisfying little jobs and which gives good results for so little effort.

Hi Aiden - one tip before removing the timing chain and sprockets..... Set the engine at top dead centre with piston no1 on the firing stroke. The timing marks that are scribed on the engine's front plate and sprockets should all line up. There may also be some centre punch marks. Mark all these with a tiny blob of paint. Then take some pictures for reference when you put it all back together again.. See below for what I mean.

Aidan - a good description of Triumph oil pump "blue-printing" can be found here; Oil Pump (danielsonfamily.org) The only engineering tool required is a set of feeler gauges, plus the wet&dry paper/flat surface. The correct pump clearances are in the workshop manual.

I am waiting on James Paddocks to send me a Payen head gasket for a recessed block 1500, which has been on back-order for a few months now. They say that their supplier is waiting on new gaskets to be manufactured. I know that a new manufacturer or maybe even a new factory is being used for Payen production, but that was some time ago now. The head gaskets for the 6cyl and 4cyl engines must be made of the same material and the fire rings must be similar surely? The engine in question has previous when it comes to head gaskets and is a bit choosey in that it needs one with perfect fire rings. I offered up an unused spare Payen one this afternoon and the fire ring fit is perfect with respect to the block, although I'm not going to use it as it has been in the boot of the car as a spare for a couple of years and its "stickiness" is a bit suspect. I will, however, be able to check the quality and fit of the new one against the spare one when it does finally turn up. It might be interesting..... Hopefully not.

Hi Aidan - yes the pistons and their rods can be pushed up the bores and out of the top of the block. And yes, before you do any more dismantling you need to mark each big end cap so that they can go back on their correct rod and also the same way round. Most people gently make a centre-punch mark on the bearing caps (1 dot for number 1, 2 dots for number 2, etc) for both the big ends and main bearing caps. Make the marks so that they also show which way round they go. Take notes or some photos. This is important as it ensures that everything goes back together in the same place that they came from. Also mark the piston tops to show where they came from and which way faces front. Photograph everything so that you can refer to it later on when you are putting it back together.

Using Peter's method I have modified the 1500 inlet manifold in the same way. It was nice and cheap to do; a 37/64" twist drill (the tapping size for 3/8 BSP) was only £8.50 mail order from Axminster Tool Centre, and I already had a 3/8 BSP tap. The brass barbed fittings were a couple of quid from eBay. Job's a goodun....

I am the current custodian of the ex- Mike Bishop/Jon Ranwell/Chris Sherrington fastback Spitfire hardtop that ship’s engineer Phil very kindly delivered to me in Essex, from Scotland some time back. I’m now just starting to look at restoring it. It’s an Ashley GRP moulding as shown in the picture below (not my car though) and is complete with all it’s parts, including a scrap of lurid green shagpile headlining. What is missing though is the nearside teardrop shaped glass window (see picture of the offside one which I have). Does anybody have a nearside glass window available? A long shot, I know, but I thought I’d ask. I have been in contact with MotoBuild who now own Ashley currently produce hardtops for MG Midgets and Spitfires but with no luck. They can make me a Perspex one but I’d like to try and find a glass one if at all possible. Apologies for posting on multiple forums but I want to get as large a coverage as possible. Thanks.

Or if you want to be really accurate, use Plastiguage in two small strips either side of the drive gear bush hole to measure the end float (upfloat?). Book figure is 2 thou to 7 thou and I managed to get 4 thou with one of my collection of gaskets. If you happen to have the sump off you can just about get your fingers in there with a feeler gauge between the gear and the bush. Again, only if you want to be totally accurate really.

Hi Iain - have you looked at fuel needle valve assemblies for model aeroplane engines? Lots of different sizes and configurations depending upon engine size and whether shaft intake or rear plate intake. Just a sample here, but there are loads of different types available. Might be worth a look? https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=model engine needle valve&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-55004-18975-0&mkcid=2&keyword=model engine needle valve&crlp=_&MT_ID=&geo_id=&rlsatarget=kwd-81776304109698:loc-188&adpos=&device=c&mktype=&loc=132769&poi=&abcId=&cmpgn=373192874&sitelnk=&adgroupid=1308419041251388&network=o&matchtype=b&msclkid=d3eac0f931df1e58621c9f4a8504da50

Excellent tip on the torque wrench test John! Did both of mine and found the big one to be 1NM over-reading and the small one 4NM under-reading, both tested in the middle of the range. I can live with that and adjust setting them accordingly.

A couple of quick things you could check..... take the fuel filler cap off and run the car with it off or loosely fitted and see if this makes any difference. If so it will indicate that the fuel tank breather is blocked and is stopping the fuel reaching the pump/carbs. Also, a common fault which causes similar symptoms is a distributor rotor arm that is breaking down electrically once it gets hot, and then works again once cool. Try a known good one.

The 4 cylinder manifold gasket that comes in a full engine set from Canleys has the same problem and needs a fair bit of remodelling around the stud holes with a Dremel to make it fit. The inlet and exhaust port apertures are not that bad though and can be used as is unless you are pedantic about exact alignment.

I have a 1500 Payen head gasket on back order with Paddocks. They tell me that their supplier is waiting for more to be manufactured. I'm not sure if that is good or bad news?

Iain - If there is definitely no oil getting into the rocker shaft and you have a cam with the correct oil-squirt-flat on the rear journal, then maybe you have the rear cam bearing fitted with the oil hole misaligned? Or the bearing has slipped round from its fitted position. That's assuming you have bearings fitted of course. Fingers crossed it's something simple.

Thank you gentlemen. As Nigel says, every day is a school day

Just saw last posts above... too late!

Ian, a quick check before you get to the stage of taking the head off, undo the 7/16th bolt (fitted with a copper washer) on the back nearside of the head. This bolt blanks the drilling hole that makes the oil path divert from the upwards drilling from the cam bearing and across through the head before meeting the upright drilling to the rear rocker pedestal. With that bolt removed and the engine running you can prove that the flow is okay or not at that point. That is the last point at which you can check for oil flow spurts with the engine running, as the next point "downstream" you can access is the hole in in the top of the head under the rocker pedestal, but obviously not when the engine is running.

I'm almost embarrassed to ask this; I've only been messing about with Triumph cars for 40-odd years.... With one-piece combined inlet/exhaust manifold gaskets, which have a dimpled bright metallised side and a grey fibre side; which way round are they supposed to be fitted? And why? Thanks in advance.

I had similar with a 1500 block and had to resort to using a long 3/16" twist drill, mounted in a cordless drill, inserted down into and through the water passage from the top face of the block above the the drain hole. This removed loads of black matter and rust and once it had broken through it was much easier to poke upwards though the drain hole to widen the passageway as thescrapman says above . This obviously can only be done with the head removed though. If you can get a jet-washer lance in there it helps move things along.

I'm impressed with you having your own toilet in your garage. Could do with a bit of a clean though?.....

A thumbs up for the Minispares flanged nuts. I've used these for years now, ever since I rebuilt a couple of Mini engines. Just by looking at them and feeling them you can tell that they are properly engineered. Cheap as chips too.