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It's a TR5 engine. Tim is having major work done to turn his very pretty and very fast TR5 into a very solid, pretty and fast TR5.

Indeed. My Spitfire "needed a test run" but I went in the modern because the test run lasted ten yards before failing.

I refer the honourable gentleman to my earlier comment in another thread 🙁

Yes, as Colin says, the gear cover is odd and there's no sign of the self-parking contact but the rest of the motor looks perfectly normal.

I've done a couple of glass bowl pumps with refurb kits over the years (actually both for the same car, though it had an engine change between, which meant the original pump no longer fitted). I found it to be an easy and effective job both times, no problems.

As Gary says, there's a manual prime lever. No need to disconnect anything. Even without that, a battery conditioner should leave you always with enough charge to crank it for the twenty or thirty seconds it needs to prime on the starter. That approach also helps feed some oil round before the bearings see any stress.

No, I'd go with your first version. I had to go shopping this morning and thought it would be a good chance to get the Spitfire out. Managed 10 yards before it gave up. Pushed it back into the garage and took the modern.

The Spitfire ones are definitely shorter than Herald ones, so I'd expect Mk2 GT6 ones to be shorter than Mk2 Vitesse. Indeed, my copy of the WSM gives 373.6mm for the GT6 and 424.4mm for the Vitesse. It does show the Vitesse ones are square ended and the GT6 as angled, though.

This is the correct motor for a round-tail Spitfire: Three wires connected to the motor, one of which is an earth, connecting to the mounting plate fixing. The other two are fused-ignition-live (green) and switch.

Unfortunately the driver's side is rather constrained by the tube poking through the bulkhead to the motor. If you remove the motor, you can manipulate it a bit, but the heater matrix and demister vents are in the way of moving it far. Incidentally, do you really have a two-speed motor? An early Spitfire should be the square, single-speed bolted to a sloping bracket.

The professional trimmer who fitted my Spitfire's interior expressed a strong preference for not being asked to re-cover the steering wheel (an original Vitesse Mk1 type). I don't think that necessarily makes it really difficult, it's just horribly fiddly and can only be done hand-stitched. An ideal job for stretching over a few weeks of not being allowed out, perhaps.

The only engine I've seen where the oil pump had ingested serious chunks (fragments of broken timing chain shells) was my GT6 Mk3, which does have a strainer on the pump. I'm not sure they make all that much difference.

All four of mine are due round about when the first of the delayed ones become due... Unless we're still in lockdown then.

Garages need to remain open to fix the cars people need to use for essential journeys. MOT tests are not actually required for that to work.

Hmm... that would definitely cause problems but I'd expect just that the wipers run continuously rather than blowing a fuse. The usual culprit for those early wiper motors blowing fuses would be connecting the wires to the wrong (unmarked) terminals. I think that swapping the two that aren't obviously earth will blow the fuse when the motor has turned far enough to activate the self-park - or in your case, immediately, given that shorted wire. That said, my experience is with a Mk3 Spitfire with the single speed wiper motor. If you have the two-speed DR3A on your GT6 then it may be different.

I had one like that on the Spitfire which turned out to be the reverse light switch on the gearbox cover, oriented so that the crimp terminals were pressed against the casing. One day it was fine, the next day the terminal had poked through the plastic boot and shorted out.

Indeed, that's why I suggested hydraulics rather than, say, the pivot pin fallen out.

As johny says, check the condition of the cooling system first. My GT6 has the original plastic fan, no cowls, and no problem with overheating at all. My Vitesse has an electric (Kenlowe) fan only and no problem with overheating since I fixed all the coolant leaks.

It's the heater feed for an earlier Spitfire - certainly up to Mk3, probably some Mk4 The later (1500) engine used a different arrangement with a T-piece on the manifold pipe.

What do you mean by "couldn't get into any gears easily"? Do you mean you couldn't find the gear (lever was wobbly or indistinct) or that it graunched when going in? If the former, Doug's probably right. If the latter, I'd suspect a clutch hydraulic problem - check the fluid level first.

If the studs won't come out, weld a nut on, with lots of power to get good penetration. The heat helps break up the rust and the nut can't come undone from the stud! You're going to need new studs anyway, if they're that troublesome.

Chrome rocker cover was fitted to the Mk1 GT6 as standard. They're rare but you may be lucky. I do use a bit of sealant to hold to cork gasket in place when fitting. Makes the job a fair bit less awkward.

We finally found somewhere locally with rice on the shelf (albeit not Basmati) so I got the GT6 out for a shopping trip.

Good points, Clive. Although I've been told the Singapore government aren't happy with us. They had managed to control it and got zero new cases. Then we closed all our Universities and sent all our students home. Of the ones who went home to Singapore, 75% tested positive on arrival.

The systems I work on have a facility for imposing a "limp home" mode if the oil pressure drops. However, they're for motorsport applications where rebuilding the engine costs more than most modern cars.