yorkshire_spam

Thanks Pete, at the moment it's looking like a new pump is going to be cheaper than a spacer!?

Thanks Pete, looks like it could well be "earlyish herald" 948/1200 based on some google image searching.

No tappings on the side for the temp sender or the manifold hose... any ideas what it's off as it's no use to me?!

Well, a minor disaster in the garage this afternoon. I took the spacer off to clean it up and put new gaskets on (slight oil leak...) and it turns out the previous owner fitted 2 lumps of 6mm MDF, not a spacer. Which is a shame because I broke them trying to scrape the gasket off. Anyone got a spacer they are willing to sell? Most of the usual suspects are out of stock in the UK. Cheers, Sam

It really looks like the valve in the float bowl isn't closing, is the overflow/vent on the bowl lid blocked? Usually it p15535 out of there rather than the jet. If the vent/overflow if blocked it'll do that as the float won't rise... it's trying to compress the air in the float bowl and can't.

@wimpus, out of interest, which version of the original air-box did you start with? Standard 2 tube 1500 spec. ?

Mine got temporarily relocated in 2014 when I had cooling problems using a couple of cable ties and never got moved back. (Spitfire on the right!)

We just about manage with 2 adults and 2 "kids" in the Dolomite on classic car events. But the 2 kids in question are my 6 foot something son and my 19 year old daughter... so no car seats or booster seats required. Previous owner had fitted 2x3point inertia seatbelts in the back of the Dolomite, which is nice! I recon you can't go wrong with a 2000/2500 as a family classic. Space, accessibility etc etc, everything you need!

It's one of those good news/bad news days. Good news, started dialing in the tuning and it's progressing nicely. Bad news, nasty intermittent rattly knock at about 2500 rpm. I'll check the obvious stuff but it might be "take the engine back out again" time.

So it's not homemade and only very slightly modified... but this is REALLY useful. It's a Land Rover skinny prop-shaft socket. 9/16" AF on a 3/8" square drive. With the tiniest fraction ground off the socket end it's BRILLIANT for getting to the manifold nuts on a Spitfire engine. (And it's also useful for the driveshaft flanges at the diff)

Fired it up again last night, I'm really happy with how it runs on such a basic tune-up. Tick-over nice at about 800 rpm, a little lumpy in places, but I've yet to fine tune the ignition timing and the carbs will need setting up again for this engine. Couple of minor issues: Water leaks - at the back of the water pump (pipe that runs behind the manifold) and the bottom hose. Exhaust blowing - my Frankenstein's monster bitsa exhaust system needs taking off, joints cleaning and properly reassembling instead of just shoving it on and hoping for the best. Something to do this weekend!

The last engine work I did was a bottom end rebuild and re-fit cylinder head when this engine died on the 2015 border Raiders... I managed a bit of local testing but it's first major run was the 2015 10CR! I spent the first two days "bricking it"

Thanks @Nick Jones, @clive. First time I've built an engine fromt he block up and it fired up without too much trouble once I sorted the ignition timing. 🙂

@Nigel Clark, @jiggawhat2k, @Pete Lewis thanks chaps! It feels like a real milestone moment for me.

It runs, but my attempts to video the first fire up failed, and when I did manage to video the second fire up the sound is totally out of sync with the video. I think I'm better with old Triumphs than I am with video cameras. (Think I fixed the video/audio issue!)

If you really want to stick a torquey V8 in then the diff is either doing to crap itself frequently or is going to need replacing. Peter Fern runs a Heraldish with Mazda MX5 engine (non standard) and it has a habit of chewing up the small chassis diffs. I dread to think what a V8 would do to one. How about keeping it "Vitesse-ish" I've often wondered about sticking a modern BMW straight six in a Vitesse - but you have to be up to some serious wiring etc to get the ECU etc running. Another interesting option would be a Ford zetec or something like that - lots of power for not a lot of weight and people have done it to Spitfires etc before?

My workshop manual (Spitfire 1500) says 46 lb.ft for head

Wim keeps the FOX looking amazing, especially considering the huge KMs he seems to cover every year!

Greetings Mr. Hoops! and welcome!

This is that engine! Reborn! (and rebored!) I'll be breaking this one in nice and steady once the lock-down is lifted, some decent length journeys, plenty of hi-torque pulling but keeping the revs well down (2.5K max), then it'll get a really good check over before I start thrashing it. It's all a bit moot at the moment as it won't start, flattened the battery trying last night. On the plus side it primed up the oil pump nice and quick and the oil light went out nice and quickly. So at least I know it has oil pressure. If I get chance today (I'm working at home) I'll go back over the engine checking the cam and ignition timings again.

It's an old Triumph 1500 if it handles around 5.5K reliably I'll be more than happy.

Yeah, with the price of Carrillo rods close to that per rod, it was either maxspeeding or refurb the originals for me. I spent frivolous money on the engine, but not that much!

I have a can of PTFE and silicone grease, I can't remember where it came from. I tend to give parts like the jet a blast with it before assembly. Dunno how long it lasts, but it seems to work so far.

I bought my set off ebay, £175 I think. My original rods in that old engine were manky, I figured by the time they'd been cleaned and lightened I'd have spent more than "risking" it on a maxspeeding set.

Nope, I asked around on a few forums and found people who had used them before and nobody had any complaints that I found. I guess time will tell if they are any good.