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Engine swap 2500 Vitesse Mk I


Roger

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The main reason that it took so long is the fact that we had our own Brexit a long time ago (long story). Everything we import or export to the island has to go through customs with endless bureaucracy and delays. If you plan to buy any parts cars from abroad then make sure you do it before Brexit! Anyway, the inlet manifold looks great, thanks a lot George! Now I just need a pair of SU carbs, I hope I can find them in Sweden and then smuggle them to the island in my car on the ferry 🙂

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  • 9 months later...

Hi All,

Lots of work related travelling (and procrastination in general) has made my Vitesse project even more embarrassing than Colins Herald 1200 project timewise. But this week I finally went downstairs to my garage and started to inspect my original 2-litre engine in the car. I was disappointed when I could not even turn the engine, it was seized. No turning back, I had to take it apart. Removal of the cylinder head was a struggle, it took me three days (evenings) but as usual I found the proper method here on the forum (here). I have said it before but this forum is a great source of knowledge. I always search before I ask, and very often I find the solution to my problem without asking the gurus here. It’s frustrating to see how people ask the same questions over and over again on fb.

Anyway, back to my engine: words fail to describe my disappointment when I found out that several cylinders where full of water and rusty. One of those moments when you ask yourself ”why don’t I collect stamps instead? Why am I doing this?” Well well, I guess these situations are “character building”... Now I have one more good reason to complete my 2,5 project. But finding parts being so far away from England is difficult. I have been considering to build a 2-liter Mk II engine using the 2,5 PI components I have (see above) + crankshaft from the rusty lump on the picture. But then I have to find a Vitesse Mk II inlet manifold (or equivalent from GT6 / 2000) and a pair of Strombergs and I’m still not 100% sure that my 1966 MkI Vitesse gearbox will fit the 1974 2,5 PI engine block I have. I guess I will find out. The other route is to source carbs with lower dashpots from a Dolomite and build a 2,5 litre engine. Given my location I use whatever parts I can get my hands on! To be continued...

 

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Edited by Roger
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47 minutes ago, Roger said:

 

 One of those moments when you ask yourself ”why don’t I collect stamps instead?

Just think what the water you found in those bores would do to your stamp collection...

48 minutes ago, Roger said:

 I’m still not 100% sure that my 1966 MkI Vitesse gearbox will fit the 1974 2,5 PI engine block I have.

It should. The bits of the block that matter are the same. However, it won't mate up with a 2.5PI flywheel and clutch, and the 1966 Mk1 flywheel probably won't fit the PI crankshaft. You need a post-1967 (well, post HC5000 engine) or Mk2 Vitesse flywheel.

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  • 4 months later...

I did it again!

I drove more than 1000 miles around Sweden to help my son move to a new apartment in Gothenburg. And by a coincident I happened to pass a scrapyard and a few other places where I found some Triumph parts! The best thing I found was an engine from a 2000 MkI Saloon. Engine number is almost impossible to read, but I’m quite sure it is an MB-engine, Mk I 2-Litre. Visual inspection gives me the impression that it has been renovated not too long ago. According to seller it was running when removed from the car. The other engine is from a Mk II 2000 Saloon (ME) and I got the gearbox too. This engine is seized, but I think it can be saved with new oversized pistons.

My plan is to check compression and bearings for the Mk I engine and if good then I’m tempted to use as is just to get me a runner as fast as possible! I will save the Mk II engine so that I have something to do when I’m retired. I’m happy as a child on Christmas, but wife was not impressed 😂

IMG_1368_.thumb.JPG.0c5d0fa7e388760d00553f5682ab27c0.JPG

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Hey do, Roger!

Stromberg carbs were made by Zenith, and this site may be useful to you.   I think yiou have  a pair of CD2s.  

http://zenithcarb.co.uk/zencdsecd2/?___store=zenith

 

Dont give up on the 'seized' engine.    I bought one that had no head, with the bores full of rain water.   It was seized, but with some penetrant in the bores, and tstraining on the crank bolt every day, both ways, after a week it could be turned right over!     I used a mixture of engine oil and white spirit, and everyone has a favourite mix.    For seized bolts, I've been most impressed by Innotec DeBlock Oil.  https://www.innotec.eu/oth/en//deblock-oil-xs/p1858  That might release the pistons!

JOhn

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20 minutes ago, JohnD said:

 I used a mixture of engine oil and white spirit,

Thank you John.

I know that a lot of people successfully use a mix of oil and diesel, but I do not own a machine running on diesel. However, I do have plenty of white spirit so I will add some of that mixture in the cylinders and let it be there for a couple of weeks.  Thanks for the tip. Tonight we celebrate "Midsommar". Very very important holiday here. It has been explained by someone from Germany for for those of you who have not experienced it. I will not work in the garage tonight, I will add the the mix in the cylinders tomorrow.

 

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Crayfish, herring, salmon, beer  fresh potatos, vodka, surströmming (fermented fish, google people trying to eat it...). It's obvious we are related to the vikings, midsommar usually involves things like dancing on the roof of a rusty Volvo and mayhem and disorder in general. St Patricks day is an afternoon tea in comparison.

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Surstromming?  Oh gods, you don't really eat surstromming?   

When we lived in Stockholm, we were induced to buy some, opened the (blown!) tin and had to run for the windows and retreat onto the balcony because of the smell.     Turned it out of the tin into a glass bowl and watched it bubbling as the trapped gas escaped.   YUCK!

Then, our Swedish friends told us it was a Swedish joke, played on  foreigners, rather like the Sots and the Loch Ness Monster, just smellier.

 

When I lived in Denmark, in student flats, the chemists had, not a still, but a chromatograph running in the basement.     In the UK, a convenient solvent was methyl alcohol, very poisonous, and sold over the counter, with horrible taste added.   The Danes thought that was too dangerous, so pure ethyl alcohol was sold in its place, also made undrinkable by bitter tasting substances.   But pass it over a column of activated charcoal, and what came out was 99.9% pure ethyl alcohol,  IF you knew what you were doing - and our chemists did!     And then the local pharmacy sold 'whisky flavour", or gin, or whatever to add to it!

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No, I do NOT eat surströmming! But you can buy it in the supermarket here. They mostly eat it in the northern part of Sweden and you should drink milk and eat it on knäckebröd (hard bread). They claim that the taste is not as bad at all as the smell. But it beats me how they can eat it without feeling the smell... There are plenty of entertaining videos on Youtube with people trying to eat it (mostly Americans, and even Gordon Ramsay had a go at it).

Now I will go to my garage and mix some oil and white spirit...

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15 hours ago, JohnD said:

Surstromming?  Oh gods, you don't really eat surstromming?   

When we lived in Stockholm, we were induced to buy some, opened the (blown!) tin and had to run for the windows and retreat onto the balcony because of the smell.     Turned it out of the tin into a glass bowl and watched it bubbling as the trapped gas escaped.   YUCK!

Then, our Swedish friends told us it was a Swedish joke, played on  foreigners, rather like the Sots and the Loch Ness Monster, just smellier.

They had a tin on the quiz programme QI, but explained that you usually opened it under water; if it had been opened in the studio they claimed the entire place would have required fumigation.

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3 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

Great video...... so how bad was your hangover?

No hangover what so ever! I'm too old for dancing on Volvos until the sun goes up. Those days are over 🙂 Just white wine with some salmon, herring and fresh potatos, got up at 7 AM this morning

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4 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

They had a tin on the quiz programme QI, but explained that you usually opened it under water; if it had been opened in the studio they claimed the entire place would have required fumigation.

I fear that Ms.Toksvig, being a Dane, is just a capable of straight-faced jokery as any Swede!

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