Sorting through sealed beam units for the spitfire

Didn't know know these existed till i had this car. The glass and light bulb are one unit.

I had some spares and had to try them all to figures out which ones work and don't. Some had only high pr low beam. Success, out of 6, 3 work so no new purchase needed !
Note the wiring of the bulb from the photo.

I had to order indicators though as in France can't have lights and indicator be the same bulb.

Engine break in video

Finally it's running !

An attempt at fixing the spitfire heater valve

As I filled the radiator with coolant liquid, within a few days it was leaking everywhere : Hoses, block drain tap, water pump and heater valve.

I had spares for all of these which seem to work ok but my spare valves were leaking too.

Here is what it looked like, the water was coming out the bottom.

They are pretty easy to open, you have to drill the rivet out, then you can twist the top part. It's a shame it's all relying on one piece of rubber that eventually get hard and brittle and that they don't sell just this part as replacement.

It can be completely dismantled and cleaned which is what I did followed by clear coat. However I don't recommend dismantling the bottom part if it's moving freely because there is a spring in there and it can lead to swear words trying to hold hold it compressed while put the clip back on.

So what I did is I cut a piece of rubber out of an old bike inner tube to a slightly smaller diameter and placed it on top of the worn out rubber part. 

What it looks like now, shiny ! Ready for another 40 years ? We'll see... 

Getting the spitfire ready for first start

Last sprint to get everything ready for a first start !

- Gas : gravity fed by a bottle connected to the hood.
- Oil : Got a temporary oil pressure gage (you can see it on the right) and a light bulb connected to the low oil pressure switch.
- Ignition : got a manual temporary switch installed, manually set timing to fire a bit before TDC

All systems check, ready to go ! Next step : run it for 20 minutes to break in the all new engine and camshaft then drive round the block !

Putting oil in the spitfire gearbox and overdrive

Tonight filled up the gearbox in preparation for the (soon to be I hope) first drive.

There's square plug on the side where to fill from until it overflows. Used a funnel and small tube, long process.

Had done some internet research last year and decided to go with 30 motor oil oil non detergent.

One step closer !

Spitfire water pump and valve gaps

So...

Now that I tidied my new garage and found all the spitfire parts, for the past 2 months I have been working on the car when I had a bit of time. Slow progress as I had a major work (5 full days) on an other car replacing the V8 engine this summer (quite a story...) and I always have to do a few things to my 1985 daily driver.

Basically the goal is to be able to start the engine and drive round the block asap.

It will probably not be perfect but now I feel it is more important to get it going and I will continue slowly but at least have a fun car to take out.

Completely cleaned and painted the water pump and fan and installed the radiator

Then set the valve gaps to the correct values

The engine bay is starting to look like it should. Exciting, more photos soon !

Time flies

A lot of time went by since this happened.

The spitfire was delivered in France in a container in April 2014. It had to go from the container to truck then down on the pavement. I looked and looked for these photos but just remembered my phone crashed around that time causing the loss of the photos.

Not much was done to the car since we moved an other time to a place with a bigger garage (yeah !) and then I had to do some fixes on our 2 daily cars.
However I now finally sorted all my parts and ready to make some progress!

Spitfire gets on a boat

This post is 2 weeks overdue.
As maybe you could tell i had some serious fire under my &$$ to get this project moving !

Reason is we are moving from the US to France and spitfire is coming with us. Engine is in ready to be setup once on the other side of the atlantic.
It's been manic and i'll be happy to start again in a few weeks, full of energy.

Did I mention massive progress ?

A picture will speak better than words. Notice the freshly painted engine in the foreground.

Big thanks to Ben and Thomas for helping push through this week !

Spitfire engine rebuild, part 2 - Crankshaft

Really not an expert an this but after some mistakes 10 years ago I am really attempting to do this "by the book", see it's on the table :-)
Obsessive compulsive will be the key !

Started by putting the block on the engine stand and having all the parts set on the table.
We used the best crankshaft, it was ground 20 under.

First step was to install the lower part of the bearing. Hole needs to align withe the one in the block for oil supply. Using assembly lube on all bearings. Bearings are at 20 over to match the crankshaft.

Then gently dropped the crank in there, put plastigage.
Install the other part of the bearing and housing and torque (65)

Note that the bearing caps can't be mixed up and have directions. There were machined in place so that everything aligns perfectly.

Checking the plastigage we are at 0.0015 sounds good. Had a bit of a scare as it seemed very narrow but once I wiped the assembly oil I could see it was wider.

Then onto thrust washers, these fell of the first engine I disassembled and I had no idea where the came from or the purpose. They are here to control the lateral position of the crank.

You can buy them oversize as I had no idea I bought std, +5 and +10.

See what these look like.

Checking the float here. You lever left and right and see how much it moves

 Was at 8 tho. wich is the end limit so in the end I put the +5 on the outside and the std on the inside, bringing me to 5 tho. of float.

Oiled the cylinders and onto next step !

Spitfire gearbox prep

Started to prepare the transmission while the engine was being machined.

Peeked inside and it doesn't look too bad. Apart from quite a bit of metal particles collected on the magnet. Will probably need to revisit later for synchros...

Wanted to replace the seals so that at least it doesn't leak on the garage floor. Had to remove the flange for the rear one. Had to use the usual amount of penetrating oil + heat + impact gun.

See my "red neck" technique for locking the flange into place. 

Once removed, pulled out the old seal and pushed new one in with a large socket.

I was surprised to hear there is no seal at the front on these ones, just a screw type mechanism to push the oil away. So don't park your car nose down on a hill !

Used the clutch fork that had the least amount of play and fitted the new clutch bearing.

My technique for removing the old bearing. It's simply pushed in.

Final result, I have to admit the biggest pain was cleaning and painting the bellhousing. 30 years of oil took a while to clean. Hence my obsession with seals, the new one has to remain clean !

Spitfire engine rebuild, part 1 - Machining

Engine had been completely disassembled to realize that the bore measures at around 40 sometimes 60 over. So I decided to use the block from the parts car that was within spec (2.900).

My parts car came with a rebuilt head but it turns out that one is from a later car with the air injection for pollution and different compression so we'll just use it for some of the parts.

Still with the plan to do everything myself I ordered all the parts and will be doing the assembly but there are some things you just can't do yourself such as machining the block.

Went for the big package and it's a lot of machine work (so it's expensive... this one is for my wife :-) ). Doesn't really make sense to spend so much time and money then skip one of the items.
- Block deck + bore at 20 over
- Grind crankshaft at 20 under
- Recondition rods
- Install cam bearings
- Align hone block
- Deck head + Install guides and hardened seats on exhaust valves
- A few helicoils for the pan
- Grind the flywheel

Check out that photo lots of shiny parts, so exciting !
Starting to fall in love with my engine :-) We'll see if that lasts the week end after assembly.

Steering wheel

After yesterday's post I had to show this for the final result and motivation !

Spitfire steering column and bushes

Not been posting every day but I have been busy !

The steering wheel is back on the car and it should be not much appart from cleaning and painting... normally...
Well, i had my usual lot of troubles :
- the bushes were really hard to get out. Drilled the plastic part but still required too much banging to get out. Had to use a large metal bar with the right size socket. Next time i wont bother and just push them inside, cant hurt.
- in fact the column was bent. Had to mix and match with the parts car. This parts car has been a life savior really.
- tightened everything to the right torque, important so the steering column can collapse properly in case of an accident.

Triumph spitfire heater box

The spitfire heater presents a few fun challenges :
1. Some of the parts have become unavailable or extremely pricey.
2. From its exposure to the elements and potentials it has a lot of rust after 40+ years
3. It is in an awkard location and many have to come out to grant access so you want this done right not to have to revisit.

Let's look at this point by point :

1. Luckily i had 3 used boxes and had to mix and match parts to make a good one. Only one of the 3 heater cores had no leak (tested submerged in water with air pressure). One of the 3 had a stronger and nicer working flap system. Had had a good motor.

2. Cleaned the rust and sprayed gloss black. Now as i said it is exposed to the elements so you want to try to get the seals replaced but they aren't made anymore. Escpecially the one that fit around the entry / exit hose. The old ones have become hard and brittle and resemble cookies that have forgotten in the closet. In the end i made my own using house pipe insulation and it looks good and seems functional. Used window seal tape to create the seal around the fan hole.
But double sided foam tape as well where the core touches the body as the original one had clearly disintegrated.

3. Install and pray

Photo below of the heater ready to be installed, tada !

Homemade camshaft handle

Pretty happy with my homemade camshaft handle for the spitfire.

Just a fat washer with 2 holes drilled for the bolts and rod welded onto it.

Major milestone !

The body is back on the chassis !
I know, i know... it still doesn't look like much of a car but believe me this is a major step (i might have dreamt of it these past few months).

The underneath, the inside and the firewall have been painted Triumph royal blue, the original color of the car.

Thank you Tyler and Jussi for giving me a hand unloading from the trailer.

Spitfire body tub mounting points

Exciting, I prepared all the nuts and bolts for the tub coming back tomorrow.

This might come in handy, here are all the connecting points and what they look like in real life :

Spitfire overdrive retrofit, part 2 - The support plate

Telling the story as i make progress.

You will need a different support plate because the gearbox silent bloc is different on the overdrive.

Made one out of 1/8 steel or you could buy one from the usual suspects.

One thing that I did not think of is that the original plate is lowered on the rubber mounting point. Would not have thought of that but a trick i was suggested is to mount the plate underneath (thank you Thomas)

See the photo with the old plate sitting on the right for comparison.

Installing and greasing the spitfire universal joints

Not a job I especially like. I somehow always end up putting grease everywhere (everywhere i dont want it like tools, hands and bench).

Now i have had a few "deja vu" while doing this :

1. Struggling to remove and install the new ones and telling myself it would have been just impossible without a press and flanges in this condition.

2. Installing the new UJ, putting the lockring on one side and wondering if i have the wrong size it really looked like the lockring would never go on the other side. It does eventually go in after more fiddling and pressure....

3. Using the grease nipple and gun after install and wondering why i simply didnt put lots of fresh grease inside before installing since it was all dismantled. Would have been easier, faster and cleaner.

Anyway, a good thing done. As well you can see on the photo, not leaving the grease nipple on but using these little screw plug.

Oh and driveshaft has been balanced and received a special treatment, more in a different post...