Hi all,
Well, it started to drizzle today which interrupted my afternoon of leafblowing
(darn! ;) ), so I thought I'd finally take a look inside the Midget engine on
the stand to asses it's condition. Good news is I think everything looks OK
(which is something of a change - everything else on this car that I thought
was OK turned out to need major overhaul from neglect). Anyway, I wanted to
share what I found, and ask your advice on my plan.
BLOCK: I can still see crosshatches in all 4 cylinders. There is no perceptible
ridge at the top of the bores, though there is a thin film of carbon deposits
on the piston crowns an at the top of the bores.
TAPPETS AND PUSHRODS: Pushrods all are straight. About half the tappets look
real good, three have some small areas of pitting, and the #6 tappet had
pitting all around its circumference. None had any longitudinal grooves. Should
I replace them?
HEAD: the combustion chambers were also coated with a thin layer of carbon. #2
and #3 Exhaust valves were light tan on their faces.Surprisingly, a quick tap
with a hammer and a block of wood was all that was needed to loosen the head.
Now that I have it off, should I replace the head studs, or can I reuse them?
The plan right now is to replace all the bottom end bearings (it's a 1500,
that's preventative maintenance) and pin the thrust washers to the crank. I'm
putting twin SUs on (HS4), and a 4-2-1 header (Spitfire guys suggestion). I'm
also thinking of swapping the pistons for 9:1 flat-top pistons that were the
standard UK installation.
Anything else I should keep in mind?
TIA
-=Chris
Chris King - cbking@alum.rpi.edu
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kvcbk/
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