Trimph Spitfire first car!

[Agrispeed]

Sorry for the delay, bt I've been enjoying the weather!

Bought everything to do the trunnions, went to do them and found them full of grease... Balls... I've pumped some more in now and I am considering my options. New trunnions seem to be around £95 a side so I would rather aviod that...

Drove past a BMW 2002 full of (classy) girls the other day, what a pleasent suprise!

[hoppo4.2]

If I remember correctly the front trunnions should be lubed with oil not grease

[Spitfire2]

Whip the uprights off and post a close up of the threads (top end). At the same time you can clean out the grease. It's not necessarily a sign that the uprights are doomed.

[Spitfire2]

Chic Doig has a few good condition ex-California uprights ..... Probably less than half the price of new ones and more likely to fit properly. Some recently made new ones don't fit great e.g brake calliper holes

[Agrispeed]

Ok, trunnions are currently on hold, but thanks for the advice. There is a new and bigger issue on the car currently, for some reason the head gasket is leaking oil, along with the dipstick, which is running down the engine and creating the occasional slight bits of smoke in the cabin as it drips on the hot exhaust. Not ideal. :anger:

I have also just noticed some mayo in the filler cap.

I checked the torque on the head bolts, which whilst slightly loose were not excessively (although the loosest was on the back left - where the oil was mainly leaking from) however bolt number 1 wont tighten, and feels like lit is not catching the tread properly.

So gentlemen, how do I best fix this?

Do I redo the head gasket, which will take a few hours, and the head stud? how do I stop the dipstick leaking?

been running well for a while, but irritatingly I did need the car this weekend. Oh well.

As always thanks for the advice.

[Spitfire2]

Agrispeed said:

Ok, trunnions are currently on hold, but thanks for the advice. There is a new and bigger issue on the car currently, for some reason the head gasket is leaking oil, along with the dipstick, which is running down the engine and creating the occasional slight bits of smoke in the cabin as it drips on the hot exhaust. Not ideal. :anger:

I have also just noticed some mayo in the filler cap.

I checked the torque on the head bolts, which whilst slightly loose were not excessively (although the loosest was on the back left - where the oil was mainly leaking from) however bolt number 1 wont tighten, and feels like lit is not catching the tread properly.

So gentlemen, how do I best fix this?

Do I redo the head gasket, which will take a few hours, and the head stud? how do I stop the dipstick leaking?

been running well for a while, but irritatingly I did need the car this weekend. Oh well.

As always thanks for the advice.

Its practically standard for a spitty to have a slight leak at the very back of the head gasket (well lots do).

But if you have oil coming out of the dipstick tube that's caused by pressure building up in the crankcase.

So possibilities for this are

1. Head Gasket has gone inside as well as out. Head off job.
2. Piston rings screwed allowing excessive blow by.
3. Breather (tube coming from rocker cover) blocked .... or disconnected from carbs. The vacuum from the carbs to the breather tube helps quite a lot to keep the oil in the engine as it keeps the crankcase pressure low.

Last one is the cheapest and easiest.

For the others check for oil in water or vice versa (might have neither) and do a compression test on each cylinder.

[Agrispeed]

Quick update.

I checked the breather etc, which was fine, so did a compression test. front cylinder had a reading of around 130, which is pretty good, but it tailed off as it went backwards, down to 30PSI at the back.

So head is now off, and my middle head nut has stripped for some reason. I have a full head gasket set, sump gasket and 2 studs and nuts now ready to be fitted (better than getting one)

Now a question, what is the easiest was to remove a head stud that might possibly have a damaged stud? I didn't actually check if it was however.

there is actually very little carbon on the head and it looks healthy enough, but I can only work on the car a few hours each evening so progress is maddeningly slow. oh well, nice to be able to do some work on the car...

[Spitfire2]

If you can get 2 nuts on just use them as lock nuts and unscrew the stud with a spanner.

If not there are various stud extractors available on eBay.

[Agrispeed]

well the head is back on the car and it went smoothly enough, except for a slight hiccup with needing new dizzy pedestal studs (but i ordered a needed battery clamp at the same time) and all is well and good...

EXCEPT... there is still oil being blown out of the side of the head on the conrod side (mainly on the back corner) and from the dipstick/rocker cover cap. It is a little better however. The piston rings looked ok to me. gasses do escape from the cap when you take it off however.

I did find a slightly collapsed breather tube when i took it apart a few mins ago. Could this cause such an issue?

I'm getting to wits end with this problem now.

Just to add - the plugs didnt show signs of burning oil, and the car used very little in general (untill this fault) It also happens at higher revs more (well duh!). I suspect the fumes coming into the car are from the over pressure.

Edited by Agrispeed on Sunday 11th August 20:56

[Agrispeed]

Oops, just to add, it sounds tappety (sic) as hell, but the tappets are all correctly set. I heard this can also be part of excessive pressure is this true? i intend to compression test it tomorrow, wet and dry and see what happens.

[rolymo]

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but I think you have already diagnozed your current dilemma with tappets/ compression etc! back on page 5 (photo of rockers)without realizing the significance of the signs. If you look to the adjustment screws of each rocker and compare the degree of thread used in every case there is a wide variation, particularly on number 4 cyl(intake valve)which arrears to be double nutted (very bad sign) :- this indicates severe camshaft lobe or cam follower surface collapse, giving you very reduced lift at the valve seat, also indicated by the very low compression on No4 cyl due to drastically decreased intake of fuel/air into that cyl. By adjusting the valve clearences you have masked the problem so in order to clarify the situation it is necessary check the lift at rocker end with a DTI (dial test indicator) This is a fairly comman problem brought about by 1, old age 2. driving away instantly before giving the oil time to circulate,3 poor quality reprofiled camshaft with poor "case- hardening"and finally there has been a reduction in the quality control of replacemrnt camfollowers in the last few years. It is quite involved changing these parts so buy a Haynes Manual and read it up before getting into this job.
Photo:- My first Spitfire at Curborough sprint in the early 60's

[rolymo]

Had loads of Spitfires over the years, so many, I sort of lost track of the different varieties, shapes and sizes. The photo following depicts a customized version from the mid 60's fitted with 6cylinder motor and O/D transmission.The hard-top is a permanant fitting with a "Kamm type" kick at the back. I enjoyed using the car but it did not produce much acclaim from other motor enthusiasts at the time (mid 60's)

[Agrispeed]

Thanks for the advice - ill lOok into it.

Currently somewhat healthier- the main issue appeared to be a blocked/collapsed breather tube and a stuck pressure valve, it's much better now.

The double nutted rocker is because the bottom nut has been stripped. Not my modification but I've left it for now.

Ideally I would like to run the car Untill it's very poorly and then rebuild over winter. It's tricky to do though, as the black dashboard mkIV cars had mk3 camshafts etc.

Thanks for the help everyone, much appriecated!

[rolymo]

Your comments regarding the cylinder heads studs is interesting,in years gone by, so called mechanics would rebuild these engines without using torque wrenches just by guess work and would invariably stretch the bolts again and again ,untill finally they gave out, they were always "Iffy" even when new. So don't be a
cheap skate, just change the set and nuts !! you just don't know how many times they have been tortured before.
Photo:- bit of a play with paint for Custom-Car ?

[rolymo]

The blocked breather and faulty pre-valve would not account for the huge discrepency in the compression readings and you mentioned originally (before you reset the clearances)that the push-rods did not seat correctly in the rockers. This is a sure sign of cam-lobe failure. Don't bother with a std replacement camshaft it is much better go for specialist provider like :- "P----r Cams" for a far superior product, they will supply assembly lub and technical support to help you "break the cam in" which is a very important procedure.

[Agrispeed]

rolymo said:

The blocked breather and faulty pre-valve would not account for the huge discrepency in the compression readings and you mentioned originally (before you reset the clearances)that the push-rods did not seat correctly in the rockers. This is a sure sign of cam-lobe failure. Don't bother with a std replacement camshaft it is much better go for specialist provider like :- "P----r Cams" for a far superior product, they will supply assembly lub and technical support to help you "break the cam in" which is a very important procedure.

Yes, but I replaced the head gasket - one of the head studs had failed, meaning that cylinder 3-4 was losing pressure between head and block. New stud, new gasket, seems better now. Oil leak alongside the head has gone, just need to remember to tighten after a few miles now! If all is healthy the next spend will be on tyres as mine are pretty cracked - However, most places only seem to do superecosave things in the size. what does everyone use?

[rolymo]

Good source of information concerning the use of tyres on older sports,this guy is very helpful and knows his stuff, what you might call a rubber "GURU" :-www.longstonetyres.co.uk

[Agrispeed]

Ok, tyres look good, I will probably order them over winter. Many thanks

my breather pipe has been bodged with slightly too small pipes after the Y-piece for now, better but its still got too much pressure. I could go down the easy route and fit the correct pipes...but... I've heard that some people recommend fitting a drain bottle and instead of routing through the carbs, which could solve my issues - as long as there is enough of a vacuum (although it was ok with the pipe off). I could do the more expensive option of fitting a PCV valve to the manifold, as in the MKII, If it would improve the car. Does anyone have any experience or ideas?

Went for a nice drive the other day, exploring the small (and I mean small) lanes around home, and enjoying getting thoroughly lost for a while

[Spitfire2]

Don't remove the breather connection to the carbs completely. The carb vacuum helps keep crankcase pressure down. Without that on anything other than a brand new perfect engine you will have oil leaks popping up in all sorts of places.

I do have a catch can but the output from that routes back to the carbs.

[New POD]

My first car was a spitfire. It didn't take long for me to realise that my dad knew nothing about cars. I was 17, and he 'inspected' it for me.

I have to say it was the sttist "ringer", that I've ever had occasion to come across.

I can't think of anything that was actually right with the car I had.

Even 30 years of wearing rose tints, won't let me get beyond that.

It taught me everything I know about fixing cars, so if you've bought a good example, and you look after it, you'll know everything I know eventually.

Nice colour by the way. Mine was magenta,