I had to rebuild the engine

This was a problem that I had put of for years. As I never covered many miles ( sometimes the car did not turn a wheel for 2 years) I left the problem. This was a lack of thrust washer and a very worn crank and case. I would estimate 3mm travel. Yeah, and it still went until eventually I could not get a gear due to the pressure falling away from the clutch with the excess travel.
So I pulled the engine out in my drive and sent it for repair. I then ordered new main bearings, big end bearings, oversized thrust washer, new rings, valve guides and gaskets. I also got the head skimmed as the triple webbers like high compression. Oh yeah, and a new flywheel as the starter had chewed up the old one as a direct result of the crank moving forward and pulling the wheel out of alignment with the bendix.  Had the valves all done and so on. I got the short motor back and rebuilt the engine in my garage. I also took the opportunity to tidy the engine bay.  Some fresh paint and laquer and even polished the brake and clutch lines. Painted the inlet manifold and silly stuff. I put it all back together, set the timing, tuned the carbs and she is running better than ever. I just covered 500 miles and got 25 miles to the gallon! Is that amazing or wot. With triple 40 DCOE webbers no less. Obviously that was me cruising. But still, great.

ok well its time to get this thing out and start rebuilding and cleaning.

managed to get everything out. I decided at this point to leave the gearbox in place but later decided to get it out, clean it and put the engine and box in together as a single unit.

The engine bay was covered in wax oil. I tried a few methods to remove this but it turned out that Nitro and elbow grease and many rags were the only answer

the front cross member and other parts were covered in oil and dirt. Plenty cleaning to be done

some of the ancillary parts ready for cleaning. Oh yeah I also renewed the clutch master cylinder



cleaning has gone well and a few coats of paint and lacquer and then some polishing to get it looking ready for the engine

new clutch fitted to the new fly wheel. Gearbox cleaned and new oil added

nice rust free flooring

ok, engine time now I reckon

went in easy and now all the ancillary parts go in

exhaust on, carbs on, brake and clutch lines done

oh it does look better now does it not

after looking at the clutch slave cylinder I decided it would work better by using washers to space it and push the piston half way in. In my opinion this makes it work more efficiently.



finished and out for its running in. And she is running like a Swiss watch.