Hard to believe it has been over two weeks since our last installment! So much has been going on but it is all "unbloggable" stuff such as; I e-mailed Josh at British Wiring and found out that I should have my wire harness by the end of this coming week. More parts painting and sorting, which many of you are bored of seeing so I did not post about it. One quick parts order to Moss Motors and a quick long weekend away with the family rounds out the absence.
Last evening I got a chance to visit Chris in his secret tucked away barn lair to see the motor. I am happy to see that it was all in pieces and every part is getting inspected.
First, here is the story of the transmission. As you can see there is a thick layer of gunky oil sludge in the bottom of the case. This illustrates the lack of maintenance and abuse this engine has had throughout its 50.929 total mileage life so far! The gunk actually smelled burnt, which was weird!
A couple of bearings exploded but did surprisingly little damage to the gears.
The layshaft has to be replaced as it has been scored in two places. Also, the gear syncho (below it in the picture) was totally worn out. If I remember correctly, I think it was for 1st gear, which is typical.
Chris likes to used a canned ham can to store the bits and pieces. I use a plastic Chinese food container myself. To each his own.
The good news is that everything is fixable or replaceable and it could have been much worse! Here is Chris's operating table in his inner sanctum, a place where very few people get to see!
The lower side of the block shows the crankshaft in good condition. The block and the head will be brought to a machine shop to be tested and inspected. Then we will know how much it will have to be bored out.
It was already bored 10 over once in its life. So it may be bored 20 over (from original) by the time all is said and done. No, I am not going to have it bored 40 over as all my friends suggest!
Chris laid out the exploded oil pump. "Here is your four piece oil pump", he said. He figured that the lack of oil pressure to the transmission was part of the reason the bearings blew. Well that, and that these BMC 1100 motors start practically dry with no oil in the system for the first five seconds or so until oil pressure builds up.
More big bits and pieces. When the head goes to the shop this week for inspection and compression testing, we will probably have new exhaust valves installed so Old Biddy can run on unleaded fuel.
And one last "guts shot".... The old diff pin will be changed out because there is "a bit of slop" in the gears. The new one, which already arrived in my first parts order delivery, should take care of that.
It was an interesting visit. I was expecting all bad news but Chris assured me that once the motor is rebuilt, life will be good again. Now I have another list of parts to order (more "unbloggable" stuff to do). I hope the wire harness gets here as promised this week then I can install it! At least I can see some real progress at last!
Thanks for visiting!
Toddy
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