Off with her head!

Molly's rattling valve gear has finally spurred me into acton - her head has been removed! I have a new (second hand) set of rockers, new tappits and pushrods. The reason for this is that the rattling noise can only get worse (they always get worse) and the only way to investigate to to get the spanners out.

this is what happens when you cross the Queen of Hearts

Once the rockers were off, I noticed a fair amount of sideways play on one of them so I am (probably) vindicated on this course of action. Anyway once the head was off, I got a chance to take a look at the head. Its a 12G295 spec casting as used on some (proper) mini coopers. And boy does it make a difference. Lots more torque and a generally smoother run. I got it from eBay a good while ago, and had it refurbished with new valve guides and hardened seats so it was in good nick. I had difficulty remenbering when I fitted it but the power of blogs is such that a little searching and it was way back in 2006. Now cylinder heads should last longer than 4 years, and she has been laid up for a lot of that time, however most of the journeys have been short ones to the shops which are't good for engines. So we have a bit of a carbon build up...

a little dark on #3 I think...

It looks as though #3 cylinder is a bit over rich for some reason too (either that or the rings are shot, but the blackening doesn't feel greasy so I'm going with rich).

decoke please

Finally I took a look at the old pushrods and found a little nipple on the end of each one. Now I'm pretty sure they are not supposed to be like that. A new set of pushrods and cam followers (thats what tappets are supposed to be called you know...) should fix this, but I just hope there is nothing else untoward which is causing this problem.

nipples - the bad kind

Shovannagans

So its looks as though spring is here. There are daffodils, and lots less snow and even some sunshine, so what do all classic car loving people do on a sunny Sunday afternoon? Well they go off to the beach in their camper vans. I took it as a bit of an opportunity for a shakedown after the winter work. The snag list so far has been:

• fuel leak (easily sorted, tightened up the hose clip)
• indicators failed (wiggled some wires)
• strange noise from the front (move the number plate)

so we were ready to go. The van does look pretty tidy after the winter's fettling (the paint work is still very tired though). Oh and the radio went down very well too.

I finally got a chance to trial fit the new cupboard doors too. They still need to be stained/varnished, but don't look too bad. The grille cover is a bit too tall though.



Anyway back to the beach. We headed off in plenty of time, however there was an accident on the Forth Road bridge which caused a massive tail back. Then it started to go wrong, when I tried to move out of the way of the police car attending the scene, she stalled and wouldn't re-start so we had to push her (shovevannagans - geddit?!). A classic case of fuel vaporisation. A couple more stops and re-starts and we were at south Queensferry enjoying the quay and ice cream. So now I have to sort the fuel vaporisation problem. There are a few things I could do - particularly re-routing the fuel lines, maybe fitting braided hoses and even an electric fan - but I had better get it sorted quick now the season has started!

that fuel filter being there doesn't help.