When I removed the head a couple of years ago, cylinder no4 was shiny whereas the other 3 were carbonised. "steam cleaned" is what someone here commented at the time. I am worrired that , depite the smooth tickover and excellent performance of the engine at all speeds, that this my be occuring again.

Is that possible when the engine is running so well? 

I would wellcome some ideas of what to look out for. It has an after market aluminium rad , by the way.

Gruß / regards

Antonia

this morning I replaced the dfiaphragm on my friends 2000 Mk2 AC fuel pump.

I noticed when I removed thepipe from the tank that NO fuel was running out.
I have blown down the pipe and it is not block (solid).  I can suck fuel up the pipe from the tank and it continues to dribble while I refit the pipe.
On restart I may get one or two pulses of fuel but then it stops.
I have jacked the back of the car up but still no flow.

Any help will be most appreciated.

Roger

My name is Claude, I am 67 years old and I live in France in Ardèche.

I have long admired the Triumph Herald and Vitesse.

I leave it to you because I have finally found a model at an affordable price at 67 years old.

It is a 1963 Speed with a 6cyl 1600cc engine

I would like to ask you what are the main things to check on this model.

Can you guide me in this quest?

Thanks Mark

The engine did not have all water hoses fitted, not sure why. It did have the fuel hoses and throttle / choke cables connected so I think it must have been running in this car. Regrettably I did not have the chance to speak to the seller at the time.

What I forgot to check is if there was an overdrive unit fitted as many Spitfire have these.

By having a Spitfire engine, would this also mean it has a Spitfire gearbox? Are these different to a Herald gearbox or can these swopped easily?

The 1500 engine has much more power (71 bhp instead of 48) and a bit more torque (82 lb-ft against 77). I am also reading (Wiki) that this engine "was rather rough" compared to earlier versions.

So, is this a worthwile engine to have in a Herald? I seem to remember that in a Spitfire, the last 1300 engines were the best, to be preferred compared to the 1500 but am now not sure why.

I cleaned out all the tiny holes in the "choke" mechanism on the first carb. Sprayed all the holes with carb cleaner.
There is no fuel getting from the choke mechanism through the transparent fuel line to the rear carb. Is that a clue?

Once started, it runs like a dream and idles nice.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
Pete

I'm replacing the fuel hoses and pipes on my Spitfire. It's a MkIV but has a 1500 engine. 

I'm using an Automec E10 safe kit and was initially thrown as the pipes currently on my car go around the pancake filter with an offshoot into the rear carb (see below pictures, main pipes in green on picture 2 with the offshoot in red), but the pipe to go round the carbs in the kit doesn't have an offshoot. 

Looking online it appears to me that the fuel lines should run directly into the rear float chamber, and then around the air filters, and then into front float chamber, as per below:

However, when i took off the float chamber lid from the rear carb, I discovered that what I thought should be a hole all the way through was blocked in the middle, and I have a copper pipe protruding from the short section of the T:

I also discovered that the float chamber was bone dry...although the car has been sat for 10 months, so I assume any fuel in there could have evaporated in that time??

So, my question is, can anyone please explain to me how I should set up the fuel pipes?? I'm planning to remove the old branched pipe as I am installing new factory filters and an airbox too. 

Hope this all makes sense!!

Nick

A winter project I have is tearing down a spare 1147 old GA engine without any compression suffix for usable bits to learn on before I tackle my alive engine. I have encountered a curiosity on the piston rings, the second compression ring is fit with two thinner indepentant rings, I'll snag a picture later.

Could this just be that the previous rebuild didn't have the right rings to hand, or is there some advantage or configuration option that has two in that slot?

I have had two thoughts. 

1.leave it inplace and cut a slot in the shims to go over the key.

2. Put some heat on the crank shaft to see if it will loosen it. But I am concerned what damage to the shaft or any seals heat might do.

Any suggestions on the above or other suggestions to remove it.

Thanks Mark 

In the winter months despite blocking off half the radiator it never gets beyond a quarter on the gauge.

Im happy with the operation of the 88 degree thermostat, the gauge and sender all check out, the car runs perfectly with the ignition timing set at about 13 BTDC

The consequences of this is that in the winter months I get a degree of emulsification in the rocker cover which never occurs in the summer. It doesn't lose water and there is no evidence of water in the oil, only the emulsification in the winter months.

Any thoughts?

https://www.jamespaddock.co.uk/fan-blades-bush-mount-set-polyurethane-3

Mine need urgent replacement, as you can see😟

Gary 

When using the manual pump handle, petrol is fed through to the carbs no problem but once the bowls are full and i try to run using the mechanical pump arm fed by the camshaft there is no further fuel delivered. 

We have removed the pump and if manually pumping the the arm for the camshaft at a fast speed, it will deliver fuel. to find out if the mechanical arm was working with the camshaft, we painted the underside of the arm with tippex to find out what was occurring. After spinning over the engine for a number of turns, we removed the pump again and found that only the tip of the arm was making contact with the cam.

Amazon have a electric pump for around £15 which provides 4-7 psi...

Any comments please

Mike

Has it been tried?

Currently the tank is now reinstalled and connected through to the manual pump (which I know works and is new). After putting 2 x petrol cans of fuel into the tank, I cannot get fuel to arrive at the pump. On previous suggestions, I have removed the petrol cap but make no difference and have played with the reserve switch but to no avail. I have now disconnected the hose from the top of the tank (feed pipe) and have connected an airline to it, I have disconnected the hose to the pump and and air has easily passed from one end to another , so I am happy there is no blockage from back to front.

My next move is purchasing a syphon for 2 things:

A. attach the syphon to the feed pipe of the tank and see if i can get fuel out that way.

B. put the syphon hose in the tank via the filling neck and remove all the fuel, then remove the sender unit to get a visual on what is going on inside.

Last resort is to remove the tank, but what then????

Your views please....

I'm rebuilding my 13/60 head (unconverted) and lapping the valves in. Dropping the valve on some engineers blue gives a nice even blue ring.

Reinstalling the valve springs and plug, turning the head over and filling with water - then applying compressed air gives some bubbles.

My supply is about 100psi. If I inject it about 2 inch from the port I'm okay. Inserting the nozzle into the port I get a slow stream of bubbles, and blocking the port with a rag I get a lot.

So my question is, am I just lifting the valve on air? Are my springs weak, or do I need to lap some more? Or am I just asking too much of this little old head!?

I suppose the best answer will be the compression test.

Cheers,

Richard 

But is this really the solution or perhaps something worse?

the can starts easily on choke but will not run when you push the choke in, it cuts out but will restart easy enough. Used the car for a show a few weeks back and once the temperature gauge was sitting in the middle the car would run (this was after a run of about 4 mile. 
 

when we used it the needed a run of about the same distance to run properly with no choke.

previously you only started the car on choke and it ran fine almost straight away.

any ideas what could be wrong or what I need to check

Does anyone know if the rebuild/overhaul kits contain all you need? Specifically I'm asking about orings/bushings for the throttle shaft in each carb housing? As in my case its weeping from the shaft output.

For a mk2 Triumph GT6 by the way.