Clive

You could get a heritage certificate giving all the build details, that should confirm exactly how it left the factory https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/archive/heritage-certificates

I though about solid bar, but I prefer to keep a weak point. I am wondering what the weak link would be? I am thinking maybe the nylon speedo drive in the gearbox? Or the speedo cable? But as I seem to have a good supply of old speedo cables, cutting the ends off works nicely. I have used a few methods of fitting, including JB weld. All seem to work.

Don't chuck the old angle drive away. They can be repaired with a little time and effort. And an old speedo cable...

Exactly the same. Except I got 3 used ones for £30 from a bike breaker, all genuine OEM pumps. Once primed, they are very quiet. And nice low pressure. When I fit the Strombergs I will go exactly that. The car is now in London. Molly has borrowed it, and left an unwell MX5 on our drive. (Big end gone, a common issue on the mk3 cars. Decision is now repair or sell the car as a fixer upper. TBA when we get back off our hols)

Transit centre bearing will fit witha little work, and is available for about £30 as a genuine ford part. I fitted one to my car as better than using a repro version. But Alun is a very decent chap, and should provide you with something decent as he seems to have plenty of bits and bobs.

Nothing that isn't bolt-on! Ah, I hadn't mentioned the issues. Jon (the PO) had been having issues with fuel vapourisation for a while. Plus teh car took an age to start unless you manually primed the fuel. Last week we popped to London in the Vitesse, all fine except when we came off the M25 and had to wait at a roundabout. 2 mins later the car conked out, symptoms of running out of fuel (gauge was nearly on the red) Chucked the spare gallon in, manually pumped the fuel and off we went. 500 yards, next roundabout, dead as a dodo. Got out, fuel was bubbling in the pump, which was very hot. I poured a litre of water over the pump, primed, and we were then OK. I am hoping this little electric pump will do the business. If so, I will fit the same to the dolly and still have a spare (to carry on whatever trip we are on)

Today I had a go at the Vitesse. I have bought some used, but OEM fuel pumps from a yamaha motor bike, about 120bhp so should work well. Main issue is that they have 10mm inlet and out, so made some adaptors but cutting lengths of 6 8 and 10mm copper tube and soldering together. Fitted up next to the fuel tank, wired in and once I had primed the pump (amusingly by blowing into the tank filler with the carb feed disconnected) it pumped beautifully, and they are a lovely low pressure pump. Nice and quiet too. I had given teh points a reface with some fine emery paper, but I am impessed so far. I then re routed teh engine bay peipework, and removed the mechanical fuel pump. That should help keep teh fuel system rather cooler. A 4mm thick (what I had) ali plate was cut to blank the fuel pump hole. All runs nicely, though no chance to thoroughly test yet. So far it is looking good.

I have been thinking (or trying to remember!) what I have in my dolomite and that came from my spitfire. I made a similar adaptor that used the large type radiator switch, and fitted in teh bottom radiator hose (which is MUCH more convenient on a spitfire etc as it has a decent straight section) I can check the temp rating later, but a sensor in the bottom hose is set lower than the top hose as the temp drop is about 5-6 degress from inlet to bottom. I bought a couple of those hose adaptors for VERY little money off ebay as I needed to have 1/2" takeoff (drilled it out a tad and tapped to take a hose fitting) and they are great. There will be a huge range of temperatures for fan switches available.

On temp will depend on what thermostat you have fitted. You don't want it coming on before the thermostat is fully open, and really about 5 degrees above that. Most people have an 82 degree stat fitted all year (though some will have the winter stat at 88 fitted) so setting the fan to come on at 88-90 will be about right in most cases. Plan B is to work out where teh temp gauge sits during normal use once warmed up. If bang in the middle of the gauge, I would suggest having the fan come on when it reaches 3/4.

In can't see why not, as long as it is a GL4 specification In terms of recommendation, I have been using either Comma or Millers 80/90 GL4 spec oil for about 30 years in gearboxes and diffs. Seems to work well enough, although my Ford T9 gearbox uses 75/90 semi synthetic GL4 oil. I have bene tempted to use that in my Triumph boxes, but then think "what is the advantage?" GL4 is essential NOT GL5. GL5 is too slippery for the synchos to work correctly.

Ah, I see what you are getting at. If you were happy with the engine performance, a std skim/unleaded conversion and pop it all back together But adding power is really a package deal. "Better" cam needs a higher compression, the Toledo is very low (8.5?) so no harm it getting that up a bit even with the std cam.

The Dolomite club is ( I think) the only place to get a new exhaust. They had started making tubular manifolds too, but no idea how successful there are. However, you basic plan to improve the engine is sound. Get the compression to 9.5, and use a better cam, the mk3 spit is a good choice. A pair of SUs won't make a noticable difference to power. What may be better is a single SU HS6.

A quick update. Yesterday I wasn't working (which is unusual this time of year) and Pete popped down so we had a poke around the Dolomite. Yes, the thermostat housing had lost the "stub" that the header tank connects to. I extracted it from the hose, and it was in a dreadful state. I didn't realise they were ali, I had assumed they were steel. Anyway, popped the housing off, pulled the thermostat (correct type, with a foot) and tested that. All worked fine. Rummaged in the garage, and found a brass union. Could be some sort of fuel pipe union, no idea, but threaded at both ends. However, it was bigger than 1/2", my largest tap/die. So popped it in a drill, and ran it against my bench grinder as a makeshift lathe. The other end reduced to the same diameter as the original little pipe. Cut a 1/2" thread, then drilled out the housing, tapped and wound the fitting in. I did cut a thread on the pipe end too, to stop it popping off. Fitted it back on the car with a new gasket, started filling with water aaaaand..... rad bottom hose had a split by the hose clip. The rest of teh hose looks/feels OK, so trimmed it, and bingo, no leaks. And so it was time to start the car up. No drama, it ran fine, no signs of the expected HGF. However, I was unhappy with the Kenlow fan wiring. The terminal on the fusebox was getting VERY hot. And I have a huge dislike for the kenlow controllers. So drained the rad and fitted a OE type sensor in the bottom rad hose. A bit of wring, and used a relay unlike the previous chap. Ran the car up to temp, and the fan now cuts in just below 3/4 on the gauge with no overheating connections. Guess I need to drain it down and fill with coolant rather than plain water, a job for later this week. Onto the Vitesse with the incontinent clutch master cylinder. A simple swap to the 5/8 brake master cylinder I removed a few weeks ago and job done. All this by 4pm, including extra guests for the Saturday fry-up lunch, many cups of tea and a visit from a neighbour for a chat. Happy days.

Just home from teh Silverstone Festival. The whole family had a great time. But it was not without incident! The Spitfire just did its thing, and worked fine. The Vitesse was looking to be faultless, but has developed an incontinent clutch master cylinder. Topped up regularly so it got home OK. I have some spare used cylinders, and some new seal kits so no real problems except time. The Dolomite. Lucy was using this, but rewind to earlier in the week. My handler had taken it oiut shopping and to fill it with fuel. When she got home it was apparently making some odd gurgling noises. I checked, and the water level was low, and then I was told the fuel gauge and indicators were not working. A quick fuse check revealed a fuse that was intact but not carrying current as one end was burnt. This end had the wiring for the Kenlow fan attached. A fresh fuse, let the engine cool a bit, filled with hot water (lots more gurgling) and ran it up. All seemed well, the fan cut in and out. Took it out, all good. Tjhursday eve, Lucy picked teh car up to take home in London, and was back in 5 mins. Indicators not working. Fuse had heat damage as before, so I rigged a supply with a fuse direct from the battery for the fan, all seemed well. She got home a let me know it was fine. Friday luchtime they left home, and within 30 mins it was steaming. Fan not working. They bypassed the fuse from the fan circuit, let it cool, topped up and 10 mins later it was worse. Luckily by a pib just before they joined teh M40. I suggested they got recovered back to my place, swapped cars and join us, which they did after a nights sleep in a proper bed in a warm house (we were camping, it was flippin chilly) Looks like somebody (some bloke at the pub) has broken the thermostat housing, or it was already broken before he touched it. I will never know. I have a spare hopusing so could see if that was the issue. But will have to wait until the weekend as a tad busy with work this week. And next.

A real minefield. Uprated can mean anything. Another car club had "uprated" springs made, and they were 20% stronger. However, they were made with the same free length as std springs, so sat the car higher than std. Nuts. Moss used to sell a range of springs with various rates, and usefully gave the fitted lengths, where many just give the free length. (this is where working out the load on the original spring is useful, you can calculate fitted length) 330lb is/was a common choice, that would certainly firm the suspension up. But if you liked teh ride/handling before, it may be too much. Maybe 200-220lb would be a good choice? Faulkner do a huge range of springs, you could get almost anything you wish.

dipped and main beams are 5A each. You want at least 25A (constant) to cover flash when dipped and main may both be on, all bit only for a short time. Heater motor allow 15A, Horn 25, wiper 15. But to put it in context, spitfires use 4x35A blow fuses (17A continious) In my spitfire, I used 15A fuses for just about everything, but had dipped and main beam fused seperately. So in part it depends how you split the circuits up. And most short circuits are catastrophic, so will be very high current.

You can do the calcs now. Work out the load on gbe springs from free to compressed length. Then use your desired ride height to calculate free length of a new spring. And you need to decide what rate. That is difficult. If you liked the ride before, you could just add 1" spacers. I used tr4 aluminium spring spacers, used the grinder to cut them to size. The spacers were £5/pr at the Triumph show a couple of years ago.

It's possible. Earlier springs were softer and a shorter fitted length. You can have a go at measuring the spring rate. Weigh yourself in lbs, measure thd spring length then stand on the spring (best done in a doorway so you can stop yourself falling off) and get somebody to measure the compressed length. Even better if you can add weight, maybe 25l of water in a container or whatever. Or find a place with a spring rate gauge.... 1500 springs are 180lb/inch from memory. Earlier springs as low as 140 I think.

This B+B (OK, B+B box) also has the concentric marks on the fingers. I wonder if the marks are from a QA check?

Update on the Vitesse The rebuilt 4 syncho OD box, 3.89 diff, swingspring, M16 calipers/Gt6 discs, new prop are all fitted. Tyres swapped over to the minilites. And all is well. I even ran a cable from the gearbox reverse light switch so I can get rid of the dash-mounted switch (1600 Vitesse didsn't have reverse lights, so a manual switch has been added at sometime, next to one for the fog light that must have beed fitted at the same time.) However the oil light went from not working at all to staying on permanently. Which is far more irritating than no light at all. A swap to a new switch and it now lights up, but goes out instantly the engine is running. Happy with that. Especially as I used the opportunity to remove the extra oil feed to the rocker gear. I just need to get the new pads bedded it, the pedal feels a tad soft despite fitting a 0.70 master cylinder for the bigger calipers. Definitely no air in the system. And thats it until after my week of sitting in the sun doing nothing more useful than reading a book and drinking tea and beer.

I thnk you can use your professional qualification. They seem to allow tradesman to get one. I blagged mine years ago. Turned up in overalls etc.

Brake cleaner is the stuff these days. Carbon tet not been (Easily) available for about 20 years or more!

I should add, it is the blocks that are recessed around the bores. Not the heads. Any "mk2" type head will fit, some (much) better than others.

The engine needs a set of core plugs soon. The cam swap is pretty easy with the head removed, and a skim is not expensive. The unleaded conversion may be more than I paid last time I had one done. In other news, the Vitesse now has the diaphragm cluch kit, plus the fresh later 4 synchro box in it, and new prop. No rear spring yet. The later gearbox has a reverse light switchwhich means I can soon use the reverse light sensibly (it currently has a seperate flick switch, which is a PITA). I haven't changed the slave, and the clutch does not feel heavy, so that can stay. I will potter on with the odds and ends, then take the day off on Wednesday to hopefully get it (more or less) finished.

The obvious givaway is the head gasket. If it has a tab sticking out at the rear of the head it is recessed, if not tab it isn't. (but beware, I have had an engine that wasn't recessed bore, but had the incorrect gasket fiitted. Likewise somebody could ciut the tab off the gasket. People do odd things)