Yet another project....The uncrashed spitfire

unfortunatly the previous owner resprayed the car craply with a non std colour, whilst the car is far from std having a std triumph colour makes it a lot easier in the long run.
So the car will be painted Triumph BRG which is the interior colour, it is very very similar to original colour but a bit more green.
 
Looking great dood, a really interesting thread. After doing a shell up restoration of a mini i would deffinatley never do it again, however what you are doing looks like a happy medium:p
 
I'm thinking of just blowing mine in with a bit of primer to and get it running and through the MOT. Basically I don't want bare filler or work showing because the MOT man and police panics as soon as he sees stuff like that. Then I can bum about and not worry about stuff getting into the filler. Got crimbo coming so I'm going to need to do some big mile journeys which I don't want to have to do at 50mph in the Pop.
 
Problem is primer is porus and the metal will rust under, thats the nightmare im going through at the moment. With the cold weather setting in here the car needs painted asap, but unfortunatly the engine is giving me soo much gip i've given up and the car will be collected soon by the triumph specialist to have the engine looked at.

I have constant smoke coming out the exhausts, which would suggest a head gasket althouth that has just been replaced, the compression on all cylinders is good, it aint using water, aint using oil but still plooms of smoke on acceleration which seem to have every colour possible. Replaced the inlet manifold after not having much vacum, replaced the carb jets, replaced all gaskets. timing is perfect, drained the fuel replaced it, drained the oil replaced it. Its got a brand new skimmed head with new valves and guides.

So im stumped, at the moment its either looking like piston rings, or poor valve guides or another head gasket.
 
Mattius said:
Problem is primer is porus and the metal will rust under, thats the nightmare im going through at the moment. With the cold weather setting in here the car needs painted asap, but unfortunatly the engine is giving me soo much gip i've given up and the car will be collected soon by the triumph specialist to have the engine looked at.

I have constant smoke coming out the exhausts, which would suggest a head gasket althouth that has just been replaced, the compression on all cylinders is good, it aint using water, aint using oil but still plooms of smoke on acceleration which seem to have every colour possible. Replaced the inlet manifold after not having much vacum, replaced the carb jets, replaced all gaskets. timing is perfect, drained the fuel replaced it, drained the oil replaced it. Its got a brand new skimmed head with new valves and guides.

So im stumped, at the moment its either looking like piston rings, or poor valve guides or another head gasket.
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How strange, I've had exactly the same problem with my car (MG ZS with a k series engine). I get plumes of smoke, I've replaced the head gasket, head, checked compression and checked all breathers etc. I resigned myself to the fact something strange is going on in the bottom end so got a reconditioned unit. It started happening after I changed the oil, gradually getting worse and worse until in the end it was like a fog behind (worse when car is cold). I didn't overfill it and even drained all the oil again and measured exactly the amount I put in in case the dipstick was dodgy and it wasn't.

Looking at the plugs it seemed to be affecting all cylinders though which was what confused me the most, I can only assuming some kind of crankcase pressure issue. It is related to the weight of oil as well, the thinner oil in there the more smoke there is.

Can't wait to rip apart the old engine and see what the hell is wrong! Hope your specialist can find the issue to save you the hassle of an engine replacement.
 
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Found the problem appears to have been a slight blow in the headgasket combined with crap new guides. Car has only run for 4 hours without moving a mile and the gides are letting oil down!!
Triumph lump runs without valve stem oil seals and although you can fit them, you cant with the valve springs im having to run for the race camshaft.
But hey gives me a chance to show off the seriously modified head im running
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you cant go much bigger than these valves. But look at the mess the oil has made sob sob
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Valve covered in oil
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are those marks on the stem after only 4 hours runing ?

if the where new valves then you have some lube problems with th top end, the look as though they have done about 30k
 
Valve guides are the crossflow's favourite for smoking. Does it have valve stem seals? I can't see where they would go on the guides if it did so I'm guessing no.
 
nah it doesnt have them and as mentioned earlier i cant fit them due to larger valve springs to cope with the pottent camshaft
 
That's a shame. Luckily someone discovered that Metro ones are small enough to squeeze inside dual valve springs on a crossflow.
 
new machine shop today took my cylinder head in to replace the guides and re-cut the seats again. Whilst chatting to the guy he reaconed he could get valve stem oil seels to fit, sure enough after trying a few VW golf ones can be made to fit. Big discovery as no-one has managed to fit them to a spitfire running double valve springs.
Just 1mm needing shaved off the guides, tripple cut seats this time like was supposed to have been done last time.
 
That's wicked news :cool:

Seals make all the difference. Stops the plugs fouling, stops it smoking up after it's been idling for a while, when you start it etc etc.
 
Coming along great, hope you see the results you want soon.

The valve stem seals'll make a whole lot of difference like Jonny says - stop it smoking out the place when it's sat for a few days as well! Makes for much cleaner running :D
 
yeap im grinning now hopefully this should be all my problems sorted and the car should be running next week and in for the MOT the next.
 
Jonny69 said:
How you getting on with that Jawel paint? Celly or 2-pack? I had some 2-pack from them and it was crap :(
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I've got some 2 pack from them too - what's up with yours? Mine seems a bit runny but I've not done much spraying before.
 
The last new body panel is on, new drivers door with side impact bars and rust free.

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And in primer it looks awesome.

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Lopéz said:
I've got some 2 pack from them too - what's up with yours? Mine seems a bit runny but I've not done much spraying before.
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I also got 2-pack from them, two different metallic colours and laquer and it went on really well!
 
Lopéz said:
I've got some 2 pack from them too - what's up with yours? Mine seems a bit runny but I've not done much spraying before.
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2 pack is quite runny. Mine never cured off properly but I'm thinking I must have had a duff batch or not mixed it up properly.
 
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