Archives 3. Some Older HEC Projects From the Early 2000's

Aston Martin 15/98 on arrival

C.I.M.E More to follow on this shortly.

The following Lagonda / Meadows had a very catastrophic failure resulting in a major rebuild, most of the work was carried out at the owner's premises and he was able to become involved with the build too.

Final Dyno Testing at Stanton Motorsports (highly recommended)

CIME continued.

C I M E engine work this week consisted of some timing set up and trial fitting.

The cylinder head water jacket is very open as can be seen.

Rocker pedestals and rocker oil fed are all new modifications.

What's on the go?

Some of this weeks workshop projects:

The C.I.M.E. engine had a fairly primitive oil system which has shown some evidence of premature wear in the rear main and the rockers.........if you can say any wear on an 80 year old engine is premature!

As the revs will slightly increase and perhaps.. hopefully the horsepower, we thought it might be prudent to upgrade the oil system within the spirit of the period.
You will see from the photos that there is now a provision for a direct oil feed to the rear main (see older post photo), an oil feed to the rockers has also been set up from the Oil Pressure Relief Valve. The steeply angled pipe is the return from the rockers, necessary because of a deep trough around the valve springs and guides. This usefully feeds the additional quill shaft and bush assembly to drive a water pump (not previously fitted) from the timing chest.


The '59 Mercedes 220 engine was quite a quick turnaround for me. Fairly straight forward, you can really see the ease of assembly for mass production as opposed to the pre war engines that I normally deal with. Brilliant engineering and top quality materials throughout.

And finally some of the evenings this week have seen some more cosmetic paint and body work on the "Outlaw Racer"

Amilcar.

Machining new castings for brake linkages. This is a really difficult job as far as charging is concerned. These casting have most likely been made through an Amilcar group. A problem that often occurs when the original parts are used as a pattern,  no allowance has given for shrinkage. It is then really difficult to set up the rough item and machine a datum that will allow as close to the original centre position as possible. And even more difficult to charge the cost of that set up time.

C.I.M.E Engine.

The C.I.M.E engine has been a particularly interesting project.

The engine is built by the French "Company of Industrial Motors and Explosions". (what a name for an engine company!).

Dating from the mid 20's, this engine is destined for a GN cyclecar of a similar period.

We started with boxes of bits from four engines (this is probably a very large percentage of all the surviving engines).

Careful selection and contemplation over many hours has produced an engine that is nearing completion.
There are a few details to finish including the manufacture of some new gear journals in the timing case and completion of the modifications to the oil feed system.
All modification we carry out, will always be in keeping with the spirit of the particular period. This means absolutely no Nylock nuts or plastic oil lines etc.

The pictures show the engine during the current dry build. This is the first time many of the new components have been fitted.

The bearings are white metal, pistons are made from my drawing by JE Pistons.... very good service and quality too!

I have just collected all items from balancing. The clutch arrangement on this has been particularly finicky to balance.

The pistons and rods are all trial fitted. Big end bolts tightened to a particular stretch and clearance re checked.

Currently the clearance of the oil return scroll in the front cover and the gear journal to cover clearances are being checked and dimensioned.