Autumn At HEC

It has been a busy and eclectic autumn period here at the HEC.
Here are a few photos to illustrate some of the work:

Wolseley Hornet: 2 litre capacity breather container fabrication to comply with RAC competition regulations

Wolseley Hornet Exhaust: passenger side "Brooklands Can" heat shield, as light and efficient as possible:

Wolseley HT Lead conduit:

(please ignore temporary modern fuel hose to pump)

Porsche 944s. Attention to a few paint details before continued re-commission and engine peripheral work:

Triumph Dolomite. The beginning of a great Journey, we will enjoy this!:

Morris 8, Carburettor service as this little car will be in regular use throughout the winter.

We built the engine about eight years ago, it is always nice to see it out and about along the Dorset coast on a regular jaunt. Sometimes old is better, what better way to travel along the Dorset coastal lanes and cliff top picnic.. even in winter!

Morris Minor
(Pre War)

Replacement of very worn hubs:

Morris 8 Tourer.

Little pre war car in for fuel tank removal and chemical clean and engine top end overhaul.

Morris 8 Brakes

Pretty Little Morris Eights

This one has had an engine rebuild and is now having some winter steering work.

This one is having a complete brake overhaul through the winter.

Morris 8

It has been an eleventh hour attempt to finish the Morris.
She is expected for a big family event, typically has suffered from the 20 month lay up.
Battery failure, starter motor sticking and fuel pump and system faults all standing in our way! The start and initial settings have been by hand cranking, thankfully that has been OK. Almost there now, road test tomorrow and MOT Wednesday, hopefully!

Morris 8 Engine. Contd

Through the past week I have been able to almost complete the late thirties Morris 8 engine.
As previously mentioned the engine had a large amount of internal cracking behind the dry liners.
I normally avoid weld repairs almost totally, but this was an exception as we had very little alternative. The problems with welding a block of this age can be severe. Some will crack further, even under controlled temperature changes, some will contaminate causing poor welds and sometime areas of extreme hardness that will then cause machining problems. However all of this doom and gloom was not to be, through Formhalls Vintage and Racing Engineering near Downton, we had the block specialist welded. Formhalls machined new liners as necessary, new valve guides and reface head, block and valves and seats. All worked out really well, although, there was a little misalignment or heat effect on the housings which made the crank and cam a little stiff to rotate.
Close measurement of individual sections allowed a combination of polishing and local dressing to correct this.
Also you will see the recovery of some historic damage to the rear seal carrier using "Metalspray" equipment.

Morris 8 Engine.

A few months ago I posted about a little '38 Morris 8 that required some axle flange recovery work.
We also took the engine out and stripped it to assess serious water in oil contamination.
The block was seriously cracked behind two liners and toward the tappet chest. Normally I avoid "hot" repairs because of the problems it can cause, even when carefully brought up to temperature and careful reduction of temperature in a controlled manner. However,we had little choice but to have this fairly major welding work.
This has been very professionally completed in Derbyshire, and the block presented back in spotless condition ready for cleaning and painting.

Unfortunately, test fitting of the crank and cam has revealed that there is a slight misalignment from distortion.
I am not overly worried at this stage as I think we can lightly line hone to recover. I do have to check the individual bearing bores to see if it is local.
This sort of thing would not have been such a problem on a white metal bearing engine, as new bearings would be line bored. This engine has modern style thinwall bearing shells so we have to work within the running clearance limitations.

Random Workshop Photos

A few up to date shots of bits and projects.

'37 Aston Martin

General view in downstairs of one section.

Late 59 Mercedes, bit new for me.

This little Morris 8 sheared the rivets in the brake backplate mounting flange and spun with the brake!

True and clean up in the lathe, ream and fit with machined oversize rivets and fit taper pins and silver solder.