Getting back on the road

That sounds about as sweet as the Rover 4 pot gets to these ears. If you are running on standard carbs, that's a really nice idle too.
 
Bollocks! Checked the oil this morning after she’d cooled down. What looks like fine steel (or iron) strands present. Now need to find time to pull the sump and inspect for damage and cause.
 
Following on from my ‘bollocks!’ Moment above. I dropped the sump over the weekend. Oil was a little dirty, even though I’d only done 25 miles I expected that. I’d cleaned a lot of carbon out of the engine from the piston ring blow by, but I knew there’d be some in the galleries etc.

The good news is there’s no sign of metal in there. I think the small strand like bits of swarf must have come from the dipstick threads. Nothing else has shown up. I did pull some main and big end caps and all looked as expected on the shells. I realized I had a spare pair of thrust bearings on the shelf so replaced them while there.

The inside of things looked spotless as they should too.

One thing I had noticed was the oil pressure seemed to take a while to extinguish on a hot start. I pulled the valve cover and checked the camshaft end cover. Sure enough I could tighten one bolt about 3/4 of a turn.

This time I primed the pump by using a syringe to fill both ports in the filter adaptor the square one goes to the pump, the center one goes to the crank galleries. I also pre-filled the new filter. This seemed to help with the amount of turning over with the plugs out after filling with fresh oil. The oil light went out a lot quicker.

Took her for a test drive and she feels great! Smooth, quiet, much more torque than before the repair work (not surprising considering the low compression on the one cylinder). I’ve taken the most approved way of breaking in the rings, a strong pull on 1/2 throttle with her decelerating, followed by 3/4 throttle etc. the rings certainly seem nicely seated now. Still a few things to look at. She has a very small but irregular misfire at idle, I’ll check the spark plug gaps and have new HT leads on their way. The idle is mostly perfect, so my guess is it’s a ignition issue. We shall see.

Here’s some pics of the sexy insides.
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Well tha is a relief!!! Better sure than sorry!!!! Engine sounds very nice very smooth!!! especially for a 2200 TC
You're not kidding! I also have a very understanding wife that was ok with me spending the best part of another day laying under the car instead of helping around the house!
 
Still a very slight miss at idle. Next plan is new plugs, HT leads and coil as they’re all getting up there. That and the spark plug on no. 3 cylinder probably got coked up a bit by the low compression. Truth be told I think I was so pre-occupied with the more major work I forgot to check those on top of the rest. Keep tuned for more, well, tuning.
 
Can’t seem to catch a break with parts. Knowing the slight mis at idle is most likely plug related, I had reused the ones from before the repair. So I ordered some new Champion RN7YC plugs from Amazon. Knowing modern Champs have a bit of a dodgy reputation I measured resistance before fitting last night. First three plugs were within spec of 40-60kohm last one was 900kohm. So, replacement on its way. At least I found out before fitting.
 
Sweet hallelujah! Well, I finally got the right plugs with the correct internal resistance. Pulled the old ones and sure enough I must have knocked one before, gap was down to .018”. I’m using the equivalent to a sports coil producing 40kv so gapped the new plugs to 0.032”

While I had the plugs out I ran another compression test. Results cold are 182,180,177,180.

Anyways, after fitting the fancy new coil and correctly gapped plugs took her out for a run. And WOW! What a car! So much more poke, and very quiet and smooth. I can only imagine this is what they were like when new. Came home to collect Kim before we went out to grab a take away, where apon it came down in buckets with a thunderstorm. Oh well, I’ll get to drive her properly one day.....
 
Up to 135 miles now. Car feels strong, having to hold myself back a bit on the motorway. Cobraboy's advice about a few 'pulls' to bed in the rings proved very helpful. Planning on my next oil change in a couple of hundred miles. Loving the car again, smooth idle, better oil pressure, more torque across the range (although I haven't gone full hoon on her yet).
 
Beryl is bedding in nicely. Drove up to Lime Rock Park for their Historic Festival yesterday. By the time I got home she had 500 miles on the clock since putting the engine back together. Welded up exhaust manifold, decent oil pressure and properly sealing rings make for a much more fun drive. Pretty quiet at 70mph, I could listen to podcasts on the radio easily without having volume turned up high. With the uprated anti roll bar I made a while back and me realizing the 40lb tool box in the boot had to go made for much more fun on the country roads in Connecticut too. Being very much a car guy gathering for once people actually knew what she was and appreciated that she was a four cylinder to boot. Even had one of the officials come up to me as I was leaving and thank me for keeping her on the road. A couple of friends were racing in a Lancia and and Alfa so I could pretend to know someone on the inside. A really fun day out. Quick photo of Beryl next to an XJ6 for you.
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Well, now up to ~700 miles since putting the engine back together. She’s running very nicely, idle is quiet and even smoother as the new bearings bed in. Managed to fix the hazard warning lights this weekend. Found a four way female bullet connector under the dash with one wire hanging free. Held the wire in place and I had hazards again.

It wasn’t quite that easy, I found the metal inside the junction had fractured over time. The spring part had failed and that’s why the wire had fallen out. So I made a new one up out of some 0.5mm brass sheet and inserted it into the rubber outer housing. Hazards are back! The red indicator build is dead and no one here has the small screw in style bulb at the moment.

While I had the driver’s side knee bin out I had a look at the indicator flasher. I’ve noticed that the flashes getting shorter ‘on’ periods recently. As soon as I touched it the indicators stopped coming on at all! Doh! So walked around the corner to my local motor factor and they found a two pin flasher for an old Ford that worked a treat. It even fits into the clip on the A pillar. It’s louder too so can actually hear the flasher now.

Only thing left to fix for now is the brake warning light on the instrument cluster. I think it’s more than a a bulb as I’ve swapped bulbs and it’s still dead. Some quality time with the multitester next I fear.

Other plans now she’s running nicely is to find an accessory power supply as my ignition lock has an accessory position on it. I want to use that for the period Becker radio I have fitted. In addition I want to wire in the USB and Bluetooth adaptor into that circuit. I already have an auxiliary input port on the radio, I reckon I can make a ‘60’s radio Bluetooth enabled pretty easily. Plan number 2 is to find a slimline third brake light for the rear windscreen. Most drivers in NJ tailgate and they aren’t used to seeing cars without them, nuff said.
 
Things are moving along nicely with Beryl. I had noticed that the carbs would slip out of tune as the weather changed. The exhaust was also smelling pretty rich, if I leaned the mixture at idle she would run very poorly.

I tested the spindle seals on the carbs by spraying carb cleaner by the bushes. Sure enough, the engine would stumble when I did suggesting the bushes and spindles are worn. I have HIF6s fitted and I've never been convinced of the rubber seals on the spindles they used. There's nothing to keep them in place and it does nothing to stop wear on the spindles allowing for mis-alignment.

Id found a blog by Tom Bryant, a Volvo enthusiast that had modified his HIF6s to use machined delrin bushes and thought it showed promise. I decided to try something similar.

I pulled the carbs, and dismantled them. Sure enough the spindles showed a lot of wear.
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I had turned up some delrin bushes with undersized bores on the lathe, here's the dimensions:
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I drifted out the original worn steel bushes, here they are next to the new ones:
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As you can see the new bushes are almost twice the length, more bearing surface plus a longer seal area. I drifted the new bushes into the body of the carbs. Once in I filed the outer surface of the delrin bushes flush with the boss on the carb's aluminium body.

I had sized the internal holes of the bushes to be a nice fit on the shank of the 5/16th reamer I was going to use for the final line boring operation. With pressing the bushings into the carb body that had closed up very slightly. So I used the 9/32" reamer in a cordless drill to make sure they were correct.
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Once that was done I set up an angle plate on the mill. With a jacob's chuck in the spindle I was able to assemble the reamer into the body of the carb with the cutting flutes at the bottom and the shank sticking out the top. I tightened the chuck onto the shank of the reamer then clamped the carb to the angle plate. Once that was done I nipped the clamp down on the angle plate to the bed of the mill. This meant the carb was exactly square to the spindle axis and perfectly aligned.
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I ran the mill and pulled the reamer up through the bushes. This made a perfect, smooth bore through the delrin. nce off the mill I used a sharp craft knife to trim the delrin to match the inside surface of the carb throat. Another advantage of this method is the perfect seal at the spindle end to the disc. Next step was to re-assemble the spindles back into the bodies.
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So, that was Saturday. I managed to find time on Sunday to refit and tune the carbs. What a difference! Much, much easier to tune the mixture on both carbs. No smell from the exhaust, even more torque at the bottom rev range, smoother and more powerful delivery through the rev range too! Another advantage is that the throttle feels lighter due to the lubricating qualities of Delrin plastic. I would definitely recommend this if you have access to the equipment.
 
I have HIF6s fitted and I've never been convinced of the rubber seals on the spindles they used. There's nothing to keep them in place and it does nothing to stop wear on the spindles allowing for mis-alignment.

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I worked for BL when the HIF was developed at SU in Wood Lane and I believe the idea of the V seals was that the manifold vacuum kept them in contact with the body face and spindle, which of course ups the friction. I thought the steel bushes were in fact plastic faced, but 40 odd years on, memory may be suspect.
 
I worked for BL when the HIF was developed at SU in Wood Lane and I believe the idea of the V seals was that the manifold vacuum kept them in contact with the body face and spindle, which of course ups the friction. I thought the steel bushes were in fact plastic faced, but 40 odd years on, memory may be suspect.
I think you’re right. The steel bushing had PTFE when new. After 40 years that’s long gone.
 
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