Stripping

Last night I spent half hour out in the garage going over the fasty engine that I have spare. I want to use the 1600 barrels and pistons (and maybe heads) on the 1300 bus engine that I have.

To determine the condition I did a compression test but his was not really conclusive as I could only turn the engine over by hand which didn't really give a suitable reading. Not deterred i decided to take the heads off and inspect them instead.

The engine was previously a runner. I bought a whole fastback just so that I could get the tinwear and ancilliaries for the Type 34. Afer stripping the engine down I put the remaining bits that were not used aside for later use (like now). From memory the engine wasn't smokey and fingers crossed the barrels are serviceable.

I have also discovered that the 1300 heads have smaller valves and combusion chambers than the 1600 heads, meaning that the compression will increase to about 8.6:1 if used with the 1600 barrels. Whilst this is not a massive issue (Will likely run fine on higher octane petrol) the smaller valves will obviously be a little restrictive and hinder performance.

Ideally I would like to use the 1600 heads as well so will probably look to freshen them up with new exhaust valves and check the valve seats.

With the heads removed I could get a look at the barrels. There was a small ridge to the touch but hard to determine if this was due to wear or buildup of deposits. To make sure I measured the bore with an internal bore gauge, both to check size and also ovality.

The bores 'miked' up at 85.54 - a tad over the ideal but still within tolerance. The bores look good as do the pistons and rings. There's no visble wear on the piston skirts and no signs of overheating. I've left everything soaking in the parts washer overnight so will give them a clean up and remeasure everything when I get home from work tonight. Will pull the rings off and check the ring gaps as well as piston diameter / ovality.

If everything checks out okay I will take the glaze off of the bores with the hone and then decide if I will replace the rings and exhaust valves or simply stick them straight on.

One rather annoying thing is that having just ordered a complete clutch, I discover that there is a complete sachs clutch on the engine with plenty of wear left. Ahh well. I will add it to the parts stash for later.