Lucille resto!

Well a mixed day for Lucille, first she relates to the life of canned products as she is "peeled" open and her rusty bits cut out!


...then experiences her first taste of metal that isn't 40 years old!

OCD Patient1's Birthday Bash (part 2)

OCD Patient1's Birthday Bash ! (part 1)

Here's a few pic's of Ben's birthday bash kindly laid on by Phil & Maxine, great weather & company, a good chilli and warming campfire made it a great night for all!

More 3 wheeled action from Clemont, France

...and here's the old fella giving the Avion some welly!

Aircooled but a little different!

Here's a few pics of a recent rally the old fella got to in Clemont, France, mainly three wheelers, all of which have aircooled bike engines, 2CV or VW flat fours... Think you'll agree there's something special about these air coolers!

Engine teardown part 1

After a clear out of the garage (for the arrival of Ruby) we'd dragged my old engine onto the work bench where I could start taking a look... This engine had made it over from Budapest just before I bought the van and after the restoration had driven ok most of the way round the lakes, along Hadrians wall then all over the North Yorkshire moors before finally giving up 50 miles from Leicester... Here's a few pics of the heads and pistons etc... Problems i've noticed so far are missing case savers, loose case and head bolts, loose rocker arm nuts, perished gaskets almost everywhere, two cylinders appeared to be running lean and two rich, appeared to be a broken piston ring resulting in excessive oil in one of the barrels! badly fitted barrels and heads resulting in oily sludge all over the case, heads and barrels.




I've yet to split the case but my feeling is that the bearings will be worn. It looks to have been badly reconditioned in the past perhaps with old gaskets! All the oil galleries are full of oily sludge too, perhaps from overheating a few times... case needs a very good clean!!
The good news is that I haven't found any hardware that's shot yet, all the springs rockers, heads, valves, barrels, pistons, case etc look to be ok so far - would like to get the case align bored and perhaps opening up to take a stroker...

Better late than never!

Well it's a bit late, as we did this work a month ago! Work is moving on, but slowly...




Things will be made right, with enough grinding!
I was very impressed with Ben's work on the rear corner. Just want this laquered and she's ready to go! ;)
Painfull to see the lower front seciton needs replacing too! Time for a trip to Alana in the peak district... anyone fancy a run up there this week?