2019 August. Part 2. Finishing Sprint engine installation.

With the new engine in and running there was still a long list of small jobs to get done before the car was ready to be used.  One of these to get the rev counter working again. Having moved the coil from its old location in the tunnel to its new place on the inner wing I had already provided a new 12 volt ignition feed to the coil and Lumenition. Now I needed the provide a rev counter feed from the coil and rather than just connect with the old wiring I decided to run a completely new wire direct to the instrument cluster.  I located the correct wire in the multi plug, cut it off and then joined my new feed into it.

New rev counter feed to instruments multi-plug in loom

Coil as later cars in new position on inner wing

Next job was connecting up the electric fan. The Revotec fan controller comes with a pre-wired relay that just needs connecting to a power supply. The alternator I was using is a new  Lucas A127 which has a 70 amp output and plugs directly in to the standard loom but also has additional external screw-on terminals so I could pick up a feed directly to the fan. I also used the same alternator output to provide power to the driving lights relay.  The Hella Comet 550 driving lights had actually been fitted on the car since earlier in the year but I had never got round to actually wiring them up.!

Hella Comet 550 driving lights, almost period style but modern perfomance.

Lucas A127 alternator outputs direct to driving lights fan controller  

2019 August, New Sprint engine going in!

With the engine built I could now call a friend to help with putting it in the car. Engine swaps are a proper two man job so help was needed.  Fred Brunsdon is an old mate from my rallying days and who has serviced for me on lots of rallies was available, so he called by on a Saturday to get the job done.

I had already got most of the old standard motor connectons undone or ready so it came out easily  and the new one was readied to go in.

Ready?

Steady

It's in

The exhaust lined up nicely and it was then just a case of connecting all the usual pipes and wiring.  There was one different pipe because the manifold is not water heated like a standard one so the heater feed goes directly from the water pump outlet round to to the heater inlet. This picture expleins it, sorry about the greasy lens on the camera!

Heater feed direct from the water pump outlet

The carbs could now go on with the fuel feed an I included an inline filter as an extra precaution.  I had decided to fit an electric fan so that was attached to the radiator using the normally supplied fixings through the radiator.  (These fixings later turned out be a poor choice - see Lombard Rally Bath 2019 report).  But it was beginning to look like a proper job

Dellorto DHLA45s on

Air filters and electric fan fitted

View from left side

Filling a new engine with oil and water is always an exciting but nervous moment but nothing ended up on the floor so that was a good sign.  Testing the Lumenition prior to try starting the motor revealed a snag when I found that I couldn't turn the distributor quite far enough, maybe because I had the jackshaft timing a little out, so what to do? Taking the distubutor out and turning it one tooth was too much so I came up with a Plan B.  I decided to modify the distributor mounting adapter plate by adding some additional threaded holes so it allow the distibutor to be turned a little more. Cunning plan, and it worked !

My distributor mounting plate with additonal threaded holes

With the Lumenition all connected I could now get it to produce a spark at around 10 degrees BTDC and I felt comfortable to try and start it. I had already spun it over with the plugs out to get some oil pressure so replaced the plugs and it fired up without too much trouble.  Excellent stuff, so now I let it warm up briefly then cool down overnight so I could re-torque the head bolts/nuts with it all cold.

Next morning I re-did the head bolts/nuts but also found a couple of problems. Main thing was several water leaks.  One seemed to be coming from the temperature sender, one from the usual water pump slot in the block but the main one was on top of the block and seemed to be coming from the pump link pipe.  The minor leak from the water pump slot was not too big a worry as it is quite common with a new water pump and usually settles down.  But it still meant I would have to take the carbs and inlet manifold off - curses!

Evidence of leak from temperature sender

Signs of a leak from by-pass pipe

The temperature sender just needed some PTFE tape on the thread so I did that first then took the whole manifold and carbs off to fix the bypass pipe problem.  I had used a brand new link pipe and obviously with some new "O" rings so that was a bit of a puzzle. Inspecting the link pipe and comparing it with the other used ones I had it appeared to be a few thou smaller diameter in the grooves where the "O" rings sit.  I decided to use one of the good spares and put it all back together with some extra magic gasket then let it set overnight before refilling the system. Everything crossed.

Next day I ran it up to temperature again and things had settled down with only a couple of tiny drips.

Now I needed to run the car for a while to put some miles on it and see how it all worked.

 

February 2015 - Cold and wet weather causing lack of enthusiasm.

I should have been getting on with stripping the rest of the good parts off the old red car but the weather has been cold and wet causing me to experience a marked lack of enthusiasm with spending time in the garage.  It got so we actually booked a last-minute week in Fuerteventura and had a good time eating too much and being blown about there. Windy yes, but 20+ degrees instead of 5 and we had never been there before. Our tour guide on a day trip turned out to be from Ypres and was a rally fan so I spent ages chatting to him but that is a whole other story!

Back on planet earth I had been getting an irritating drip from where the Kenlowe sender goes into  the top hose on car.  I had replaced the little rubber saddle piece they supply but it was still dripping so I got fed up and decided to change to a Revotec in-hose type instead.  These are very neat solution and are fitted into the hose and don't leak. 

Revotec adjustable thermostat  fan controller. No drips! 

and new blanking plate at right side of the radiator.

When I was doing this job I also added the side blanking boards at each side of the radiator. They close the gaps and encourage air to go through the radiator instead of round the sides. The standard ones are made from fibre board and had fallen apart with age but I found some nice aluminium replacements which do the job nicely.  I then painted them mat black because they looked too shiny!

Left side blanking board fitted

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Another little job done at this time was to fit a battery cut off switch.  These are very cheap and simple to fit as they just bolt onto the battery terminal.  Its handy if the car is parked up for a while and should help prevent the battery going flat. You can easily unscrew the knob and take it away as an anti-theft device and it is also very handy to disconnect the electrics when working on the headlight motors. Turns out this was going to be useful later.

Battery cut out switch fitted.