Back on the road, almost!

[h_m_cumming]

Fiat Engined Roadster
Well, I'm afraid I didn't get away with 4yrs. storage in my garage . Passed its MOT OK but I couldn't get the carbs. to set up and did a compression check.
Last time I did one they were 180/185, this time
1 2 3 4
160 110 120 50
So, rebuild time.
Nosecone off and up to the painters to sort out some bubbling and a repaint.
Made a tool up to lock the cam wheels. Ordered new cambelt and tensioner wheel.
Off with its head.
No. 4 piston out first. Broken top ring and land between top rings.
Nos. 2 & 3 bores showing rust marks but not deep, just surface.
Other pistons just rings stuck.
Hunted high and low for pistons of the right size and the only ones I could find are a set from the States. Ordered them, out of stock, won't be in till mid Oct. but the price is good, $185 the set, plus carriage and no doubt customs.
Ah well, gives me time to do other jobs.
Why do I have to suffer?

[meverett]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

Hugh, that is definitely broken.
On my 1275 I was looking for new pistons as the originals were no longer available.
I was looking at £200 for a new set and out of the blue I was browsing on eBay and someone was selling a job lot of different makes. I was only browsing the pictures on the listing and noticed the ones I needed, made an offer of £50 and accepted. Jammy bu&&er, I don't usually get lucky like that apart from the nos brake discs for £40.
I will ring or text you and maybe catch up at the weekend.
Cheers, Martin.

[Ye Ol Ripper]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

Did you try F W Thorntons for your Pistons and Gasket sets?http://www.fwthornton.co.uk/

It maybe of help for any further parts you require to search some of the vintage car parts suppliers in Italy, searching for vintage /classic Alfa Parts . As it is likely that the Alfa might have shared some of the same parts, possibly even the pistons .

[h_m_cumming]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

Further investigation has found that No3 has been blowing into coolant hole, hence the rust. The Ex. valve was really rusty but will clean up and grind in. All the other valves are clean as a whistle.
Head has a very light score but will clean up with a light skim.
When I built the engine the re-borers took 20thou. off the block so I don't want to take any more off than is necessary to clean up.
Shells all look good so will reuse them.
Head all cleaned up now ready to skim but found my mill coolant tank has a leak so got to sort that out first before I can get machining.
Well that's the third thing so hopefully no more.

[h_m_cumming]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

Now that's what I call service.
Ordered on the 18th, paid and shipped on the 20th, Delivered on the 25th. So from Texas to here 7 days.

[Alan c]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

You will get a small delayed bill for the import tax when getting goods like this from USA. I bought a $250 GPS speedo think the import duty bill was £17 but memory on its now vague.

[h_m_cumming]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

Well, got away with a 5thou. skim. Hardest part is setting the head up level etc. Now to clean everything up .

[h_m_cumming]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

New ring gaps set at:- Top 25/27 thou.
2nd. 35/37 thou.
Oil rings left as is 12/15 thou.
Two out of the four old pistons had broken lands, prob. as a result of the previous fail and I didn't realise more than one had damage so even although I set the ring gaps wider when I rebuilt it, the damage had already been done.

Have a browse through this site, very informative. http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php

[h_m_cumming]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

Well all back together and cams timed. Because the cams are high lift the timing is critical to avoid the valves hitting the piston and each other on the overlap. Just some tarting up to do now and chase up the nose being painted.

[listerjp2]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

Wow that looks good progress.

It's stuff like this that keeps me interested in mine.

Regards

Adrian

[h_m_cumming]

Re: Back on the road, almost!

Found out that there's two thicknesses of head gasket, 1.4&1.8 so as the new pistons have a higher crown went for the 1.8. You learn something new every day.