Saturday & Sunday 17th & 18th December.- Engine removal

As a quick update from the last blog, Gertie's starter motor was put in for repair and was indeed confirmed as 'terminal'. The shop concerned started talking of £50 to £60 repair bills, but when I said 'Don't worry then, I can get a brand new one for £47 inc vat. Unless you want to try and source me one  for cheaper of course?' They suddenly found me a new one for £35 plus vat. (Funny that eh?)
The shiny new starter motor was fitted that night after work and Gertie was able to ferry us to the Essex region Christmas Dinner. (Shame the heater isn't as good as the starter motor!)

Saturday the 17th saw me starting the project of removing the engine from the yellow Mk1. This engine has had many pounds thrown at it in the past and is worth spending a bit more money on to make it perfect. It currently has a 'rattle' from what appears to be the top end of the engine. (Possibly cam, followers, or small ends?) Despite the freezing conditions, I did stay in the garage all day and refused to give in until the engine was out. (Ok, I did have my space heater on for a while, but the sound of the constant roar does my head in, so I never have it on for long!)

Sunday morning saw work resume despite the freezing conditions again. (I wonder how much it would cost to get my garage plumbed in to my house central heating?) Stripping of the engine discovered that everything that was on the spec sheet when I bought the car was indeed all present and correct.

TR6 decked block: +60 thou Powermax pistons: Tony Dean RC2 billet cam: Gas flowed and skimmed 219016 triumph 2.5 's' head, Ported and 3 angled valves: Blueprinted oil pump: Lightened and balanced Flywheel.
I also removed the big end caps and the mains caps and found that none of them were down to the copper. (I didn't remove the pistons as I had another impending engagement and was running low on time.) The crank also seems ok (Albeit to my untrained eye) and the cam didn't show any amount of wear either. The oil pump filter was covered in gunk though as you can see below.

As I said though, I am far from an expert in these matters so the engine was loaded into the back of the trust rusty estate car and will be taken to Carlow engineering for further inspection and possible/probable rebuild. I'm still concerned that I haven't yet found any evidence of the 'rattle' noise I've experienced so I'll be asking them to check the small ends while they have the engine.

What good old buses these estate cars are! Everyone should have one of these! :-)