803 rebuild progress

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Indeed. Also I've got 2 clutches, proper old style quality ones which were already on the two engines, and there is plenty of thickness left on before it wears to the rivets.

[liammonty]

Good stuff! They will doubtless last for ages. Just watch out for any asbestos dust when refitting.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Well there was plenty of dust about but fortunately it stayed on the ground.

I am almost done now - after the main and big-end caps were all in place and torqued down and the locking tabs bent to position it was just a matter of straightforward reassembly of the oil-pump, backplate cam followers etc. I used new gaskets everywhere.

A new oil pump was fitted and on the advice of bmcecosse an uprated one for a 1098 engine was used. So this will give a much greater pressure than the old vane-type pump and therefore increase engine life.

The flywheel was replaced taking care to get the 1/4 timing mark at the top when cyls. 1 and 4 are at the top of their travel. The flywheel bolts have a torque setting aswell.

Now it was starting to look like an engine and I gave it a lick of paint. The head will be fitted with the engine in situ so I had to do a fair bit of masking, which I now see could have been a little better. The sump was painted prior to fitment.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

The last photo is the colour I used - it is a British Standard colour and the one can was more than enough. All 803s predate the use of BMC green paint and I have seen them in a bewildering variety of shades, so they must have just used whatever happened to have been brewed up at the time.

[bmcecosse]

Neat job there JJ !

[les]

Very tidy!

[MarkyB]

I see a tub of grease on the bench, did you put some in the oil pump to help prime it?

[stevey]

Great Job!!!

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Thanks fellas for the compliments - but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. If it doesn't work I am going to go absolutely beserk but can't think why anything would go wrong.

I see a tub of grease on the bench, did you put some in the oil pump to help prime it?

No - I used the grease for some of the gaskets. For the priming you'll see on the 2nd photo the little bolt next to the block water drain tap is covering the main oil line to the pump so I'll just turn it on the handle and pour oil in until it comes up on the pressure gauge. I have learnt my lesson on priming the pump on the other (duff) engine!!

[bmcecosse]

Take the push rods out till you get the head on.......too much risk of them getting bent!

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Will do!

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

IT IS READY. I found it helpful to write a checklist and put it on the windscreen so I could see it before starting the engine. Wrote on it such things as oil pump primed? Throttle spring secured? &c &c.

I am going to use Morris Lubricants 'Running In Oil' for the first 500 miles and then switch to Morris' Golden Film. The Running in oil is a straight 30 and seems thinner than 20-50. Will this give lower pressure readings and cause the oil lamp to flicker at idle?

[bmcecosse]

30 oil cannot be thinner than 20 oil................ It will be fine.

[David53]

Looks great, well done. Re the color, are you saying no 803's were green? Both cars I'ved owned have had green engines.....

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Thanks. I've not done any serious investigation into 803 paint, but from casual observations of various engines and parts it would seem that green paint wasn't used.

Anyway, I had the engine ready a day or two ago so fired it up and IT WORKS!! Took it for a quick test drive and did another 10 miles today and all seems well - no smoke, no leaks and best of all no knocking.

Seems all my hard work has paid off.

Oil pressure shows just over 40 lbs at 30 MPH and 10-15 lbs at idle. Seems about right for an 803 as the last one showed only slightly lower figures when it was in good condition.

[bmcecosse]

Hmmm - that's not good oil pressure for a 'new' engine. What pressure does it show when you first start it up - with cold oil? And - have you retorqued the head nuts after the first heat cycle ?

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Head retorqued.

Re oil pressure that's what I thought, but there isn't anything I can think of that I've done (or haven't done). It makes 65 psi cold.

As the readings are so similar to the old engine when it was running nicely I wonder if it's due to the lubrication system layout of this engine type.

[daveyl]

Pressure release valve/spring assembly, perhaps? Or have you already fitted a new one?

[bmcecosse]

I wondered if the gauge was reading low - but 65 cold does indicate correct relief valve and gauge...... Obviously the by pass filter is a steady drain on the oil pressure. Maybe the crappy running in oil is the problem.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Perhaps, that is why I asked if it'd give lower readings - we shall see after the initial 500 miles.

[Declan_Burns]

JJ,
Go back to my post at the start of this thread about the size of the hole in the filter as measured by our Swiss collegue. That could be your problem. He mentions the original filter hole was only 1.5mm whereas replacements were measured at 2.5 to 3.5mm. This causes a pressure drop and I could very well believe him. Measure the hole in the filter you have installed.
Regards
Declan