Sold 1981 Austin Princess - [expletives removed]

[barefoot]

I shit on newfangled tosh.

 

Smiley face

[vulgalour]

The sun is shining, it's a lovely autumn day so I got on with probably the most important job on the HLS and decided it was high time to get the head off.  After consulting the book and people with experience I came to the conclusion it should be a straight forward job.

 

The whole thing came apart very easily.  No sheared bolts, only one skinned knuckle and I didn't have need to swear at the car or my own ineptitude once.  This tells me I must have done something wrong because old car jobs never go that smoothly.

 

I'm still trying to figure out why, in addition to the proper gasket, there's silicone around the exhaust manifold.  It's not going to work as a sealant in this application and I can't see the sense of it.

 

Because of the state of the threads on the downpipe clamp bolts I decided to leave the exhaust manifold attached to the car rather than the head and risk shearing bolts, this gambit paid off and once all the various bits and bobs were removed the head was jiggled until the seal with the block broke and it lifted free without hassle.  The head bolts weren't seized or corroded, it was all very straightforward and not at all what I was expecting.  No apparent damaged to the piston faces but very heavy carbon deposits just like on the plugs when they were first removed hinting I think at very rich running.

 

Water channels are a bit orangey and have silicone in them on the end the oil rather than the steam was leaking from.  There was no silicone sealing the head gasket to the block or head so I'm wondering where this silicone has been put originally for it to get into the water channels.

 

With the head off you can see how the water channels have become almost completely blocked on the left of this picture, this is the side the steam was pouring out of.  The right hand side showed that oil had got between the gasket and the block rather than the head and while the gasket shows no real sign of damage and was well sealed to the head, it was being bypassed by water and oil.  I'm not sure why half the valves are white, they're covered in what looks like a white version of carbon deposit.

 

The only bolt that had any issues was this one from the exhaust manifold which has a partially stripped thread, none of the other bolts had any damage at all, or rust, or signs of being problematic.

 

The pipe to the lower left has some corrosion damage but not enough to worry me when it comes to refitting everything, I think that's one of the heater exchange pipe judging by where the rubber pipe that attaches to it disappears into the bulkhead.  Other than that, it all looks pretty good.

 

I don't know what this goop is.  Same side as the silicone blobs in the water channels in the block but it's sort of squidgy like soggy pastry rather than having the texture of silicone.  It's only in one end of the engine too and only in the waterways.

 

So I think there's going to be a fair amount of crud in the waterways of the engine which will need cleaning out, ideas welcome on that one.  There's very little indication of water to oil contamination with the only mayonnaise being on the stem of one of the head bolts and it was so minor it could have been caused just by condensation.

 

Next step is to check the head with the metal rule before deciding whether or not to send that off for a skim and then I guess I'll be stripping down and cleaning up the head before deciding what else needs attention in the engine bay.  My gut instinct is that the radiator is blocked and the water pump might be shot.  I planned to replace the water pump when I did the timing belt as the timing belt on the car was cracked and useless and a new water pump is about £10-15.

 

Any thoughts on what you think might be wrong from these pictures would be welcome, this is new territory for me so I'll be learning as I go along.

 

[Asimo]

The valves are white because they are the exhaust valves and spend their time very, very hot so no oily soot will build up. They look just as they should.

 

I'd use a pressure washer on the waterways but be damn sure you don't squirt anywhere else with it.

 

It might be silicone on the manifold gasket, it is very heat resistant so maybe not a daft bit of shitery to stop a manifold leak. I used a mix of builders silicone and fire cement years ago when I needed a cat. to centre pipe gasket. Still good. (Silicone in minute amounts is said to destroy catalysts, so if you have a catalyst, only try this bodge downstream of the cat.)

[fordperv]

Good work I'd send it for a lick and pressure test anyway

[Grundig]

The "white" carbon on half the valves - the smaller valves are the exhaust valves, these run hotter than the inlets, so the "white" is just the black carbon that is being burnt off, cause they get hotter - if that makes sense?? keep on keeping on   

[M'coli]

White-ish gloop on the screwdriver could be aluminium oxide/hydroxide.

[overrun]

I'd wazz the spark plugs back in, flip it over and fill the combustion chambers with pez, to check for leaking valve seats too, whilst it's off the car.

[vulgalour]

I got that fed up of handling it and getting black oil everywhere - what you see above is the clean side of the head - that I've had to give it a scrub before doing anything else.  Head looks pretty straight on initial testing which is good and it looks like it's blown the gasket because it was fitted incorrectly and the engine pumped full of Radweld or something.  I'll do a Vulgalour on it and rebuild with new gaskets and seals and we'll go from there I think.  Will probably get the head tested just to be 100% sure before putting it on the car.

[purplebargeken]

Great work. Don't clean all of the carbon from the top of the pistons, leave a couple of mm ring around the outer edge. There is a good reason for this but I can't recall what it is.

[dieselnutjob]

Great work. Don't clean all of the carbon from the top of the pistons, leave a couple of mm ring around the outer edge. There is a good reason for this but I can't recall what it is.

Because the engine might start to burn oil. The carbon around the edge acts like an extra piston ring.

This is the theory anyway but I have no actual experience of it.

To my thinking the piston rings should stop it burning oil and if they are shot then replace them, rather than rely on a ring of carbon.

[Alexg]

Keep up the good work Vulgalour, 

[Barry Cade]

Silicone is a brilliant sealant for manifolds-got this tip from an American drag engine builder years ago and it works. Not for use with catalysts though, as said.

[vulgalour]

A bit more progress tonight, but this is it for now.  Have bought some core plugs so I've a full set of those arriving in a few days.  I'm planning to completely strip and rebuild this head but it looks like I'm going to need a cam locking tool to keep the camshaft in the correct place for some reason, I don't entirely understand this bit of proceedings beyond it apparently preventing me from smashing all the valves to bits against the pistons.

 

Spent some time scraping and scrubbing and wiping the thick layer of oil off the head so I could handle it without getting black greb on my hands and then on everything else.  I'm not even sure how the engine has got so covered in oil, there's no obvious location it's been coming from, it's like someone has just sprayed the head all over with oil.  Still, I'm happy enough with it so far and it's not taken a huge amount of time or effort to get looking this clean.  The corrosion on the rocker cover came off very easily, it's made things look a world better to my untrained eye.

 

 

While I was shopping for core plugs and other potential engine bits, Dad had got all interested and by the time I came back downstairs he'd entirely decoked the face of the valves and the head.  He'd also removed the few remnants of the head gasket that were glued to the face of the head leaving me to give everything a wipe over with some white spirit to clean the last of the residue off all the surfaces.

 

We checked the head with the straight rule we bought for the job and there's not a hint of warping in the face at all no matter which direction we put the rule across the head which is very, very reassuring.

 

Last job tonight was to pop out the silicone gumming up the failed core plug in the side of the head.  There's two small holes in the core plug and the silicone hasn't sealed them up, it just has too corresponding holes in its surface.  It's entirely possible that this failed core plug is the root of all the other problems and bodges on the engine where trying to seal it instead of replacing it has gummed everything else up.

 

There's no signs of pitting, cracks, or warping on the head at all, the whole thing looks very, very healthy.  Dad is of the opinion we can probably just put it back on the car as is, but I think I'd rather get it tested first so I know it'll be good when it goes back on.  So far I've spent about £25 on the engine.  I need to spend another £40-60 to get the battery, points, spark plugs and water pump to get it all up and running again and that should, hopefully, be it.

[barefoot]

...So far I've spent about £25 on the engine.  I need to spend another £40-60 to get the battery, points, spark plugs and water pump to get it all up and running again and that should, hopefully, be it.

QFO

 

Quoted for optimism!

[vulgalour]

Bit more done today before work.  I have removed the rocker cover and had a moment of panic because the valves all reset with a thunk and then the camshaft rotated as I lifted the rocker cover free.  I applied my thinking head and realised it isn't actually a problem as I do still have reference points and information and the valves have to come out for cleaning and new stem seals anyway.

 

 

The sprocket on the camshaft has to be removed and turned around at some point as it's the wrong way, but I'm leaving it as it is for now so I can reset everything to the same point it was when the head was removed.  I'll definitely be getting the head tested and skimmed if necessary, I'd rather spend a little more and not have the risk, expense and hassle of having to redo the head again shortly after rebuilding the engine.

 

My brother showed me what was what on the engine, it's surprising how much easier it is to understand the various components with them in front of you than it is through reading manuals and blogs, a lot of the engine parts make more sense to me in their application now.  So the cam follower/bucket things (see how technical I've got) were removed with the aid of a magnet and numbered accordingly so they can be put back on the correct valves.  The shims were kept with their respective buckets.

 

There's no signs of rust, serious pitting, scores, cracks or other damage, they all look in reasonably good order and I don't think they need replacing just cleaning.

 

With the camshaft split from the head some wear was apparent.  There's tiny little speckles of something on the cam lobes, not sure what they are but it will all get cleaned off.

 

It would seem they've been there long enough to cause some scoring, but I'm guessing this isn't serious enough to affect things detrimentally.

 

We did do battle with the wax stat today but that's going to take some time to remove as it's Radwelded in place.  We've got some movement on it, but not a great deal so I'll just continue soak it and work at it until it comes out.  Managed to get the thermostat housing to rotate a little but that too seems stubborn about coming out of the head.  I'm sure with some experience I could do this job a lot faster, but I don't need to so I see no point rushing things at this juncture.

[vulgalour]

@Barefoot:  I hadn't factored the cost of the head inspection into things, but I wasn't that far off.

 

Engine rebuild shopping list:

Timing belt - bought £3
Gasket set - bought £15
Core plug/s - bought £20
Head test and skim if necessary - £40+
Waxstat - £10-15
Water pump - £8-15
Spark Plug/s - £2 each, £8-10 for a full set
Battery - £15 second hand
Points - £2-8 (prices are all over for these)
Air filter - £2-6

Total cost for rebuild: £117-147
 

[mercrocker]

Great work as always! That instrument panel has come up amazingly well.

Pretty sure that weather strip stuff is BL standard. I've seen it on TR7s Metros and SD1s. Nothing special, I'm sure somewhere could flog you some.

 

Echoing all the comments - great work!    That weatherstrip looks a lot like the stuff I got from David Manners in Birmingham for the Minor as an upgrade to the Niagara-inducing non-weather stuff originally fitted.   They told me it was  Marina/Ital based and I had to cut it down to length....

[overrun]

Angel, have you priced a new battery for her?

We got a 605 for the Mini for £30. Sometimes second hand parts aren't that cost effective, ime.

[vulgalour]

New battery is about £40-60 depending where I buy it from.  Nearly new second-hand from Deatons is £15 and his batteries have never let me down or been other than cost effective.

[overrun]

New battery is about £40-60 depending where I buy it from. Nearly new second-hand from Deatons is £15 and his batteries have never let me down or been other than cost effective.

Makes sense in this instance then. Plus, he has a tank.

What's not to like.

[vulgalour]

I didn't see the tank when I was there last, he might've hidden it.

 

---

 

The head is taking longer than I'd like to sort and I'm not being held up by something you might expect, which is frustrating me to no end.  Valves are ready to be removed, all the various bits are dismantled and organised ready for cleaning before reassembly.  Water channels can be got at to clean them out and the block has been checked and found to be, unsurprisingly, nice and flat.

 

The core plug set I ordered arrived, I've got a full gasket set and my new rebound straps have also arrived, so I'm not really waiting on parts.  No, the thing holding me up is the waxstat.  When I removed the old waxstat from the HL it was a bit stiff but eventually came free, was found to be not working and replaced with a new one.  Unfortunately, the waxstat in the HLS is caked in what we're assuming is Radweld which in turn has sealed it in place and when an attempt was made to remove it, the top of the waxstat sheared from the bottom.

 

 

I have tried penetrating fluid, boiling water, hammers, various tools, swearing... nothing is helping.  So now I've resorted to slowly cutting and filing through the thick wall of the waxstat so as not to damage the thermostat housing so it can be removed and a new one put in because even before an attempt to remove the waxstat was made it was clear that it was jammed up and not working at all.  Hopefully it will come unstuck all at once like the top half did and I can then clean out the thermostat housing and waterways.

 

Managed to unseat the cam from the rocker cover and found that the sprocket I thought was on the wrong way around wasn't.  The reason for the alignment dimple only being visible on the outer face is that the camshaft seal was leaking badly and the inner face of the sprocket was so badly crusted with oil worn smooth by the guide that the dimple was impossible to find.  Happily, Dad and I had guessed correctly when aligning everything for this job and the pistons are all where they need to be in their bores.

 

The work on the HLS engine and work in general have kept me from sorting out the HL suspension.  I really need to get on task with finding a local friendly garage with a BFO hydraulic press to get those pivot shafts out for me because I sincerely doubt I have the means to do it at home having given it a damned good try three times now.

[stuboy]

have you tried heating it up around the stat with blow lamp

[vulgalour]

Nope, because I don't have one.  The thought had crossed my mind so I'm going to try dunking that end of things in boiling water to see if I can get enough temperature in to help move things as that's what seemed to free the top half and now there's a decent wedge cut in the bottom half it might be enough to get things freed off.  Failing that, I'll see if the place that does the pivot shaft can also do this for me.

[D-Dubya]

you will need more heat than boiling water for that I'm afraid.

[stuboy]

Pop down to ya local diy and get a aerosol bliwlamp

[vulgalour]

You can buy those?  Dad told me there's a weed burner in the shed but the spread of flame is about the same size as the head so that's no good.

[plasticvandan]

i got a blowtorch from machine mart for around a fiver,wouldnt be without one.im amazed anyone with rusty shite can manage without one! if dealing with a rusty suspension bolt for example,i dont even bother trying to undo it,and mash the nut in the process,heat it up,break the corrosion,then remove

[barefoot]

Even I've got one in the back of the t2, I use it to light the barbecue.

[vulgalour]

Progress, of a sort.  A little while ago Dad showed me how to remove core plugs as this is a thing I'd never done before.  Quite simple, providing that one of the core plugs you're trying to remove hasn't rotted a big hole through it which has then been gummed up with silicone which also has holes in it.  I made a handy tutorial... probably.

 

 

So with the core plugs out of the block it was evident the water ones needed replacing as they're pretty crusty and both had holes in.  The oil plug was in good order, but you'd expect that.  I have a full set so I might as well replace them all.

 

With those out I could flush the head a bit more easily and broggle some of the horrible crusty stuff out.  Quite a lot of detritus came out and I'm much happier with the flow of water through the head and the fact it no longer smells rancid.

 

 

Today Dad bought a new JCB drill and we decided to make an attempt on the stubborn waxstat that was firmly wedged into the housing.  We ended up resorting to using a hole saw in the drill to remove the waxstat as it was the only way to free it from the housing.  Whatever had been put through this engine it had welded the two components firmly together and it was no wonder we couldn't budge it with regular tools.

 

 

 

Next up is to purchase a suitable valve spring compressor (about £25) as the one we have is for a different engine - bought it for a Mk3 Ford Fiesta 1.1 if memory serves  - so I can get the head ready for testing prior to refitting.

 

Then I need to back flush the radiator, remove and clean up the heater box, flush out the block as much as possible and drain the old oil, probably removing the core plugs in the block at the same time.  Bolt the engine back together with the new gaskets and seals, fire it up and see what happens I guess.

 

All this will then happen again because once I have the HLS roadworthy the HL is getting the head stripped down primarily to renew the worn valve stem seals.

[vulgalour]

Progress on the trim front having secured a carpet and a door seal which this car needs.  There's some other bits and pieces trim wise I've collected, some of which will make their way onto the car.

 

However, I have gone backwards quite a way because I've had to steal some parts off this car to help out my daily which has been a little unfortunate when it comes to getting a replacement displacer that's any good.  I've had to add a displacer sphere, handbrake cable and brake flexi to the list of parts I know this car needs.  I did also find that the drum backplate had rotted through where it mounts to the trailing arm and the rear drum shoes are quite worn, but I do have a spare good backplate and new shoes are easy and cheap to acquire.  Also, because I'm putting a phase 1 dashboard in the HL, I had to swap various bits and pieces around with another owner and I had to steal the wiring loom from this car's dashboard so the loom I've currently got fitted is missing a hazard warning switch plug which I'll need to wire in when I get that from the guy I'm swapping dash parts with.

 

My known item shopping list is as follows:

> brake flexis front and rear

> handbrake cable

> brake shoes both sides

> waxstat

> head test and skim if required

> hazard warning switch plug

> tyres

> oil, antifreeze and brake/clutch fluid

> contact breaker points

> battery

 

It's not a massive list really.  The biggest job is going to be the welding on the doors and bootlid as underneath things are really solid and tidy, presumably a result of being kept in a garage for quite some time.

 

For now, the car is sat on axle stands.  Ideally, I'm after a complete trailing arm to fit in on the rear corner because those pivot shafts are the devil's own work to remove even with heat and presses.  If the rear displacer I have is salvagable, and it looks like it might be even with my initial misgivings of its condition, then I have my solution.  However, the replacement sphere needs the remains of the pivot shaft drilling out and I need to find somewhere that can successfully remove the pivot shaft from the spare trailing arm I have so I can rebuild it all accordingly.

 

We will get there eventually.