Sold 1981 Austin Princess - [expletives removed]

[rainagain]

good work! 

[londonm]

Posted Today, 08:21 AM

If you're capable of getting this back on the road, I don't know how old you are, but you should consider setting up a business doing it. It's a real skill and talent and there's people who'd pay you good money for your abilities. Your purchasing of 1980 Princess head gaskets and switches would then be tax deductible

[Guest rovertiman]

This is brilliant!!

 

I love to see any old Austin Morris BL BMC Rover cars brought back to life.  Well done and good luck getting it back on the road!

[vulgalour]

It's been a month, just about, so it's time for some work to be done on this thing, right?  I've been steadily rebuilding the dashboard (no pictures of that) to get it ready to go back in the car and that's looking very nice.  Today I decided to crack on since the weather was okay and get the interior a bit more shipshape.

 

First up was to empty out the car.  I found that someone had been in the car *again* so Dad helped me rejiggle the locks so that I can lock everything.  Getting a bit annoyed with whatever scrote is nosying about my stuff, as is Dad and the neighbour, so another outdoor security light is going up and we're investigating cameras too.  Nothing has been taken, there's nothing of worth to your average scrote to take, but yet again it's the principle of the matter.

 

The seats came out very easily, which was nice.  I refitted the glovebox and pulled out the remains of the completely ruined original carpet, even I couldn't save what was left of it.  Car must be staying nice and dry, the cat poo that was under the passenger seat had dessicated and was terrific fun* to clean up after the carpet was removed.

 

Goodbye manky old carpet.

 

I sorted through the three carpet sets I have, one the original from my HL and two of them my 99p eBay purchase.  None of the carpets were perfect, but all of them were better than what was in and now that it's fitted the car looks far more inviting.

 

After much deliberation I've put the very rare contrast-pipe seats in the HLS too.  Fact is, I'm more comfortable as a driver in the HL seats and as a passenger in the HLS seats so for me it makes sense to keep the excellent HL seats I have and put these in the HLS.  They also match the carpets better than the original seats.

 

 

So what's to do now?

 

Interior

C Pillar interior trims - I've got replacements, need to modify them to accept the HLS courtesy lights

Headlining - probably won't get done in my ownership.

Dashboard - rebuild and make sure it all works.  Two telltales need new filters

Seats - bolt them down, swap the rear seat back for the contrast piping one

Mirror - I accidentally headbutted it off, need to put it back on again

Door cards - passenger front needs some regluing, both passenger ones need cleaning

Window winders - rear driver's door needs an '81 winder and spacer

Parcel shelf - Needs retrimming

Sun visors - replacement HL items to fit.

 

Mechanical

Rear passenger side - new sphere, handbrake cable, brake line, drum backplate and shoes to fit

Rear drivers side - new shoes to fit

Engine - valve stem seals, core plugs, head gasket, timing belt and waxstat to fit and test.

Tyres - using the wheels and tyres from the HL as they're okay and MoT-able

Exhaust - find and resolve blow

There's going to be more things, I just haven't found them yet

 

Exterior

Rust - tidy up localised areas of surface rust.

Bootlid - replacement to fit that isn't rotted through.

 

 

There really isn't much to do.  I reckon with enough good weather, time and drive I could have this sorted by February.

[Shep Shepherd]

I had no idea that Princesses were available with contrasting piping on their seats. Looks pretty classy, in an Abagail's Party sort of way

[vulgalour]

I'm told the seats are very rare.  Indeed, I've never seen another set in pictures or real life so I'm inclined to agree with what I've been told.  They don't look like a retrim either, they've got that factory look about them.

[Shep Shepherd]

Could they be usurped Ambassador seats?

[vulgalour]

Levers are wrong and the rear seat doesn't fold so they're not Ambassador.

[Shep Shepherd]

I thought as much (after I posted my reply!) from the design of the backs of the front seats.

[HMC]

Those seats look mega comfy! They contrast well with the paintwork. Survived well too, presumably out of a low mileage motah

[vulgalour]

No idea, they were 99p and delivered courtesy of wata..DUGONG DELIVERY SERVICES.  They are a little bit more comfortable than they look, dangerously so, if you thought bed gravity on Monday morning was bad you've experienced nothing compared to these seats.

[vulgalour]

Today I got a big part of the way to getting the HLS running by getting the entire head cleaned up and rebuilt ready to go back in the car.  I've never rebuilt a head before, but I have to say that on the whole I quite enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to doing this again for the HL when I've found a head that I can actually strip down fully properly and that doesn't have ruined bolt holes.

 

At the trouble end of the engine lived the worst of the valves.  This crusty deposit was pretty powdery and looked a lot like it was burnt oil deposit.  This would make more sense later.

 

With the rest of the valves out it was clear that they all needed lapping to get them looking and performing their best again.  I found this bit quite therapeutic.  All the valves were kept in the cardboard and numbered in the correct order so they could go back in the head without issue.

 

Same with the springs, plates and cotters so that I didn't lose or disorganise anything though no need for numbers in this instance since they were just put in order on the tissue paper.

 

With the valves out I could properly inspect the head and I found that it was actually perfectly, beautifully straight.  No need for a skim or testing here, this will bolt straight back onto the car.  I did spend some time cleaning up the face and lapping the valve seats but I didn't go crazy with polishing or anything like that.  I just want the engine back together and working without fear of it exploding rather than attempting to win prizes.

 

A close up of the state of things before any cleaning or lapping was done.

 

After cleaning all the various bits up before they went back in it was time to remove the valve stem seals.  This was actually really easy because the valve stems hadn't been fitted correctly and just fell out.  They should - according to the manual - be located on the valve stem and sit under the valve spring seat and are then compressed into place.  Unusually, only 4 stem seals are fitted and only to the inlet valves even though eight are provided in the gasket set.  I did things according to the manual so hopefully I haven't done it wrong.  Whoever had fitted the stem seals before had pushed them onto the valve stem after the spring plate and they were free to ride up and down the valve stem doing absolutely nothing to stop oil getting where it shouldn't.  Probably explains in part the big cloud of oil smoke out the exhaust when we fired the car up earlier this year.

 

Do you like my classy workbench?  Old speaker cases are pretty knackered, but they're just right for this job.  I would like to find the creator of split cotters and punch them in the face, they have to be one of the most annoying and fiddly things I've yet done on a car.

 

Halfway.

 

Fresh core plugs were also fitted to the head, along with a new gasket for the end plate.

 

 

Camshaft also had new seals fitted at both ends so that should stop leaking oil everywhere.  The old seal was very hard and plasticy just like the valve stem seals had gone.

 

We then spent some time cleaning the distributor up and fitting that with a new O-ring to hopefully stop the oil leak from there, the old O-ring was not too dissimilar in appearance to a tie wrap and not really sealing anything.

 

The rocker cover was given some Rhinoseal to ensure the best possible fit and once bolted down the fuel pump was likewise sealed.  Hopefully all this means the head won't leak at all.

 

I'm very pleased with the end result, it looks very smart.

 

I will be bolting the head onto the block tomorrow, the timing sorted and the manifold bolted up.  I've got fresh oil, antifreeze and timing belt to go on and providing I've done all this correctly the engine should run very nicely.  I'll likely have to borrow the battery and spark plugs from the HL as I forgot I had to get some of those and I don't fancy shopping for them at the moment.

 

If I get enough time I'll do some more work getting the interior bolted down.  Once the brake line arrives I can look at moving the car under its own power properly as at the moment I have no brakes due to having to cut a rear hose to get the displacer arm off.

 

Happy days.

[michael1703]

Them seats look minging, bet they took a lot of lapping to get a good seal

 

I often clean the mating face up with fine wet n dry paper lubricated by not water but gt85 or similar, it's an OCD thing I do where I think shiny as possible equals good seal.

 

Do you know the unipart number for the head gasket?

[vulgalour]

The worst of the valves did need a fair amount of effort to get the deposits off and get them back something like.  The theory is that the car had blown the head gasket at some point, and someone had been in to do the valve stem seals and done it wrong.  To help correct things, it appears the timing was advanced a long way and the mixture was made very rich which in turn lead to heavy carbon deposit and oil getting to places it shouldn't and cooking.  Wear inside the head is actually pretty minimal, much less than expected for the 140,000 or so miles the car has done, but it's clear there's been some serious mechanical neglect going on. Thankfully, the O series seems to be a tough old lump and is pretty simple to work on so I'm optimistic this engine won't through anything too appalling at me.

 

I have no idea what the Unipart number is for the head gasket

[michael1703]

I asked as I've got a load of unidentified head gaskets and thought they were bl

[vulgalour]

I was curious, so I had a look at the packaging.  The set I got is an FAI (with Asbestos) brand and has "Equivalent to DD970" if that's of use?  Other than that, I still don't know and I don't know how you'd find out.

[666jjp]

does this help?

 

http://www.autopartoo.com/oem/payen/dd970.html

[Parky]

Bit off topic but I do like your new Avatar Vulgalour. My initials are RP so i am tempted to do something similar with the BP logo - if I can be arsed of course.

 

I know what you mean about lapping in valves, there is something about head work that is (as you say) therapeutic. Not sure i would say that about a screwed K series of course!

[purplebargeken]

Nice work mate. I did the same on my Triumph Toledo. A bit stressful as I had never done anything like that before and in the end, the only hassle was the wrong head gasket and getting the head off on my own with a knackered back.

 

One thing to bear in mind is that the valve seats will now likely have lost their 'leaded memory', you might need to use an additive from now on.

 

Chuck me your address details via PM. I haz something for you. Nowt OTT special mind. 

[vulgalour]

PM incoming... but how can an engine designed to run on unleaded from new lose it's leaded memory?

[Des]

Did you have to do the valve clearances? I like to think getting them on the loose side of tolerance is a good defense against unleaded, your valve seats are inserts which are pretty much fairly certainly deffo likely to be hard as a whores heart, and if they ever weren't, they'll have been work hardened by now.

[vulgalour]

Just like the rest of the whore... hmm, useful engine analogy.  I did not have to do the valve clearances, I'm far from an expert, but it all sat better and moved better after the work on the head than before it was stripped down so I daresay things are improved.

[purplebargeken]

Ah, ok. If it was designed for UL then all is well. I got carried away with old Triumph recollections. 

[vulgalour]

My arms have fallen off, I am typing this with my FACE.  That might not be true.  Anyway, plans to just bolt the head on and maybe the ancillaries were thwarted today when I found out that the cylinders were not where I'd left them.  When the head was removed everything was timed accordingly and all was well, but something has moved at some point, possibly when I had the invader in the car, possibly when I jacked up the rear end to steal the sphere.

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't rotate the pulleys or the crank to the correct point with the rear corner in the air in part because of resistance but also because I don't have a socket big enough for the crank pulley to turn it by hand.

 

That meant I had to rebuild the back corner to get the car back on it's wheels.

> Fit bust sphere (attached to trailing arm) from HL.

> Fit crosstube bracket

> Jack up and bolt crosstube to bodyshell

> Tighten pivot shaft bolts to keep the trailing arm in place

> Bolt good drum backplate onto arm

> Fit outer drum

> Tighten hub nut

> Refit wheel

> Attach hydragas pipe

> Fail to attach new brake hose that arrived today because of more stubborn fixings

> Put the car on the floor.

 

 

All that meant I could then rock the car (only the driver's side handbrake now works, fun) in gear to get the timing where it should be before bolting the head on.  I had made a mistake when putting the head together too, fitting an O ring to the camshaft that shouldn't be there so I had to remove the rocker cover and fuel pump, both of which were pretty firmly sealed thanks to the Rhinoseal, so I could remove it before rebolting and sealing it all again.

 

Once I'd got the head ready and the timing ready we put the car in neutral and bolted the head to the block with a nice fresh head gasket.  It was rapidly getting very cold and very dark so I haven't fitted any ancillaries, the timing belt or even torqued the head down.

 

Before

 

After  apologies for shaky potato-cam, I was very cold.

 

 

But it's nice to see the car back on it's wheels again and the engine bay is looking far better for having the head sorted out, I hadn't realised just how much cleaner and better it now looks compared to how it arrived.

 

There will now follow a period of sitting and drinking of sherry so that I might properly recover.

[Lankytim]

These donks can run on UL? are you sure? I had a 1.6 Maestro which had eaten a valve due to unleaded pez.

[vulgalour]

Absolutely positive.  The HL has been running on Unleaded and was much happier for it too as the previous owner was running with UL+additive.  They'll happily run on 4-star if you want to as well, but they don't need to.  The optimum octane rated fuel is the superduperwuper unleaded stuff but I just run the HL on regular and I get no ill effects at all.  I asked around a lot to confirm I didn't need additives and these don't.

 

If your Maestro was an early R series I think they needed 4-star and I think the E series in the Princess (the bigger 2.2 straight six) needs 4 star too but the O series (1.7 and 2.0) in the Princess and the later S series 1.6 in the Maestro both take unleaded with no bother.

[alf892]

Good work.....

 

I don't want to be the voice of doom but you really should check those tappets though. Quiet is not good.....

[vulgalour]

I can't figure out what you're telling me.  Check the tappets for what, exactly?  Why is quiet bad?

[alf892]

This reply was delayed by snow!!

 

Well.......the last time they will have been set is when the head was last built up and you already suspect him to be a numpy.

 

Any wear to the valve seat or guide (since last setting) will close the gap between the cam lobe and follower (or tappet). If this gap gets to small it can mean the valve will be held slightly open when everything warms up and clearances are reduced. This would cause poor running as the valve is not sealing will burnt the valve if ignored. Difficult to ignore though as it will run shit. So if tappets are quiet and have not beeen checked you don't know.....gap should be 18 thou and I would go no more than 6 under.

 

My old gaffer used to mutter that a noisey tappet is a happy one!

 

If it runs OK and smooth when hot it might be OK.........

[Lankytim]

Mine was an S series, I read that they wont take UL but i'm prepared to be proved wrong!