Hoping you just lost one that was never fully seated (assembly error, burr on valve stem, etc) and got lucky that the single remaining one held.
It can happen. Ive seen it.
Of course it would be great if somehow it was "just an extra" lol... but I would guess that to be less likely un less someone replaced seals or springs, etc with the head on.
Can't wait to see, and wishing for the best.
All keepers in place.
I'm about 99.2% certain. A couple valves are in positions at the moment where it's difficult to see but really the 0.8% doubt is because I can't really believe it. Once the car is off rollers to do the valve adjustment I'll be able to confirm.
The only evidence of something bad happening is this strange chunk taken out of the VC gasket. Maybe the "spare" keeper was stuck somewhere, got dislodged, smacked that place and found it's way to the sump. From what I can see the chain guide looks fine.
Depending on availability and my work schedule, I may just have to reuse this gasket which wouldn't be ideal but is better than missing Schenley.
Waiting for the last 0.8%.
Like you, I would be more surprised to find an extra keeper than an out of place one.
I love engines. They do the strangest things sometimes.
Nothing in the world more interesting than going into an engine trying to answer "why".
Well, I checked and checked and checked until I consciously said to myself that I needed to stop or I would go insane. All keepers are in place.
No pics but valves adjusted, new VC gasket installed, various vacuum plugs and hoses replaced, throttle cable adjusted, coolant overflow tank emptied, dead pedal reinstalled (it was loose after the impact in the fall), brakes bled, suspension lowered, hood pins adjusted and probably other things I have forgotten.
Work breaks today will be vacuuming the interior and tidying up anything else I can find. Tomorrow it goes in for an alignment and new wet tires (HS4s) which it looks like I'll be using a lot this weekend.
Early start this morning to get the E21 to my friend's shop for the alignment and... Elmore wouldn't start. Flooded. Waited a few and it started right up. Ran great last night pulling the trailer out of the woods.
Last night I attempted to bleed Elmore's brakes but couldn't get a good enough seal on the MC to hold more than 5psi. Today? Leaking like crazy.
Joy. I'm guessing by wiping off the gasket I moved some gunk around that was helping to seal the thing but maybe I need to crack a bleeder somewhere to relieve pressure? Doesn't make sense to me.
Just a nice shot of Hatchet to start off the Schenley recap post.
Really the only bad news from the weekend is that Elmore didn't make the trip. I had a difficult time finding a replacement gasket for the MC cap. I finally found what I thought was the right number, had my friend order it and, it was wrong. OK, not a deal breaker but towing with the master leaking like that isn't ideal. I then started to look into the starting issue and why it flooded so bad so quickly.
The carb was leaking from many places. I had seen a slight weep from the spacer when I pulled it from storage but it hadn't changed until now. This also probably explains why the bowls are always empty if it sits for over a week - the gas is just leaking down into the intake. So on my way to all day meetings on Thursday, I got a 4160 and 4150 rebuild kit ordered to my local parts store because I wasn't sure off the top of my head which one it is. After taking a closer look, I determined it's a 4160 (one metering block), bought that kit and got to work. Well, the kit wasn't totally right so, wife's truck it was unfortunately. It's nice towing at 72-75 mph instead of 60-65 mph but it sort of felt a little empty not being in the big old truck.
I set up in mostly the same spot as last year but closer to some shade.
Saturday morning practice was fun. Hatchet ran great, we passed a lot of people and just generally had a good time. I equaled my best time from last year a 2:31 in that session putting me 9th fastest in my group (30+ cars). Saturday afternoon a huge thunder/lightening/wind storm came through and canceled racing from about 2:30PM on.
Sunday morning was a 20 minute qualifying session. I again fought through traffic for about 2/3 of the session and then once I got clear, the car ahead of me spun into the jersey barriers on the last turn which meant a local caution down through the Sepentine through that corner. Even with that, I ran 3 seconds faster, qualifying 12th with a 2:28.
There was then a ton of waiting around for our Under 2.0L race and by the time we got there I was hot, tired and really not quite in it mentally. I ran hard for the first half of the race but then the brakes started to feel soft and the tires got a bit overheated and the pace just wasn't there. I think I ended in 13th but I never got a chance to check timing and scoring.
Overall it was a great weekend once again. I'm really at a point with the car where I need to decide it's future. The car and I are competing in the top half of the grid and I know from talking with other racers that the level of prep on my car is way, way below theirs. 30-year old DIY coilovers, partially working drum brakes in the rear and a bone stock engine just doesn't compare to a built/tuned M10, big disc brakes all around and always fresh suspension. Oh and tires that aren't 5 seasons old - I never replaced the Hoosiers afterall.
The car has done for me what I initially bought it to do. I earned my racing license and have gotten some good track time out of it. Do I put some real money into it and race it for another 5 years or do I move on? Hm.
EDIT: I just found the results and I finished in 12th with a quickest lap of 2:27.
Sounds to me like you could make minor investments (tires only maybe) which could bump you big time. I say ...hold. Don't move on. If I have a vote. Cool car, moving quickly...and you know it well. Wring it out a little more.
Carry on.
In reply to jh36 :
You absolutely have a vote and you're in line with all other votes I've received so far.
Tentative list of things to maybe hit Blackhawktoberfest (but I actually don't see it on the schedule this year). The only other option really would be The Glen with VRG in September.
Elmore is alive again and starts like, right now. Top tip, check your float level before installing the carb.
Also, the MC gasket is NLA but check out the packaging for the new-old stock one I found.
As for Hatchet. Disc brake conversions seem to entail having to machine the hubs down while new backing plates for drums are NLA and there don't see to be any right side ones anywhere.
Between prepping Hatchet for Schenley and getting Elmore running again, the Healey hadn't moved for like two weeks. We left yesterday morning for a week away so I figured I had to carve out time Friday night to blow the cobwebs out.
We blew 'em all out.
It's raining today and Sven sits outside so the rest of the fire system has to wait. I don't have a hub puller and can't go to the store at the moment so the E21 rear brakes are on hold as well. What can I accomplish? Ugh, finally replace the trans pan on Elmore with the new cast one I bought.
Since pulling the pan really isn't a good time, I decided to check once again for any other places the leak could be coming from. Cooler lines are tight. Hm. What about the dipstick tube...
Bingo! It's sort of hard to see but there's definitely fluid coming from there. Easy to see why.
The o-ring was totally rock hard.
So, another project I can't finish right now as I don't have the replacement o-ring but hopefully this shores up the leak. I'm going to hold onto the new pan just in case.
I'm a dope and I do have a hub puller. Still stuck as I've got to either make, or have made, the caliper brackets and I don't have any material to make them with.
Elmore towed great to Pitt this weekend and the transmission leak *seems* to be fixed but it also hasn't sat a ton recently which is when it shows up. Fingers crossed.
The Healey has gotten relatively little use as of late but it got some exercise this evening. Hoping to drive it a lot over the next month before it goes away for the winter.
As for the E21 it's still exactly as pictured above. I haven't had time to get to the metal store for the aluminum to make the caliper brackets.
Awesome pic
The Healey got an oil change and fresh plugs today. Left to right is 1-6. The picture doesn't really show clearly but I read them as the front carb running a bit lean with 3 and 5 burning a little oil. I threw fresh NGKs in and richened up the front carb.
I also pulled the idle up a bit. It tends to idle closer to 500 rpm when nice and hot rather than the ~750 target.
I've never had working cluster lights in Elmore. Last week I pulled the cluster and put in new bulbs fully expecting that to make no difference and...it didn't. I then went about wiggling and turning the knob on the headlight switch and was able to get them to light up periodically - so switch it is.
I don't know about everyone else but I'd say the switch was bad.
Of course the 5 minute job turned into 25 when the mounting screw broke off in the switch. The new switch didn't come with a new screw so I had to introduce the offset bracket to the flap disk.
Either way, we've now got lights!
In other news, I went to take the Healey out last night and it started puking oil everywhere. I guess I didn't get the o-ring for the oil filter housing seated properly. I was supposed to pick up my dad to go pick up his birthday dinner so I got it all cleaned up, topped off the oil and tightened it down but it's still got a leak. It goes into storage this week or next weekend so hopefully I can find time to pull it apart, get it fixed and drive it a few more times.
So, yeah, I didn't get the o-ring for the oil filter housing seated correctly.
The oil filter came with a similar one so I threw it in. The leak seems to be 95%+ gone. I'm definitely planning a spin on conversion next spring.
It's been a fun time here as of late... I had last Friday off and Elmore's MC had then developed a leak out of the back of the cylinder so bad that there were puddles forming on the floor board. I figured it time to replace it. The new one looked identical to the old, guessed I'd have it swapped in 20 min.
Everything came apart with no issue. As I was bench bleeding the new one, I realized the size of the fittings for the ports were swapped so before putting the new master in, I cut the lines, swapped the fittings and re-flared the lines. Next was the simple task of bolting the master to the fire wall... the holes were off by about 1/16". I hogged them out and was able to cross thread the holes in the firewall just enough to get it mounted.
I hooked up the pressure bleeder which, even with the brand new master, wouldn't seal well enough to get over like 8psi of pressure. I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. Right rear bleeds no problem. Can't get the bleed screw cracked open on the left rear. PB and move on. Got both fronts bled. Went back to the left rear and still no dice. I soaked it over the next couple days and asked a friend to come Sunday night to help manually bleed them. Disaster. I finally got the bleeder to move but then it wouldn't tighten back down and seal. We shot over to the parts store for a new bleed screw but then were unable to get the old bleeder out!
I decided that I just needed to replace the wheel cylinder (turns out it was weeping anyway so that was a good move) and started to disassemble the brakes to find out it's a full floating rear end which means the axle needs to come out. The truck was parked about 20 inches from the garage wall...
The next day I got it moved to the driveway and got the offending cylinder out. See the lengths we went to get that bleeder out?
The next headache was the e-brake assembly. What is supposed to be a stud with splines has the splines totally rusted away meaning it just spun when I tried to loosen the castle nut.
I put as much outward pressure as I felt comfortable using on the e-brake arm and put the impact on it. That worked and it's now replaced with a 1/4-20 grade 8 bolt with a nyloc. I also had to run all over town yesterday morning looking for a place with a 2 9/16 socket for the axle nut.
My friend came back last night, we got everything back together and everything bled. Annoyingly, the brand new MC still leaks through the cap. Maybe we overfilled it? The fluid level is just less than a cm from the top.
Not concerning enough to not get both the truck and Healey to storage before potential snow this weekend. Sheesh.
AxeHealey said:Between prepping Hatchet for Schenley and getting Elmore running again, the Healey hadn't moved for like two weeks. We left yesterday morning for a week away so I figured I had to carve out time Friday night to blow the cobwebs out.
We blew 'em all out.
Ever thought about a BN1 or BN2 folding windshield?
Just curious... I like the setup you have.
In reply to a_florida_man :
I hadn't but would be all for it!
In reply to AxeHealey :
Yeah, the folding windshield would go really well with everything you have going on here... it all just looks right.
What size tires and wheels?
In reply to a_florida_man :
The tires are Vredestein Sprint Classics 165HR-15s and the wheels are Minators, 15x5.5.
Thanks, by the way. I'm really happy with how it's come together.
Yeah it really catches every line and curve just right, the stance. I think you changed all of the right things... I hope to get to see it in person one day.
Do you know the treadwear # on the Vredesteins?
In reply to a_florida_man :
If you're ever up this way, you have an open invite to swing by!
The car is in storage as of today so I can't confirm but Tire Rack says 220. I've never noticed a lack of grip but I wouldn't have guessed that. What I can say is that they definitely look the part but are also loud as all get out.
Thanks, and likewise if you are ever down here for the challenge...
And BTW its a Healey and you are telling me the tires are loud? That leaves me a little concerned... lol
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