The problem with posting a picture is that it's almost impossible to get a true representation of the colour.

Whilst I'm waiting for my oil pump to be refurbished to contine my engine rebuild, I have turned my attention to restoring my dashboard. I have a new red leather seat cover set and partial trim kit (both bought as new from e-bay, but they are the Moss kits). I need to source some matching Rexine (or...

Thanks Tom, very helpful as usual. I've now taken the gears out and they are both looking good and are exactly the same height. The difference in clearance is therefore down to the body of the pump itself and new gears will not cure it. I guess that this is either wear in the bottom of the body or t...

I've been looking at my XPAG oil pump and the clearances between the gears and the oil pump cover are 4 thou (for the driven gear) and 8 thou (for the driving gear on the shaft that leads to the camshaft). The advised clearance is 2 to 4 thou so I need to change the driving gear, but they are only s...

I few posts ago I asked a question and it's got a little lost in the subsequent discussion so I thought that I would ask it again. Does anyone know a UK supplier where I can get a thicker than standard banana head gasket? I would like to reduce my compression a little from 9.5:1. I could get a cylin...

I've now gone back and measured my original skimmed cylinder head volumes so that I could accurately determine the compression ratio. If anyone needs to do it, it's quite easy. I got an old CD case and drilled two holes in it, I then took a beaker of water, weighed it on some digital kitchen scales,...

Hi Chris,

If you want to run a test with my dynamo you would be welcome to borrow it. When I bought the car it had been taken off but it had 'ok' written on the side of it which, at this stage, I'm taking to mean that it had been tested and was working.

Regards
Steve

I looked at Steve's and thought that it should be in a little deeper so that the mounting plate can sit flat against the block. I was going to put a bit of thread lock on mine to get a proper seal and so that it can be removed again without the problem that you had.

Should there be a screw-in plug in the end of the oil gallery (the large threaded hole in the picture)? There wasn't one in my engine but it doesn't seem right that the hole is only sealed with the clamping force of the engine mounting bracket. I had a look at the picture in the Moss catalogue but c...

Managed to get them in now. The problem was mostly my lack of experience and technique. The steel rings that sit on the expander spacer were particularly difficult as they are so thin that it's easy for them to slip out between the ring compression tool and the block. By holding the compression tool...

The steel ring slides around quite freely on the expander so I'm fairly sure that it's seated properly and not catching, but I'll check again.

Maybe it just takes more force to compress these rings against the tendancy of the expander to resist than I was expecting?

This may take a little bit of describing... I'm currently fitting the piston rings and have placed them one by one in the bores to make sure that the gaps are within tolerances - they all are. The top two rings go on the pistons no problem and I can slip the pistons into the bores with the aid of my...

I think that it's 20 for the quarter panels (or 0.9mm in metric). If you go thicker it's harder to bend it around the curves, if you go thinner, it's harder to weld without blow through.

Now sourced

I've now acquired a second head as a back up. It's never been skimmed so is full thickness. Is it worth cutting in the larger valves and doing some work on the inlet ports or is it best left stock? I'll be replacing the guides as a minimum.

I took a more literal interpretation - I thought that you were on a sailing holiday between some lesser know Greek islands

Since may well have to replace my flywheel and refurbish the rest of the clutch, I was wondering about upgrading to an 8" clutch. With the right flywheel is this just a straight swap?

Indeed so. Apparently it can happen when the machine shop sets the block in the skimming machine using the sump mating face as the datum point rather than the axis that the crank runs in. I really don't want to deck it again just for a 4 thou correction on the piston travel. A rough calculation sugg...

Hi Tom, Thanks for your very helpful reply. I suspect that my engine has had a very hard life and was used for racing. It feels like it was close to being a write off but that it's just the right side of recoverable. I'm not too worried about the 0.1mm (4 thou) difference between the piston heights ...

Does anyone know what the deck height should be on a TC XPAG engine? I've just tested fitted my pistons and they range between 0.15mm (6 thou) and 0.25mm (10 thou) above the block. I'm having to buy a shim plate anyway to reduce the compression due to the head being skimmed to its limit, but I'm won...