A TCL First? '67 Rolls Royce project thread...

8 minute(s) of a 242 minute read

i have more, just didnt have time to edit/post them last night.

reassembly starts this afternoon though.


popped the valley cover off of our block and all looks well, no cam damage or any issues from that seized pushrod.
just need to do a little more cleaning, and rechecking the clearance on the new pushrod setup, and shes ready to go back together. all the paint is dry and looking good on the intake parts as well, so that should be exciting going back together

no history, and nothing mentioned by the guy we got it from. car has around 60k on it.
i tried (and i think i mentioned it in a post or two earlier in the thread) to get a hold of the primary owner's kids but with no luck. i was able to get in touch with the estate lawyer but none of the kids ever got back to me. i might pursue that again once it hits the road for real, and just pass on a few photos to the lawyer and see if he can pass those onto the kids... id just like to talk to someone for a few minutes and see where the car was serviced if nothing else! hah
i have mailing addresses, or rather PO boxes, for some of the previous owners so i might try the snail mail approach just for kicks as well...

someone knew what they were doing though as they put on the later style valve cover gasket parts, and the head had obviously been off the car as its spotless, in the ports as well as under the valve cover.
the B bank head looks about as used and oily as id expect though, and it had original looking gaskets.

this is pretty consistent with what ive seen through other parts of the car - that it was maintained at some point but has been sitting for a really long time as of late.

5-3-2012

finally, pics in the thread will be up to date with whats actually going on in the shop


refurb'd brake pumps

action shot!
pulling the valley cover...

everything looking pretty good inside

and just as a comparison, the updated push rod pedestals versus the old ones that came out of the car. its really no surprise why they had oiling issues on the older style setup... where the hell is the oil going to get in there?
and for those of you playing the home game, this was during the test fit up to measure the pushrod length, so the official bolt keepers arent installed yet...

and where i left it... all sealed up (with actual sealer! not silk thread  ) and snugged.

also got most of the upper intake and carb gaskets swapped tonight.

more pics/progress to come in a few days

5-6-2012

some shots from the weekend...

finally, new/clean things going back onto the car









new gaskets, and all buttoned up

5-8-2012

its ready to fire, but this is all you guys get for a while!

ive got a pretty busy week so we'll see when i get to wrench on it next... and i want a second set of eyes during the start up, and we have to retime the ignition as well.

5-15-2012

well good news and some bad news.

good news, the front pump is fixed...
bad news is now the rear doesnt seem to be pumping anything.

unsure yet if its an issue with the priming or if the whole thing needs removal again. folks on RROC saying the rear may be more tricky to prime than the front. we'll see...

planning on taking the upper intake off tonight for closer inspection... will check for pushrod movement/damage (no idea how it could have bent after just starting, but who knows at this point), and checking the pushrod installed height, again.


...and the removal of the carbs has screwed with our idle speed, so thatll have to get sorted out as well.


bit disheartening after all that work to have to start tearing things apart again. doh!

yup

just a buzz kill... we'll see what happens tonight

if the pushrod isnt damaged (which will be an easy check with the upper intake off) then it's something with either bleeding or the pump itself...

stay tuned!

crisis averted!

after a phone call with one of the many helpful RROC folks, i gave it hell with a vacuum bleeder and after a few minutes finally got some fluid moving through the pump while stationary and that was the gentle nudge it needed to pump on its own...

we got the rest of the system bled as well, starting to run dangerously low on RR363 so we might have to kill a few more unicorns for that, but i think we can stretch what we've got to through the remainder of the process.

fluid is now coming out of all the places its supposed to be, and as expected one of the front calipers is seized (more or less open, thankfully) so thatll need doing. and in the process of removing the alternator ive managed to cause the generator light to come on... havent checked batt voltage while running yet to see if its a false alarm or not. easy enough to service if needed though, and it looks generic.


anyway, lot of work to get both brake lights to finally go out, but its done now.

plan at the moment is to spend the weekend sorting out the ignition timing, dle speed, and carb tuning

5-16-2012

planning on meeting up with a local british car guru in a couple days to see if i can pick his brain on the carb stuff... maybe even coax him up to the shop to help me out, we'll see.

need to spend some time cleaning everything up and getting the wheels back on so we can idle it and warm it up outside to do the rest of the tuning... ill get some pictures once its back down on the ground!