Back down to earth
Is the Sixteen fit and ready for a road trip around Europe? Not quite…
The Sixteen had failed on our round Britain test run (PC, Spring 2017) and had to be brought back by the AA. Having mentally thanked my Guild of Motoring Writers’ membership for the free recovery, I stood looking at the Sixteen in her state of non-running and wondered exactly what we had to contend with. It became clear that my theory about a head gasket was right but also that the radiator needed sorting – it just was not allowing enough coolant to flow. Work on the engine itself revealed that the main reason for the smoke pouring out of the back was that the engine was giving about 90 per cent sump compression at 4000rpm. This was deemed to have
been down to lack of efficient rings. A quick discussion with Dave back at the workshop at IK Classics and it was an easy, though not cheap, decision that we had to go for a total stripdown and take a look at exactly what we needed to do. This would give us the chance to have the clutch sorted by Mintex and to clean out all of the journals and oilways inside the block and head and to ensure that Total’s lubrication would be given the optimum opportunity to do its work! Within a couple of days we had the engine stripped right down and the issues became obvious: the rings had been stuck in their position in the bores for so long – fifty two years remember – that, once we had the engine running, it was clear that they had been sticking and were steadily making their grooves
bigger and bigger, thus allowing oil to pass and go straight out of the exhaust. Not a situation that could endure and so I ordered a new set of pistons and rings from F.w.thorntons in Telford, who amazingly had a set of four brand new ones in stock and drew up a list of other items that we would need to rebuild the engine properly. It is at this point that membership of The Austin Counties Car Club came into its own. I’ve been guilty of thinking that I knew enough – WRONG! Having been helped by the Counties folk to get the car, I joined and was now accessing their amazing spares service.
I know it is not unique to this club but, if all others are as good then do please join the right club for your car. In my case I made contact with Ray Dawes who responded to my desperate email and calmly explained what I REALLY needed and arranged for me to visit the Club stores, luckily not too far away from me in West Yorkshire. Ray was calm, collected and pointed out extra items I would need that had not occurred to me. When I finished with Ray I had more than an armful of stuff, including timing chain and tensioner; full and half gasket set; main ends and an oil pump etc. Under £200 changed hands and the rebuild commenced. Within a fortnight Dave had the engine running back in the Austin for under £800 all in.
Once rebuilt, the engine had to be run-in again. I reported to Ian for a briefing on what other changes had been made – the fuel pump on the block had been bypassed and an electric one fitted. We had also decided to fit an in-line fuel filter under the bonnet. This was in addition to the glass fuel bowl on the bulkhead, giving us two visual clues as to when the fuel was getting clogged up and drawing jet-blocking muck! I took the car away from Ian in great expectation, confident in the quality of the work carried out. Suddenly it was ready for the big anniversary run… around Europe.
practicalclassics@bauermedia.co.uk