Joined: August 12, 2012, 6:38 pm Posts: 1937 Location: worcester county, Massachsetts
a.moore wrote:
Along with the panhard bar I also wanted to figure out a nicer oil catch can/crankcase breather. I ended up using some tubing to fabricate a catch can with an air oil separator at the top. The AOS uses a special patented media.....which is available in the kitchen cleaning supply section of your favorite store.
Hey Andrew, talk to me about your air-oil separator. the B-3 is having an oil loss issue, that I'm pretty convinced is due to oil vapor venting out the breather and not condensing and returning to the crankcase.
it doesn' smoke (new rebore as of 8/2014, new valve stem seals as of about the same time frame), it doesn't leak (as in, no stains/droplets on the floor), but its losing about 1/2 quart in about a week of normal commuting.
the XS850 engione has a box cast into the top fo the crankcase from which exits the breather port, and I'm thinking that box should have some sort of oil-condensinsing media within. how well does your separator work?
Joined: November 9, 2007, 3:40 pm Posts: 4076 Location: Pittsburgh, PA
I honestly have no idea up to this point. The engine doesn't leak any more oil* than what it did with a hose going into a 1 quart bottle so it at least breathes no worse. I need to pull the separator and try to drain it - that will probably be a good indicator. I'll give it a shot over the weekend and see whats in there.
*key word being more...its British and doesn't have a real rear main seal so there is always a little leak
Joined: August 12, 2012, 6:38 pm Posts: 1937 Location: worcester county, Massachsetts
a.moore wrote:
I honestly have no idea up to this point. The engine doesn't leak any more oil* than what it did with a hose going into a 1 quart bottle so it at least breathes no worse. I need to pull the separator and try to drain it - that will probably be a good indicator. I'll give it a shot over the weekend and see whats in there.
*key word being more...its British and doesn't have a real rear main seal so there is always a little leak
Thanks in advance.
since my last post I've found out that the Yammie dioes have a part in ther called the "Oil Separator", which is a small tubular plastic fitting that gets pushed into a hole. it would not surprise me to find that when the middle cylinder was expeirencing high blowby and pressurizing the crankcase, it pushed that plastic fitting out of its hole (or otherwise damaged it), such that the oil and air are no longer being separated.
Sounds like that would do it. I didn't get it removed this weekend; have it on the list for tomorrow evening.
TooBusy wrote:
ummmm that last pic looks like too many connecting rods for a Sprite.
Look a little closer at both sets - its a hint of things to come.
you really shaved some weight and smoothed things up. I didn't look closely at the wrist pin bosses the first time. The scale should have been a dead giveaway.
_________________ Too much week, not enough weekend.
Joined: November 9, 2007, 3:40 pm Posts: 4076 Location: Pittsburgh, PA
There is quite a bit of weight I left since this is my first time doing this. I removed about 40g per rod and based on what other people have done I could have easily done another 40g. The first official test will come next weekend at the PVGP Historics at Pittrace. If the track time used for break-in and tuning was any indication, it seems to run well and has noticeably more torque than the engine its replacing.
A few weeks ago I headed up to Canada for the Canadian Historic Grand Prix at Mosport (fine - Canadian Tire Motorsport Park...because Mosport obviously had no history and was too difficult to say). The new engine was assembled in time but there was no time to install it and run it so the stock 1275 had to make weekend #3 for the year.
I discovered that my lack of power at Summit Point was the result of a seriously blown head gasket. I've had good luck up to this point with the laminated copper gaskets but this one blew between all cylinders. The block and head only met when I assembled them so who knows if either one was straight or if one went one way and one went the other.
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Fortunately neither was damaged. The head had 0.0015"-0.002" of waviness (didn't measure the block) and a friend was kind enough to skim it. The Monday before Mosport I bolted it back on with a new composition head gasket, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best.
VARAC put on a great weekend with ~200 entries and there seemed to be a decent crowd of spectators for it only being an amateur racing event. It was nice having racing and cars on display throughout the weekend (there were classic Minis everywhere). An R8 even made an appearance - I was surprised at how large it was in person but it looked really good making some brisk parade laps:
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Mosport is a pretty amazing track. The elevation changes make it a roller coaster ride lap after lap. The uphill climb on the back stretch really made the 1275 work but the rest of the track was about carrying as much speed as possible through turns.
There was great racing all weekend but the morning and afternoon sessions on Sunday were my best since there were several of us running in a pack for most of each session (including an Abarth 1000TC that I had watched run at numerous PVGPs as a spectator). Sadly the GoPro battery died on the grid in the morning so some great on track action was missed but I was able to get it recharged for the afternoon.
The chase to the finish starts at around the 14:00 mark.
Fortunately the head gasket survived the weekend. I think I'll be sticking to the Payan composition ones from here on out - no more copper unless I absolutely have to.
Prior to the CHGP I figured it was about time to make the Sprite look a little better. After several cans of aircraft stripper I had the car to the point where I could start reapplying Bondo. I removed at least 2 if not 3 coats of paint - it wouldn't surprise me if some areas were 0.040" thick.
It was a quick job that will definitely not be confused with concourse quality but it should be good enough. On the plus side I did a great job duplicating factory fresh orange peel from GM. And yes it is a $75 job using Rustoleum thinned 40% with acetone and applied with a foam roller.
Joined: August 19, 2014, 5:17 pm Posts: 685 Location: England
Brilliant thread We were brought up on a diet of these little engines, they were in just about everything BMC/Leyland/Austin/Morris made. There are loads of tweeks that can liven one up, the SU carbs respond well to oil/ damper spring changes , plenty of cam choices and if they are forbidden for class reasons some offset bushes in the rockers work well David Vizard wrote the bible on these engines http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/David-Vizard- ... 1915210118.
Joined: November 9, 2007, 3:40 pm Posts: 4076 Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Actually have a copy of that book sitting right next to my desk Bob. Great read and he is a wealth of knowledge. I'd like to know what secrets were too good to put in the book (I'm sure there were a few).
vroom wrote:
So Andrew you don't actually have a job or family, right?
Believe it or not I am actually employed (and full time at that!) Fortunately the forum doesn't make me share real time so I can condense weeks of work done two or three hours at a time into one post and make it look like I was on a garage rampage.
I stopped looking at the ratio of track time to wrench time. It was kind of depressing.
Joined: June 12, 2012, 8:40 pm Posts: 475 Location: Mount Airy, NC
Both the wrenching ratio and travel time figured in my decision to quit. The Glen was close but the next closest was Nelson Ledges at 4 hours. I had one weekend at Nelson where I had problems in the first practice and had to go home. All that prep work, 8 hours of driving plus expenses for 10 minutes on track.
Karting was much better. Minimal maintenance, a 16 race series less than an hour from home. I ran in two classes so that was 3 practice sessions and 4 races in one day. It didn't hurt that I won frequently either.
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Thanks for the ride along.
We were brought up on a diet of these little engines, they were in just about everything BMC/Leyland/Austin/Morris made. There are loads of tweeks that can liven one up, the SU carbs respond well to oil/ damper spring changes , plenty of cam choices and if they are forbidden for class reasons some offset bushes in the rockers work well 
David Vizard wrote the bible on these engines 