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Saturday, January 14, 2017

Triumph Spitfire Engine Rebuild #6

Got a few hours over at the garage this weekend. Family commitments prevented me from getting a full day, but I should get back over there on Tuesday.

The work started cleaning up the front and rear engine plates and the timing chain cover. There isn't too much too these things, but they were rather nasty with that disgusting blue-metallic paint and lots of grime in the nooks and crannies. All of it had been soaking since before the holidays in Purple Power to break down the heavy stuff.

I didn't take a "before" picture of the rear plate, but it was similar.

After a good scrubbing with those brushes in the right side of the picture.

After scrubbing with nylon brushes, I took the knotted wire cup and the angle grinder to everything. The rear plate was easiest as it's just flat. I removed all of the remaining gasket material and easy to get to stuff with that. Then I put them all in the blast cabinet to rough up the surfaces for paint and get in the smaller crevices that the wire wheel couldn't reach.

Close-up after the wire wheel application.

I have no idea what this arrow is for. I didn't put it up to the engine and it may be obvious when I do, but for now...mystery!

Timing chain cover after a visit to the blast cabinet. Not a perfect job.

I chased the few threaded holes in front engine plate with my thread chasers and cleaned out the inside of the hole with round wire brushes. I didn't put any paint on the engine plates because I need to size up the gaskets and see how it's going to fit on the engine so I don't paint anything that is hidden or needs to be clean for gasket application.

I did get two coats of Rust-Oleum high temperature primer (the stuff I mentioned in my last post) on the timing chain cover in preparation for it's top coat of engine paint. Like the way it turned out.

Paint is still wet here, but it will dry "flat".

After that, I gave the bore gauge a try. It took me a bit to get the hang of it, but once I did, it went pretty smooth. I did a video to explain what I was doing because it seemed easier. The video isn't all that great, so I may make another one. I also figured out that I made a mistake or two, so I'm going to repeat the measurements anyway. For now, however, if you want a "mostly" correct way to operate a bore gauge, give the video a shot. It runs about 7 minutes.


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