Urraco Engine Rebuild Latest
On Friday I picked up my new pistons and liners from Colin Clarke Engineering. He has nearly completed the work on the Muira he has been working on recently. What a car and in the fabulous Pistachio Green.
Good day turned to a bad one however when I took the parts to my engine rebuilders at Modus. They have discovered a crack in the engine block. Its not to bad and can be fixed but its not what you want to hear.
Pictures of good and bad attached.
Tony
Dear Tony, I have owned an Urraco for 20 years -LHD P200- and have done a considerable amount of work on it. Did your engine have back pressure in the oil sump? Did you get oil and air out of the breather pipe if you had ever disconnected the breather pipe from the inlet manifold? I might be coming in a bit late but if you have not found the root cause of the problem I might be able to give answers.
My problem s that my car wobbles or wonders on bumpy roads , something it didnot do in the past. Suspension is stiff so I would not consider replacing shockers etc . I read in your blog that the culprit is likely to be the front (and possibly rear) suspension strut mountings. You named a person, Robert Box , who could help. Could you please send me his contact details and any other info you thnk might help me solve my problem.
Kind regards
Pan
Pan, I’m sorry not to have answered your query before for some reason the notification on my web site was turned off. On the engine I’m pretty sure the answer was simple wear and tear. The piston rings couldn’t cope with the gap which was over 9 thousandths. A full engine rebuild is under way.
on the suspension, There are two likely causes that cause this wobbling the standard bushes or the bottom joints on the suspension are all subject to wear. Or as you have read the top mounts. These are no longer available and it would appear that no one knows where the originals came from. I have been working with Rob on a fix using a very inexpensive Volvo mount. We are both of the opinion that you should change the original suspension geometry as little as possible. The only additional part required is a spacer to make the hole in the Volvo mount match the shaft on the strut. Rob is a mechanical engineer who currently works for Aston Martin and previously was with Lotus he designed the spacers and checked that the geometry would work.
I have made prepared a set of these mounts and spacers for my car. However because my engine has not yet been finished I have not had a chance to see how they perform. If you are interested in a set and trying them out on your car you could certainly try them and see if they sort out your problem? If they don’t we can take them back. If they do you can buy them. We will sort out a price in advance.
Let me know what you think.
Contact me by e mail tony.wates@googlemail.com