Part 6: Oil Pan Removal and the Undersides

It was good thing we did some of the engine work outside and used a dolly to move the engine between the shop and outside, because here in this picture, the tilting of the engine caused fluids to spill out.  The dolly was a wooden dolly that Fred had built with spare wheels and we screwed some L-shaped pieces of wood together to snuggly hold the engine.

The bolts for the oil pan came out easily like most of the bolts on the engine.  In the picture below, Chris is prying the oil pan off by breaking the gasket seal.

It's hard to tell in this picture but there is a 1/4" layer of oil sludge at the bottom of the oil pan.

A look at the underside of the engine.

Part 5: Engine Block Cleaning

Engine restoration is a dirty job.  We all wore gloves to keep our hands clean whenever possible (sometimes it was just much easier to do it bare hands), but by the end of the long Memorial Day weekend, we were dirty.  I was finding grease spots on me for at least 2 days afterwards and our work clothes were completely covered in grease/oil/etc that covered and were still inside the engine.  We had not drained the oil completely and oil would come out through other holes other than the oil drain plug, and we forgotten to drain the antifreeze from the engine so that left a big mess when we tilted the engine on the side to get a better angle on things.  The water pump turned into a coolant fountain.  All were cleaned up with sawdust and swept away...messy messy.

Engine block cleaning itself required more of the same wire brush/kerosene/hose down/air spray cleaning technique that was used on the engine head.  Before hosing down, we covered the top with plastic and tied it down to keep any debris from getting inside the block.  We should have tied down the plastic more securely in hindsight as the pressure from the air spray blew some water underneath the plastic.

A cleaned engine block...  We plan to spray paint it later to make it really stand out after all the effort we have put into restoring it, but that will be on the next visit back to New York.

Part 4: Reseating the Valves

It took a while to get the engine out of the truck and prep for restoration.  After that effort, engine head disassembling and valve grinding took us to the end of a full day of restoration (9 AM to 5 PM with a break for lunch).

On the morning of day 2, we started by reseating the valves.  Reseating the valves was similar to removal of valves, but we found some other tools to work better for installation than the tools used for removal.  A box wrench, flat head screw driver, and 2 pairs of hands were all that were needed to replace the valves and reseat the springs.  Using the closed end of the box wrench, Chris would compress the spring while I moved the valve keepers in place with the screw driver.

Below is a picture of the finished engine head after cleaning, grinding, and reseating valves.  I thought it came out pretty well.

Up next... the engine block.

Part 3: Valve grinding

Chris and I had visited Fred many times before and he always had this contraption in the basement next to his dryer that had all these levers and knobs.  Turns out this tool was to grind engine valves and he had picked it up decades ago for $50 at a garage sale.  

Fred refinishing the valves with the valve grinder.

The valve on left had recently been cleaned ground smooth.  The valve on the right had only been wire brushed clean.

After all the valves were ground smooth the next step was to make sure the valves sealed properly in the engine head.  To do this, we applied a bit of valve grinding compound onto the valve, seated the valve in the engine and attached a drill to the end of the valve and drilled/smoothed the valve in place.  Fred did the first valve below and then let us do the remaining seven.

Part 2: Engine Head Restoration

Before restoring the engine head, we had to remove the valves and springs.  We found that the best way to do this was with a giant fork to press down on the springs.  A socket was placed underneath the engine head (under the valve), to keep the valve up when the spring was pressed down. 

The engine head with the push rods, valves, and springs removed.  If you look towards the back of the picture, you can see the push rods and valves placed in a box that indicates which exact hole the rod/valve came from.

Chris and Fred cleaning the valves with a spinning wire wheel that had Fred rigged up to an old motor (the Ford Model T is in the foreground).

Cleaning the engine head...  Fred's preferred method of cleaning was: step 1) wire brush as much gunk off as possible; step 2) brush on kerosene to clean off any remaining grease; step 3) spray off the kerosene and any remnants with water from a pressured hose; and step 4) use compressed air to dry and spray off remaining water and gunk.

The final product - one cleaned engine head...

Part 1: Engine dismantling

First...the before picture:

Now on to dismantling...  While dismantling, we found a few unexpected discrepancies.  For example, when taking off the exhaust manifold (step 1 of dismantling) we found one manifold clamp to be larger than the others and then a manifold clamp missing.  We suspect that a clamp was lost along the way and that one of the bottom row clamps was swapped into the top row.

The engine with the valve cover removed:

If you haven't noticed yet, Chris did all the heavy lifting.  In this picture, Chris is removing the engine head which is what we worked on next.

Engine Restoration Underway

I've been terrible about working on the Triumph these past few months.  Work had been crazy and any free time that I had was spent catching up on errands.  Memorial Day weekend could not come soon enough and Chris and I spent the entire weekend in New York rebuilding the engine (not complete, but we got a lot done).  These next few posts will all be about the engine.  Hopefully, I'll make up for my delinquency in Triumph restoration and posts with lots of of pictures.

Why New York for restoration?  Chris' great uncle Fred lives in New York.  Fred is a machinist by trade and self-taught mechanic.  Over the years, he has restored 3 1960s Ford Mustangs and a 1929? Ford Model T, maintained various daily drivers that he has owned, fixed motorcycles/mopeds/bicycles...the list goes on...

Now how to get to New York without the transmission and engine moving around in the truck bed?  We built a wooden frame to fit in the truck with various wooden pieces to keep the engine and transmission snuggly in place.  Although the engine is not super heavy (still heavy), we used the engine hoist to load the engine into the back of the truck and hauled the engine hoist all the way to New York with us to offload it in when we got there.

Next up the engine restoration...