Some Wolseley Spl archive

 

1930's Wolseley 15hp Spl..

Some further preparation of the new cylinder block and running parts.
There is always a lot of "prototype" work when an engine of many new parts is assembled. It is so easy for "one off" items of such complexity to have a small error and sometimes, more surreptitiously, an accumulation of small errors. We cannot take anything for granted, and that is certainly not a criticism of those involved in the manufacture.

Here we have prepared and given the outside of the block a coating of Suncorite phosphating primer, a product developed for military use on gun barrels and precision items to protect, when used in conjunction with oil coatings or paint top coating it is extremely tough. The new block will go through further cylinder boring work and the primer will help to stop some oil deposits lying in the porous material surface. Internally all items have been painted with Glyptal for the same reason and the added benefit of free oil flow and to seal in the sand that migrates from the casting during the engines use and temperature cycles. A word of caution, from experience of seeing many engines coated in this paint,it is important that if applied to aluminium, it has to have been chemically or some form of very thorough cleaning. In service, aluminium items do seem to reject the Glyptal unless absolutely clean and I have noticed, it adheres more to some form of rough or cast finish. Glyptal flakes floating in the sump is a worrying sight!
Always think carefully with internal engine paint regarding the benefits and the risks, consider the heat cycles and the heat dissipation requirements and consider the fuels in use.
Incidentally, during the period, many companies used a form of shellac to paint the internal areas. Often it still resists even chemical removal after all of these years of use, even on aluminium (Rolls Royce).

The differing oil pumps fitted to variants of this engine may offer some advantages especially when limited by the availability of parts. We are considering using deep pump internal gears to offer a little more capacity, the same pump has an extended drive shaft bearing housing which would allow better support for the skew gears when compared to the standard items. Of course this will require further, time consuming modifications.

As loads and revs increase, it will be prudent to upgrade to a Duplex timing chain which will require some further test fitting and alteration.

The new crankshaft counter weights will not allow pistons to enter from the bottom of the engine with the crank fitted. The conrods cannot pass down through the bores from the top as the big end section exceeds the bore diameter. All rods and pistons will have to enter into and up through the bores prior to fitting the crank and bearing housings.

Cam phasing has been carried out and some general cam index position notes taken for final assembly. The cylinder head has yet to go for new bronze guides, slightly larger inlet valves and new valve seats which will have three angle cuts and blending to aid a little gas flow and valve to seat contact.

Combustion chambers have been cleaned and brightened and each chamber volume measured and dressed equal to that of the largest volume.

There are many areas of casting seam "flash", I missed this one so some more careful fettling will be required. (Below)

Fitting up to suit the Wolseley’s “pilot”, Oska

 

Wolseley Spl Winter Work 2022 / 2023

Here is s short compilation of some of our work on the Wolseley Hornet over the winter months. We had hoped to have driven and tested the car in the autumn, but unfortunately when we came to put oil in the replacement gearbox, it poured out via the bell housing. At the same time a new crank and cam that had been on back order became available. This package will allow us to run a different firing order that seems to be more suitable for racing. And so it seemed to make sense to change the crank and cam whilst we attended to the gearbox problem instead of running the car with the standard firing order for the coming season and then changing over next year (as always planned). It is a bit trickier to change the crank without everything stripped off of the block, but it is still possible. Of course another new crank and cam is bound to raise some anomalies, we did have to make some cam bearings and readjust followers and make new securing dowels. The cam drive will be different which will require some alteration. At the same time we took the opportunity to complete some things off the "to do" list, including king pins and the making of two special oversize shackle pins...

What have we been up to through summer? Here is a brief photographic update!

 In the workshop:

1930s Wolseley Hornet Supercharged Spl. 

Here we have a few of the million and one little finishing jobs as this wonderful project comes to a close. Although, as with any racing car, it will never be complete as upgrades and modificaions are likely to continue for quite a while (we already have a major upgrade planned as we speak).

 I am afraid these are less interesting "general" photos, but we have a few items here that have been made through the early summer. These include the steering column dash bracket completion, dip switch provision including a bell housing mounted bracket, and some general some pipe work. A thrust assembly supplement for an aged and slightly damaged aux drive unit.  Pressure plate bolt alteration to clear the bell housing...yes it did just kiss when we turned the engine over by hand after fitting the grearbox. We had checked this in the early stages but, we have since obtained another gearbox and didn't think anymore of it until fitting the unit! You can see particular attention to maintaining equal bolt weight to maintain balance. 

Battery location and support. Fluid fills and wiring finishing, securing and general tidy. You wouldn't expect so much wire for a simple electric system! 

As always, most fittings are one offs in-keeping with the period, but very time consuming.

1959 Turner 950 Chassis.

With the summer weather, it is nice to push the chassis out for work.

Most photos show suspension and chassis work. Some paint of bright areas may appear dull or dirty as we have Linseed oiled these to protect from our seaside air.

The gearbox and engine are only mock ups they are not the actual items. We have an A series  performance engine with Webers etc waiting in the wings.

We have wrapped the rear torsion bar in Waxoyl soaked hemp string to protect as this car will be used in all conditions.

These are early summer spring photos, more, up to date items will follow.

1946 Studebaker Champion

This is a more recent project, here we are preparing the engine for a full rebuild. Valve grinding is always a good initiation into the beginning of the build. Despite having been recut with new guides and valves, it is best to finish grind to be absolutely sure.

Here we are also removing pistons from rods, releasing the very clever self extracting cotter "wrist pin". Followed by a very thorough clean and brighten to inspect for any damage and to measure the alignment and the housing sizes ready for new bearings.

If these were for high speed or competition use, we would recommend crack testing, however for the type of work this engine will be doing these robust rods are unlikely to indicate any problems.

You can see in the photos that I have made a pair of Aluminium bungs that engage into a shoulder in the gudgeon pin to allow the piston assy to be firmly clamped without causing any load through the pistons or rods.

One cotter with damaged thread

Nose Art:

Something very unusual. I have been recreating the nose art on a very historic nose section of a Handley Page Victor K2. XL164 bomber / tanker aircraft. You can see the small sections of battered and faded paint that is the original, we are keeping that out of respect of her history, but we are reinstating by hand the totally missing areas including from the shoulders up!

It is said that five "Marham Bombers" were painted and named after each aircraft's chief engineer's wife or partner.

Saucy Sal can be seen at Bournemouth Aviation Museum http://www.aviation-museum.co.uk/ .

This is my biggest nose art project yet, it is very forgiving in this size.

The photos are a little distorted because of the barrel of the fuselage. She is more elegant in person!

Please click on them to see in a larger size.

Below: Prior to restoration of the nose art. Thank you to Bournemouth Aviation Museum for picture use.