July 1st, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

Paul popped round with his extensive tool kit and we removed the head and inspected it for damages, marks and other clues.  At first the head gasket seemed ok, and so did the pistons and valves except for a clean(ish) section on cylinder 1.

 

 

 

Cylinder 1 also appeared to sit a little lower than it's counterpart 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After rotating the crank by hand and pushing/wiggling cylinder 1, it eventually levelled up again.  This seems to indicate a spun big end bearing.

 

July 2nd, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

Cleaned up garage so I have a working space for the engine and then tried to remove sump with the engine still in place.  Sump would only drop about 3cm before appearing to be stuck on something on the bellhousing.  Really need a crane again to lift the engine out.

 

July 4th, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

 

After collecting an engine crane and stand from @dombanks last night, I lifted the engine block out and after a lot of puzzling got it mounted to the stand.  With the sump removed you still can't see much, so now need to turn it upside down and then remove windage plate.

 

July 9th, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

A quick 10 minutes in the garage before other chores present themselves.  Rotated the engine on the stand and removed the windage plate.  Nothing visible with that off, but as soon as I removed the bottom half of the conrod...

 

 

Yes, that's a spun bearing all right 

 

July 19th, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

Neil, a local member, kindly offered me an old spare Silvertop he had been storing inside his garage for the past couple of years.  Plan is to use the crank from that engine, rather than trying to see if mine is still usable.