BB November 3

In the end I decided one must pay for ones pleasures and so I paid for the extra 6 months road tax. So we're back
on the road again.

We've been having some fun, but causing some damage as well. Out with a friend (in October) who is burlier than I,
we took a corner fast and the front wheel arch caught something on the road which bent it - this meant that tyre
rubbed on the arch whenever the wheel was turned. Easy to fix temporarily and then sorted properly when I got
home. The chap in question is Steve, who accompanied me to the first SVA test (you can see him here stood watching)
- after that he bought a Caterham SV and so returned the favour with a quick blast, so it was a great day. I will need
to cut a bit off the bottom of the wheel arches over the winter to stop it happening again though

At the end of October I was down in Newbury on business and arrange to drop in to meet Ralph Colombo. He has a
Brooklands which he bought in the summer which was built by Pembleton. You can see his car here It was a great
evening and good to meet another owner - the web makes virtual communities very easy, but you can't beat really
meeting people. It was the night of the heavy rains around that area, but when the rain stopped we went for a blast
- great fun, and I picked up some good ideas -watch this space.

In between I've used the Brooklands as time and weather allows, but when doing a quick service a few weeks ago I
came a across a problem. After all of the problems with the head stud on the nearside I decided to check the head
studs and makes ure they were secure, and make sure that the valve gaps were correct. I was releived to see that
the problems really were solved and all was as I left it. As per Haynes, I loosened the rocker nuts off a quarter
turn and torqued them up to the full 29 lb/ft.

I then decided to check the other side while I was at it, and found that the upper exhaust nut was loose, and when I
tried to torque it up, it wouldn't, it just felt "soft". Of course, I had visions of a repeat performance, andf this time
it was worse as there is an oil drilling where the upper studs meet the block - this oil is forced down the stud
apertaure in the barrel and head, and lubricates the rockers. The oil drains back down the pushrod tubes into the
sump. Knowing this, I did it all up again and sought advice. The problem is that no advice was forthcoming, so today
I decided to pull it to bits and see how bad it was.

I've got to the point where I can do this with my eyes closed so
the whole job only took an hour or so. This time, however, I
took plenty of photos. Remove exhausts and carb, remove
rocker cover (over a particularly grotty oil catch tray) and
remove gasket. Take out spark plug. Rotate the engine
manually (via rotor retaining bolt on alternator) to TDC to
relieve strain on pushrods and valve springs, loosen four rocker
pedestal bolts and two head to barrel bolts, remove each rocker
assembly complete (including the spacer washers which tend to
stay with the cylinder head). Ensure that you have two clean
parts trays, one for inlet side and one for exhaust side so that
you can keep the associated rockers and pushrods together.
Withdraw the pushrods. Remove the head from the barrel and
then slide the barrel off gently, remove the two rubber rings
from the upper studs. There, like I said, easy.

I was expecting to see a mess where the upper exhaust stud was
pulling out of the block, but there was no sign of any damage.
This was actually worse than there bring damage as now I had
no idea why the nut wouldn't torque up. I tried locking two nuts
together to remove the stud, but it wouldn't budge, which
concerned me more. After 20 minutes I decided to put it back
together again, which is, as Haynes would describe it is the
reverse of removal (but with the additonal fun of slicing your
fingers on the piston rings.) Replace asll of the seals and
gaskets as you go. Once again, the upper nut wouldn't torque up
to 29 lb/ft, although it would torque up to 25 lb/ft (the lower
of the acceptable range). Something is still amiss here I feel.

When I refitted the exhaust I took the opportunity to reseal the
balance pipe as it had been blowing - you can see the white
mess on the last photo. When it has set properly I'll polish the
remains off.

After the surgery the engine started on the first pull, which was
gratifying and once warm settled down to a gentle idle. I'll
give it a run in the week and the see if the nut is loose again. If
so, I'll strip it down again and be more forceful in removing the
stud.

Rang Motobins about the problem and they suggested that it was the stud stripping out of the block. Apparently,
when it starts to strip the metal binds so that the stud won't turn.

So last night it was off with the cylinder again, and sure enough, by locking 3 nuts on the stud and using a long
spanner, the stud came out with the threads full of metal. Fixing it was the same routine as last time, drill out
tyhe damaged hole with a 12mm drill, tap it to M14 x 1.5 and screw the keensert in. The difficulty was the oil
drilling - this comes vertically down into the stud hole about 2mm back from the block face. Both top stud holes
have this drilling, and the holes are drilled oversize for the first 3mm of their depth; the stud doesn't touch any
threads in this section and the oil runs down the stud tubes in the barrel/head to the rocker gear to lubricate it.

The keensert has "ears" which knock down to lock it once it is in place, but these stop it screwing in any further
than flush with the block face, thus bloking the drilling. The solution was to get the keensert in its final position,
mark it, remove it and cut a notch where it covered the drilling, and then replace it and knock the "ears" down.

Testing it afterwards there was plenty of oil coming from the rockers, so the job's a good 'un. It all torqued up
properly as well.

Last thing was to refit the rocker covers, but whilst I was on the phone to Motobins I weakened and bought a pair
of the old round rocker covers - they look much more period.