Another small step for the 100-6

[blueskies]

After months away from the 100-6 project, I got back at getting the engine and transmission into the car. You may recall an earlier thread where I mentioned that this engine and transmission were rebuilt, but decades ago, by some unknown person or persons. After taking various covers off the engine and transmission, everything looked good in there - with lots of assembly lube still in place. So I decided to proceed without doing a complete tear down and rebuild. I did redo the carbs, taking pieces from various contributors. The next job is to install the radiator, hook up hoses, and add oil to the transmission. I'm still waiting for new transmission mounts to arrive; one of the old ones looked quite rotted.

Although this is a correct gallery head engine for this vintage of 100-6, it seems that this engine originally came out of a non-Healey Austin. So various parts (including the rear plate, starter, oil filter cannister, motor mounts, etc) required replacement or repositioning. I wonder what I missed? As far as I can tell, Healey used the standard Austin sedan engine, modifying only what they needed to modify in order to fit it into the smaller Healey chassis. I wonder what I missed?

Most of the wiring is in the car now, and I'm not sure whether just to do a temporary fuel and electrical hookup to test the engine or whether to hook it up to the car's fuel and electrical systems first. Right now there still are a lot of loose wires from the new wiring harness hanging out everywhere on the car. Anyway, dropping the engine and transmission in is kind of exciting. Here are a few pictures.

 

[Griz]

Looks good Blueskies! You are just about at the same point with your restoration as I am with my BJ7. Pretty much shutdown my work for the winter because it's just too cold out there in the garage this time of year in Montana, and the fact that our son and his wife are living with us temporarily while the are closing on a new house they are buying. They have all their "stuff" piled around my Healey and I couldn't get to it to work on it if I wanted to!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you on the forum.
Griz

 

[blueskies]

Griz, Winter is about the only time I have to work on this; summer is just too busy. The garage has a new natural gas furnace this winter, which is a lot cheaper to run than the electric heat used in the past. (You wouldn't know that the garage has heat, judging by the jacket worn by my helper in that picture - she had just come out to help steady things.)

 

[healey106]

Great photos and thanks for sharing. could you be willing to share the vin and body # for this longbridge 2 porthead?

 

[healeyblue]

I noticed you only have a 2 blade fan. It doesn't get too hot in Canada but it would have a 4 blade originally, no? Looks good, nice big step.

 

[blueskies]

healey 106 - No problem. Will have to get back to you on the VIN, etc.

healeyblue - I also wondered about the two versus four blade fan. This is what was on the engine. In wonder what was original in '57 for the Healey? If four blade, is it just a matter of adding another two blade fan in front of the existing piece, or is the four blade unit all one piece? Speaking of not getting too hot in Canada, we do get up to the 90s and very rarely to 100 fahrenheit in summer. Winters can be cold, although not so far this year. The engine still has an engine block heater, complete with a plug in cord, fitted to the side of the block. I left it there, at least for now, mainly because I do not have a frost plug to replace it with.

 

[Griz]

Blueskies, if it gets that warm were you are you must be in the Okanogan or the prairies of Alberta? We get those temps here in Missoula too. Keep the good pictures coming.

Griz

 

[John Turney]

healeyblue - I also wondered about the two versus four blade fan. This is what was on the engine. In wonder what was original in '57 for the Healey? If four blade, is it just a matter of adding another two blade fan in front of the existing piece, or is the four blade unit all one piece? ...

Yes, just add another two blades. You'll have to figure out, however, if your existing two blades are the "front" blades or the "rear" blades. According to Moss, they are different. The blades are not at a right angle to each other.

 

[Healey Nut]

I added an extra blade to make my four blade a six blade on my BJ8s for those hot summer days that we do get in Canada .
What is the tube extending down by the starter ?

 

[Healey 100]

How exciting! Looks like great work being done. I like those gallery heads too, they are what came with many 100-6's and they are getting rairer all the time.

FWIW, I usually start up a fresh engine with nothing more than temporary hookups to the ignition. starter, and oil pressure guage. I use a separate, clean container for gas. I start it up and let it run for just a few minutes to see that it has oil pressure, no knocks or major oil leaks. It can take a while to get the ignition sorted enough to get it going. I crank the engine first with plugs out to see if the oil pressure comes up before trying to start it. No problem running with out a radiator or water as long as you keep the run time below a few minutes.

If the test run is successful, I put the rest of the car together, including the wiring harness, radiator, gas tank, etc. My trick for the wiring harness: power it up first with a small battery charger rather than a battery. This prevents burning up a new harness because of accidental shorts. The charger has limited current that will not burn up wires. Shorts are easy to happen with all those dangling loose ends on a new harness.

Good luck!

 

[blueskies]

What is the tube extending down by the starter ?

It's a crank case breather tube. The early engines have an L instead of a T on top of the valve cover. Instead of having the breather run up to the valve cover and then over to the carbs, the breather just points at the ground. This may say something about the state of environmental legislation in 1957.

 

[blueskies]

How exciting! Looks like great work being done. I like those gallery heads too, they are what came with many 100-6's and they are getting rairer all the time.

FWIW, I usually start up a fresh engine with nothing more than temporary hookups to the ignition. starter, and oil pressure guage. I use a separate, clean container for gas. I start it up and let it run for just a few minutes to see that it has oil pressure, no knocks or major oil leaks. It can take a while to get the ignition sorted enough to get it going. I crank the engine first with plugs out to see if the oil pressure comes up before trying to start it. No problem running with out a radiator or water as long as you keep the run time below a few minutes.

If the test run is successful, I put the rest of the car together, including the wiring harness, radiator, gas tank, etc. My trick for the wiring harness: power it up first with a small battery charger rather than a battery. This prevents burning up a new harness because of accidental shorts. The charger has limited current that will not burn up wires. Shorts are easy to happen with all those dangling loose ends on a new harness.

Good luck!

Thanks for the ideas. I may not hook up everything before trying to fire it. Today, I did install the newly re-cored radiator and other hoses. I got hung up on trying to plug the hole under the front top of the radiator, where the original temp gauge used to connect. The gauge I have is connected temporarily to the hole below the thermostat. Hoping to find a plug that will fit the hole in the rad.

I also got stopped today by the fuel connection at the carbs. It looks to be one of those BPP threaded fittings that Austin/Healey used on the early cars. Those fittings are about as rare as hens' teeth, at least in North Amercia. Moss lists that hose as N/A. That likely is because of the BPP threads. Not quite sure how that one will be handled, yet.

 

[blueskies]

Blueskies, if it gets that warm were you are you must be in the Okanogan or the prairies of Alberta? We get those temps here in Missoula too. Keep the good pictures coming.

Griz

In the northern prairies. In Missoula you get more warm days than we do, although climate change is helping with that.

I love Montana! The last three summers we spent time in the Red Lodge area, then in the Paradise Valley just north of Yellowstone, and then in East Glacier.

 

[blueskies]

Great photos and thanks for sharing. could you be willing to share the vin and body # for this longbridge 2 porthead?

Car/Chassis Number: BN4-LO/34259. Body Number: 1628. Color: Duotone Colorado Red and Black. Trim: Red. Hood (top): Black. Destination: Chicago, USA. (From British Motor Industry Heritage Trust Certificate)

 

[healey106]

thanks for the info, that is a fairly early Longbridge, per the Heritage certificate was it built in 57 or actually 56.

Best of luck with the project and if you need any info just check out Derek Job's site www.healeysix.net

 

[blueskies]

Build date - February 6, 1957.

 

[healeyblue]

Thats very close to ours. One other note on the breather tube. The road draft portion must be from the other make of car too. The Healey would have just connected to the valve cover and the lifter cover. Here is pics from ours.

 

[BoyRacer]

A couple of points: you said the motor mounts may need re-positioning. Healey motor mounts are handed. There is an RH stamped on one and a LH on the other. If they are reversed things will not line up properly. Secondly, if this engine is truly a rebuild and has never been driven, you should certainly break in the cam and lifters first.

 

[blueskies]

Thats very close to ours. One other note on the breather tube. The road draft portion must be from the other make of car too. The Healey would have just connected to the valve cover and the lifter cover. Here is pics from ours.

The two cars are very close to each other - not sure whether Healeys are brothers or sisters. Thanks for the info on the breather tube. I assumed, wrongly, that the early Longbridge cars dumped the breather downwards. I can rob the correct parts from a spare engine of a later vintage, and may do when I have another reason to remove the valve cover.

 

[John Turney]

Build date - February 6, 1957.

Mine was also in February 1957, but later in the month.