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That's the oil return, right? This is the piston from an MGB that I have on my desk but I think that's where the oil control rings return the oil back to the sump.
A short day in the garage today, but I decided last night that I'll take the head to the machine shop this week and have them check it for cracks. Before I can do that I needed to take off the intake manifold. I could not imagine doing this job with the head on the car.
Most of the intake manifold studs came out without a fight, but I had a half dozen that wanted to brawl. This girl is a fighter.
At the end of the day welding a nut to the stud and turning it out has always worked for me. The intense heat of welding helps to break the corrosion. After removing these the manifold slid right off.
I spent a little time cleaning the head with some acetone and a rag. I can't tell if that is crack next to the spark plug hole but it sure seems like a great place for the head to crack.
After that I went back to the left rear hub. My puller is putting so much pressure on the axle shaft that even with a nut on the end of the axle shaft the threads are still getting distorted. I thought if I pulled the entire axle out of the housing I could either (a) slide the drum brake backing plate off the axle and go about my business or (b) put the whole assembly in the press and do this in a more controlled manner.
Since this girl is a fighter, I realized after I pulled the whole assembly out that the rear bearing is pressed onto the shaft and the brake backing plate isn't sliding past that. So we'll try option b later.
Finally, a little side project in the vanity category - I've always enjoyed the look of fender mirrors on cars but never had had them. This girl came with holes drilled in the tops of the fenders but no mirrors. I picked up a pair and thought they looked cool but would likely be hard to use in actual day-to-day driving. I wouldn't drill a hole in a perfectly good fender, but since the hole is already there I'm going to use it.
That's the oil return, right? This is the piston from an MGB that I have on my desk but I think that's where the oil control rings return the oil back to the sump.
@MattyZo I am not an expert and have no clue. I won't be surprised if we learn that those lights are from a later model year Jaguar and someone replaced them along the way.
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Finally, a little side project in the vanity category - I've always enjoyed the look of fender mirrors on cars but never had had them. This girl came with holes drilled in the tops of the fenders but no mirrors. I picked up a pair and thought they looked cool but would likely be hard to use in actual day-to-day driving. I wouldn't drill a hole in a perfectly good fender, but since the hole is already there I'm going to use it.
Cool!!
That blind spot just over your shoulders could perhaps disappear as the angle of view is totally different with these.
I'll just bet that once you get used to looking there for traffic behind, you'll wonder why those were ever changed to door mirrors.
Sand blasting wheels was the game today, and to that end my wife made a special guest appearance in the garage. She was at the sand blaster for about 5 minutes before she got bored.
I ended the day with 2 wheels painted, 1 mostly sand-blasted, and 2 that got a coat of paint stripper to help reduce the time needed to sand blast them. Whoever painted these wheels black used thick paint that is a bear to remove.
I also tried pressing the rear hub off the rear axle and I am still not having any luck. Does anyone know if there is a special tool for that? The axle shaft won't fit in the shop press so I'm back to square 1.
Are these terminal strips at the front of the inner fenders factory? There is a mix of old and new wiring with an abundance of newer crimp connectors.
And last question for the day - I figured out how the side vents behind the front wheels open. How does the center vent at the base of the windshield open/close?
On other British cars of this era there was a lever under the dash somewhere.
When I was a kid on the farm, there was an Ancient truck carcass out back with a vent like that (on the sides too), and we used to play there for hours on end.
Pure Cause and Effect!
Simple, straightforward, no mysterious vacuum or electronics involved.
If feet were cold, pull lever. Problem solved.
(';')
More progress today. The new aluminum radiator came in today and much to my delight it appears to be a perfect fit. Even the mounting holes line up correctly.
The top section even fits through the mount correctly.
Moving on to the brakes, the UPS man delivered the calipers today. For the front I am going to start the process with a set of calipers from a 2005 Buick Century 3.1L V6. At only $20 a pop it was a cheap gamble.
To go from drums to discs I need to come up with a bracket that bolts to the upright. I measured everything out at lunch and fired up AutoDesk to make a model to check my bolt spacing.
Over the last several I have been using SendCutSend to cut my designs out of metal. I will still use them for the final version but my nephew had a great idea to 3d print the test versions to save money and time.
He was right - this printed in about 30 minutes.
I used it to check the accuracy of my design. I will make adjustments and add more on the right side to mount the caliper.
Pulling the suspension upright makes it easier to check clearance between the caliper and rim. A couple of nuts and bolts later and the whole assembly is on my work bench.
I note that the alloy radiator you have fitted has a 15 PSI cap.
That is way too high, and I had an experience with a similar radiator cap which ended up blowing out a welch plug in a MK1
I suggest trying for a lower pressure cap somewhere in the order of 3 to 5 PSI which is nearer the original specification.
