Morris Minor Owners Club

This is really sad news. My stolen Minor had a Guy Croft built Lancia T/C engine.

He really knew his stuff.

dp wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 1:32 pm This is really sad news. My stolen Minor had a Guy Croft built Lancia T/C engine.

He really knew his stuff.

Sorry to hear that, looks like a nice ride.

Been a while, managed to get my VX engine back from the GC estate, thanks to Niels and Gloria Guy Croft’s wife.
Sent all pretty stuff to powder Coaters all zinc both yellow ans silver to platers. Then I have proceeded to dry build the head, supercharger and carb.
Carb has and had full internal rebuild, all jets, chokes replaced, new gasket kit, soda blast and a night in the ultrasonic cleaner bath, all bolts on head, VX and carb replaced with metric socket cap 316 stainless.
Issue included missing gaskets from kit, bolt length differing and need ordering, and parts missing.
One the top end is done and completed, I will dry fit to bottom end, taken ,my time and enjoying this for sure.
The other silver head, well that’s just my copy of a GC STAGE 3 head, gunner keep that as a spare.
Oh and cars moved back to Center of the shop again, got rear wheel arches, boot scupper and tank areas to finish, then soda blast again.

Some more images

More

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Thanks goes to Steven for the loan of his VX, owe you a beer, needed because all my bolts and small parts were lost and had no reference.

All nice and clean......powder coaters willow lane mitcham , contact Richard

TSR vapour blasting Sevenoaks contact Dave

Asked for silver base, Ferrari red top coat, sand down over lettering and ribs to expose silver then clear coat, oh well another time I guess

VX after spa treatment, and blow back vents being tapped, original have plastic pipes which brake, I’m swapping out with something a little rugged.

To do:

Fit GC 2A Kent cams, Kent wheels
Fit front cam seals
Fit lower cam box gaskets
Fit VX manifold gasket, holes are different, need to sort out, or I have wrong gasket.
Phase VX lobes
Fit new VX seals and bearings, including C2 grade front bearings, lube up and test in jig.
Make VX belt tensions, based. On GC design but improved.
Machine GC oil take off, oil in out and oil pressure,


Many thanks to Darren Cookson for loan of the GC phasing tool, really appreciated.

Great progress!
Even if your car never runs again, you have some beautiful table decorations !

Head spec

GC stage 3

Three angle valve cut, and seat
New Trojan valve seats and valve guide
New 43.5 inlet valves
Ex valve sodium refurb
Inlet with GC back mod to shroud
Ported and matched, both inlet and exhaust.
Extensive porting in valve seat area.
All matched cc’d at 55.1 cc per chamber.
Inlet and exhaust faces fly cut, head face skimmed.
All bolts, re tapped, chamfered and cleared, all bolts replaced with 316 stainless socket cap, except the head bolts which are ARP bolts.

VX manifold
Dressed, ported and matched
Refurb blowback vent
Drilled and tapped aux air feed, replaced with ally blue BSP bungs, lock seal
New air grade stainless M8 threaded inserts, bonded in

VX
New bearings and main bearing re calibrate to C2
New seals throughout
Cleaned, dressed, media blasted finish with ultrasonic clean
Main pulley gears new zinc coating
Main oil fed and container , new and custom, side vent drilled and tapped

Non GC manifold to carb
To be replaced with later cast GC manifold

Weber DCOE 45
New main chokes
New air corrector jets
New main jets, idle jets
New main feed jets
New gasket kit
All stainless bolts and all bright work re zinc finish
As per GC spec

Carb specifications to GC

Chokes 28mm
Main jets 150
Emulsion tube F16
Air corrector jet 175
Pump jet 55
Idle 60F9
Needle valve 225

To be used with Facet silver top max line pressure of 4.5psi

Total cost of bits, £215, aqua blasting £150 this is turning out to be an expensive build!

Some beautiful looking work there, well done.

Update, today could not be done without the guest VX, I have no idea on how it went together, there’s no exploded diagrams anywhere. Got it phased but only as dry run, not fully torqued. A good day

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Cam and cam wheels installation, again only dry run to check for tolerances and clashes. All good so far.....

Cams are GC design 2B cams made from billet by Kent Cams, vernier wheels by Kent too.

Needed for refurb for Lancia Beta 2.0 Volumex VX 7 fin, Volumetrico and 037 blowers may differ

SKF seals:
30x45x7 HMSA10 RG 3off
20x30x5 SKF double lip R23/TC with garter spring 2 off
From Lancashire seals approx. £6-10 each

SKF bearings:
QJ 304 MA C2 2 off
NU 203 ECP 2 off
From any good SKF supplier, would not recommend alternative makes, stick to SKF
NU approx. £25 each
QJ approx. £40 non C2 and C2 cert £150/each +4-6weeks

Main bolts to torque:
drive/mesh bolts 2 of 150lbs
Back drive bolts-need to check build sheet
Front Main gear bolt-need to check build sheet

Please note you can use non C2 bearings but at your risk, whist the cost difference is a lot, piece of mind is better

Estimate 4-6 weeks to get your bearings C2 calibrated, essential to the whole process is the phasing tool, without which you will smash the VX to bits, note I cannot give you any info on this as I don't know who GC used, i guess Google?

Always use good guide to install oil seal, large socket or similar, make sure that all oiled or grease up, helps on installation.

I used a 20T press to install the main bearings, don't not install at angle, you will need to repeat at your expense, if in doubt get a machine shop, I would not recommend hitting in or using a vice. Press only!

No need to use main oil gaskets, although I have a complete set, standard silicon liquid gasket is just as effective. on testing although not full torque all is apparently good, nice sound from the carb and cylinder head.

Time to do dry run 4 hours, I recommend dry run then final assembly, again like everything don't rush the exercise.

More than happy to share my experience, please feel free to pass on, thanks

so life is all about learning , and I've got something wrong. The rear drive bearings are the wrong spec, many thanks to Ian Pearce for pointing that out, as they were in the box from GC shop, i presumed they fitted, they do, just the wrong spec.
So that means two smashed bearings and seals, and new ones too boot, at least i am comfortable with putting them in!

So what's wrong, well the front ones have metal cages not plastic and according to Ian that's what the issue is, they need to be NU203 MA and what's recommended is get C2 certification, that's more time and money. But as they say if a jobs worth doing do it right!

so update today.
Some ally packers for the door hinges, replaced the hinges with titanium pins, and drilled more out of the cast hinges, that's it for a while, until i get my bearings and bucket shims for the cam!