When the car was bought some documentation came with it that gave the impression that the engine had had some work carried out on it however on first starting the engine, two things became apparent.
1. We were unable to get the idle below 1200 RPM. Replacement spindles in the carburettors along with a set of new seals soon had this fixed.
2. The engine had a large amount of back pressure and was blowing oil out of the breather system.
The engine however seemed to have decent oil pressure and was not making any nasty noises so was used in this state for 2000 miles.
1. It was on its standard bore with a massive wear ridge.
2. The head was in very good condition and looked very clean.
3. The crank was –10" undersize and again looked in very good condition.
4. On removing the pistons we found we had three 3-ring pistons and one 4-ring piston!
5. A number of the piston rings were broken.
6. A thrust bearing was in the wrong way round.
7. The replacement engine parts listed in the documentation could not have been for this engine!
This is quite a simple engine and I found the only real part you had to watch out for is the oil pump and disturber drive, which is best, inserted with the engine upside down as otherwise the woodruff key can fall out.
The dynamo mounting hole on the engine mount had elongated and needed welding up.