The rebuild begins...trial engine fit.

The first part of the rebuild was straightforward: assemble the engine and check that it sat on the engine mounts properly.

The engine minus cylinder head

One should never assume anything is straightforward.

The original engine was a 948cc from a Standard Ten, but this had long since disappeared so I chose to use an engine from a 1300 Triumph Spitfire. Outwardly, it looks very similar to the Standard Ten engine, which is important to me as I want to maintain as much of the original appearance in the engine bay, plus it gives far more performance for modern day motoring.

However, it wasn't going to be a simple job to just drop the engine in. The front plate had the wrong engine mounts, so I had to change the plate for one from a Standard Ten. I had done this swap several times before on an 1147cc Triumph Spitfire engine and there was never a problem. This time was different. Unexpectedly the crankshaft starting fouling on the front plate so I had to grind out the crankshaft hole to make it larger. Also, the engine back plate and gearbox bell housing had to be cut and shaped on either side to clear the chassis rails.

The cylinder head was then removed to check the bores and valves, which were fine, and I took the opportunity to give it a quick decoke to remove the carbon deposits from the pistons and valves. The cylinder head was put back with a new gasket (first picture above), and the head was torqued down to 45lb/ft using the correct sequence for tightening the nuts. I left the valve clearance adjustment until the engine was placed permanently in the car at a later date.

Then I turned my attention to the mounts on the chassis, which I had put in 20 years before with the intention of racing the car with a Ford engine. Now the intention was to keep the car as original as possible and use it only for classic runs and club events, so I fabricated a mounting to take the Triumph engine.

The existing Ford mounts

The new mounts to take the Standard Ten. At this point the old mounts are still in place

I was hoping to keep the old Ford mounts in case I ever wanted to fit a Ford engine in the future, but it became clear that they were going to foul the exhaust and starter motor so disappointingly I had to cut them off.

Test fitting the engine to discover the Ford mounts must be removed. Note my wife's hand guiding the gear box onto its mounts. And she bakes decent cakes too.

The engine was fitted with a new clutch assembly plus new clutch release arm pivot bushes, which had worn badly on one side.

To join the engine and gearbox to the rear axle I turned my attention to the prop shaft. I had two old prop shafts knocking around, one which had the flange to fit the 1300 gearbox and the other which had the flange to fit the Standard Ten axle. These were taken to a prop shaft specialist who checked the universal joints and pronounced them fit for scrap.

So, much to my irritation a new prop shaft had to be fabricated (at great expense!) but they did an excellent job so I don't really begrudge them. Much.

At this point the engine was removed and work began in earnest on the chassis.