Spring 2010 Work

Refurbish the engine bay and new wheels

Late in the fall of 2009 I realized 2 things about my TR6. First, I realized my tires were 12 years old and needed replacement. Second, in looking under the hood, it occurred to me that, after 15+ years of summer driving, the engine bay was looking pretty shabby. I vowed to remedy both problems once spring came around. Back in March I retrieved my car from its winter slumber and set about my tasks. The tires turned out to be a purchase of not just tires but wheels as well. I found a great deal on 4 Koenig Rewind wheels with the tires mounted and balanced. These I stashed away in a corner of the garage until things warmed up. The engine bay was, of course, a much more ambitious undertaking.

Below are a couple pics of the engine bay before any work began. Lots of grease and grime.

The first task was to strip everything out of the engine bay except for the block itself. With that done, my plan was to proceed to buff and polish everything I could get to. That would, of course, not be as good as repainting but it would be a major step in the right direction.

With things stripped out of the engine bay I found myself looking at this

Take a close look at what I found below the brake master cylinder. What you see is after I sanded all the rust out. It seems that a leaky brake system had removed quite a bit of paint in the past. That clearly needed repainting so work had to be suspended until things warmed up a bit. Once it warmed up I primed and painted the bare metal and set about cleaning and polishing the rest of the engine bay. Things cleaned up pretty nicely but there were certainly a number of places where the paint had been worn through to the primer beneath. Not much to be done about that. As I said, MUCH better than the way it started.

With the engine bay all cleaned up I started work on all the bits that I took out. The dizzy was sent off for a rebuild at Advanced Distributor. What a fantastic job Jeff does! The carbs were stripped down, cleaned and polished with Mother's Aluminum Polish. This was a dirty and laborious process but the results were pretty striking. As long as I had them apart, all seals, etc were also replaced on the carbs. The intake and exhaust manifolds were media blasted to remove all rust/tarnish and the exhaust manifold ws then painted with a ceramic paint formulated for exhaust systems. Valves were adjusted, a new heater valve was purchased, new ignition wires were purchased, the starter was professionally rebuilt, the brake servo was repainted and every speck of grease I could find was cleaned off.

Here's a few pics of all the shiny parts ready to go back on

With everything back on the car all that was left was to give the car a good tune-up, put my new wheels on and give her a bath. There were a few unexpected issues including a leaky PWDA valve and some problems with the rear carb, The leaky PWDA is undoubtedly the source of the brake fluid that destroyed the paint under the master cylinder. The rear carb turns out to have a bad air valve so I still have some work to do there but, beyond that, the car is better than ever.

Here's how things ended up

And the all important new wheels

Was a fun project and I learned a lot about the car in the process. Already thinking about what I should plan for fall 2010 and spring 2011.