Brian Eldred

Just noticed your registration number... twins?

Well I (over) filled the cup washers with silicon and left overnight. Then cut two pieces of 8mm fuel line 65mm long and fitted them on the studs. SAE J30R9 which I checked is oil and heat resistant. Refitted with fibre and steel washers over the cup washers, then took her for a good thrashing. It seems to have done the trick! Still oil seeping out of various other unknown places of course...

Thanks all for the tips. I think I'll try filling the cup washers with silicon first, and maybe rubber tube over the studs for good measure. Will let you know how it goes.

Andrew, no external feed! Roger, yes i have some silicone gasket stuff so I'll give that a try. Btw new cam is performing nicely (apart from lumpy tickover that you experienced I remember). Brian

Hello gurus, Having recently had my cylinder head off (twice - long story), I can't seem to stop oil leaking from the rocker cover hold-down nuts. It had c.25mm cup washers with some sort of rubber washer beneath, but these had deteriorated so I replaced them with nitrile washers. Then thicker nitrile washers, with a fibre washer above the cup washer and a plain washer above that. Still the things leak, unless I tighten them down so tight that the rocker cover distorts even more than it already is (I've tried flattening it a bit with a hammer) If I revert to the standard fibre and plain washer it spews out oil like the Torrey Canyon. The cover is vented to a catch tank so I can't see there would be too much pressure. Any ideas or tips? I need to sort this before taking the car to France next week. Or buy an alloy cover, maybe?

Ha ha . I'm actually quite chuffed with the photo anyway...

Just an update - started to fit the new cam today but when I bolted on the camshaft sprocket it all locked up. No end float. After much googling I found that it's best to trial assemble the camshaft, front bearing and sprocket off the car and then it's easy to measure end float. Now I have to machine a few thou off the back of the bearing. Oh and I've bought some Classic Oils oil...

Hi Mick, between changing the oil and filter and adjusting the tappets, which is when I noticed the issue, I'd been out for one run of maybe 50 miles. Surely the wear and consequent oil contamination would have occurred over a much longer period? If you think there's a risk of iron filings remaining I have no problem with changing it again! Brian

Before I discovered this problem I'd just changed the oil. I'll consider a higher zinc content oil next time! I've got some assembly lube.... I discovered today after doing some de-carbonising that it's fitted with +40 pistons, so the engine has been rebuilt sometime pre-1995 (I have all the records since then.) It's done just over 30k miles since then, so it's good for a few more yet. Just want to get her back on the road now the sun's come out

And no, followers were't stuck. Another one has similar wear but not so bad.

I've been using Halfords Classic 20/50

Well I finally got the cam out this morning. Pics of No.3 lobe and follower. What can cause them to wear like that? Regarding the head, I've not removed the valves yet (spring compressor too small) but it looks like there are seat inserts for the exhaust valves so I might be in luck. The car was re-imported from the US in 1995, which is just before leaded was banned, so they may have been fitted before then. Roger has sent me his spare Moss cam and I've ordered some Newman chilled iron followers.

Well, I've got the head off - and yes Charlie I did clamp the liners down. Just using my own initiative I put two suitably sized sockets over each of the two closest studs and fixed them down with the stud nuts. I'm stuck on the crankshaft pulley now - got the bolt off with a 2ft bar on a socket, but the pulley won't shift so I will have to go buy an extractor. It's the inlet valve on cyl no.2 that's the worst - I've got the followers out and that one looks horrible. But no. 1 exhaust is grim too. That and no.4 inlet were down on lift by about 2 mm, less than the 6mm on no. 2 inlet but still a lot!. I'll post some pics when I've got the cam out. The bores look good and the head looks fine though I haven't removed the valves yet. I was wondering whether to get it converted to unleaded, but running on unleaded hasn't been a problem in the 7 years I've had the car so I'm inclined to leave it be if the valves look OK.

Thanks both for the info. I looked up both the Moss and Newman cams and the specs look similar, though they don't mean much to me I confess. Roger did I see in another post that the Moss wasn't very good at low revs and that's why you changed it? Whatever I'm tempted by your used one, particularly if there is 14 days wait for a new Newman. I'll PM you. Anyway I'll start stripping down tomorrow. Hoping the head comes off without too much bother - I don't know when it last came off, if ever. Brian

Dear gurus, I've been adjusting the tappets on my 4A and noticed that no.3 valve was lifting much less than the others (also had very wide clearance). So I did a crude measurement with a straight edge across the valve collars and some calipers. Most valves had a lift of around 10.5mm, about correct I gather, some a bit less, but no.3 was 4.5mm. So it looks like an extremely worn cam lobe!! First question: is it safe to run the engine like this or am I inviting a major catastrophe? It runs fine, apart from what I've for a while considered lack of power (no wonder...) Secondly, obviously I'll need to replace the cam. The engine is pretty much standard apart from the exhaust which is of unknown origin but I suspect big bore and pretty raucous. I've considered adding a tubular manifold. The car is used for days out and touring (French road trip planned for this summer) so something close to standard would fit the bill. I've seen recommended on here the Newman PH1 and Moss TT1104N, both a similar price, but any other suggestions will be most welcome! Also there's a second hand standard cam 307036 for sale on eBay at the mo, but with all the effort of changing it I'm not sure if it's worth compromising... Speaking of effort, I've read that the cam can be changed with the engine in situ, but any tips or advice on potential pitfalls would be greatly appreciated. II's many years since I stripped an engine, and that was an MGB... Thanks, Brian