Final bits have now arrived for the engine rebuild and will start when paint has dried on block
So that car is ready to fire up when finished I’d like to service its standard AC glass dome fuel pump (Yes I did think of doing a facet conversion but have decided to keep it standard)
The pump says Type G on its casting…I’ve struggled on interwebby thing to find the correct kit for this. A search here suggests the BD6 kit yet a chap selling some BD2 kits reckons they will fit.
Please let me know how you get on. I recently tried to get a kit from QED but they said they were no longer available so I settled for one of their replacement pumps. Similar to the AC but without the glass bowl.
Be careful when buying one of the replacements for the original AC mechanical pump. The replacements often have discharge pressures in the range of 5 to 6 psi which is too much, at least for Weber carburettors. I had to insert a fuel pressure regulator in the line to step down to the preferred 2 psi.
I need to do the same thing and recently bought a BD2 kit from ebay for a few quid. Some of the parts are useable but not all. And the kit doesn’t include the brass filter under the glass bowl.
If you find a source of the correct kit I would be interested to know.
I think this is the equivalent of the BD2 kit. The fuel pump fitted to TRs is different it has the glass bowl inverted to the side of the pump not over the top as on our cars.
Tim, I’d spotted that one but Dusty has me worried now.
Someone must sell the right kit somwhere. As I said my pump says Type G but a mates car (John off here) has no type letter on it
Thanks anyway lads,everything you need to buy for these bastrads is a challenge
It’s great that you’re rebuilding mechanical pumps ~ that keeps things original and nice and simple (there’s no extra wiring for an electrical pump, oil pressure cut off switches, fuel pressure regulators and so on).
However (and there is always is a, ‘however’), please, please be aware that if the diaphram of a mechanical pump leaks or even worse, fails; a lot of the leaking petrol will end up in the sump and dilute the oil. That happened to me a while ago before I rebuilt my engine. I clearly remember draining the oil and thinking there was the hell of a smell of petrol.
Stating the blatently obvious, this is not the best thing for an engine.
It’s always a question of balance (Would the Moody Blues agree? ). Personally, I chose to avoid the risk of diaphram failure again and went for a Facet pump, filter and pressure regulator. That way if anything fails all that happens is the engine stops through fuel failure, not bearing failure. You may think this a bit alarmist but I think not. Try weighing up the extra cost of an electric pump + ancilliaries against the unnecessary rebuild of a twink?
I know racers will have to operate under certain conditions but otherwise, you have a choice.
Hamish,
There are no guarantees in life, you can say “however” “what if” " this can happen" sure the diaphragm can fail, the single circuit brakes can fail, the drive shafts can disintegrate but we are driving 40 year old cars and despite total rebuilds anything can happen…if you want total reliability by a Toyota!
Years ago I had a Ford straight six. I noticed that the oil level seemed to be rising rather and falling. The car ran worse and worse until one day, after I got a block from my house, the car would barely move. I nursed it around the block back to my garage and it was my neighbor who correctly diagnosed the problem as soon as he took a whiff of the dip stick.
The crank case was so full of petrol that the liquid was interfering with the downward stroke of the pistons. A new mechanical fuel pump along with an oil and filter change solved the problem. I lucked out as the rings and bearings were OK.
I’m not advocating letting your crank case fill up with petrol to the point that the pistons cannot operate properly. I only want to point out that if you check your oil regularly and you notice it begin to rise, this is the first signal that the fuel pump diaphragm is broken. The second signal is the engine will barely run. The third is the oil pressure drops as the bearings are trashed. During any of these scenarios, the car becomes a rolling bomb. You should fix the pump when you see the first signal.
If the diaphram splits how does the pump still work. If the split is big enough to allow a large amount of petrol into the sump where does the pressure come from to pump the petrol. Below the diaphram there is a seal to prevent the crankcase fumes damaging it. The seal is not in the kit off ebay but does need to be changed when overhauling the pump. The seal looks like a small clutch or brake slave cylinder seal, the one fitted on the end of the cylinders. I have tried to buy one but without success, as I found a small amount of carbon below my diaphram.