Reliant Scimitar Sabre Mk2 - Spotty

So after slamming the garage door down & stomping off like Yosemite Sam on Saturday, I’ve had a chance to confirm what I already knew.
Bonnet off, front shocks & cross member off, top timing cover off and checked the timing. The cam belt was in one piece and not missing any teeth but had jumped a tooth!
Got the compression tester out and measured all cylinders and as expected found nothing, so it’s tipped the valves at the very least.

What to do?
A discussion with Dad & a couple of trusted mates has lead me to go searching for a complete 1.8 non-vvc k-series from a MG TF 135.

The reasoning is thus.
- The 1.4 had 114 bhp & 103 lb ft where as the 1.8 has 135 bhp & 124 lb ft so a useful improvement.
- The RSSOC championship I run in has a 150 bhp/tonne class which Spotty would still fall into.
- The 1.8 fits the blue book regs as being externally identifiable as the same block as fitted (different bore & stroke) so same class.
- The ancillaries off the 1.4 should fit directly onto the 1.8 so time & money should be saved
- 1.4 k-series are surprisingly rare (I only found 2 when looking & one was at £1500!)
- 1.8 k-series are surprisingly plentiful & cheap (lots of TF 135s being broken atm?)

The only mod needed is the installation of a spigot bearing or phosphor bronze bush in the crank end to take the gearbox input shaft nose. I say ‘only’ but it’s not a job you do by hand! Luckily I have been supplied with a copy of the original drawings (with dimensions) and the ‘how to’ process sheets from Reliant to prep & fit the K-series to the Ford gearbox. The decision is whether to use a phosphor bronze bush or to do the Reliant/Westfield method & drill the crank?

The bush is far simpler as you just measure the crank centre hole & the input shaft nose and turn up the bush, but at launch at a sprint there’s a 4000 rpm difference between the crank & gearbox shaft! The spigot bearing method means making a tool with a guide which bolts to the flywheel to keep the drill perfectly straight, then drilling the crank to exact dimensions & fitting a needle roller bearing from a Ford x/flow or Westfield. In both cases I can have the engineering firm I use make the piece for me but I know the bush they will do while I wait but the tool will have to wait for a break in production and may take a couple of weeks.

I’m leaning towards making the tool & using the bearing because once done it can be used multiple times if needed. This will be the first time a 1800 K-series has been fitted to a Reliant small sports but may not be the last, if it works well.

Off to see a potential replacement this evening so more to follow.

Quick update.
Engine inspected & everything looks good.
Deal done and includes all the ancillaries, the engine loom, ecu and a spare head so very happy.
Mark is dropping it out of the TF for me and I’ll pick it up next week.
I’m going to take it straight to Dad’s workshop and drop the gearbox off it and then pick up the engine hoist so I can remove the engine & box from Spotty.
That will go to Dad’s as well and then I’ll make the bush or bearing decision once I’ve got them side by side to measure up.

Evening all, not much to report as its been a busy weekend with family stuff but a few hours today got me to this point before the weather stopped play.
-exhaust off
-inlet manifold off
-alternator off
-all electrical connections off & labelled
-centre console out & gear lever off


Next it’s drain the gearbox & engine oil, jack up the rear end to assist with the angle of dangle and then pull it out.
TTFN

Progress is slower than I’d like at the moment due to family commitments but I managed to grab some time today.

I pushed her out onto the drive and then set up the engine crane.  Issue one was that the engine crane legs wouldn’t go under the front valance, so I jacked up the front and put some blocks under the wheels.  Next job was to jack the rear up as high as my jack would go and then put the axle stands under the rear jacking points.  Lifting the rear up to 30 degree (or as near as possible) aids getting the engine and gearbox out over the nose and also helps stop the gearbox fouling on the top of the tight transmission tunnel.

Once the angle of dangle was sorted it was underneath and the final thing to remove was the circlip holding the gearbox speedo drive cable in and the gearbox mount from the gearbox mounting plate. Both resisted but not for long!  The prop will just slide out of the gearbox tail seal when the engine & gearbox are pulled forward.



Once everything was tucked out of the way it was a simple process to lift the engine off its mounts and slide it forward bit by bit until the sump clears the nose & the gearbox is free of the tunnel. Job done!  


 With the engine & box out, Spotty was pushed back into the garage and then the heavens opened! 


Welcome to the NW of England in summer, it only lasted an hour but was impressive!  Once over I split the gearbox off and then put them into the Passat. 




Tomorrow I’ll take them down to the unit and then I’ll be able to size them up side by side and see what needs to be done.

TTFN

Can believe it was 3-4 month since the last post!

The replacement engine was dropped off at Head Shop in Warrington to be stripped and checked.  The good news was that they had it in bits and it was OK. The old oil was filthy but no glittery bits in it so good start.  The bores were ok with minor marking which will hone out.  The pistons & rods were good so just a clean.  Crank & mains were good with the crank just needing a polish and new bearings being used throughout. 

Head Shop are going to do the machining of the crank and rebuild the engine with new seals & bearings, however their Head Porting guy was too busy to take on the head until April 24 so I had to find a new supplier.

After reading around the MGF & Elise owners club forums I contacted Roger at Sabre Heads in Wisbech.  After many emails texts and a couple of long conversations the following works were agreed:
- 29.7 inlet valves
- 8 new custom calsibro inlet guides
- check and advise if exhaust guides are within tolerance
- new seals,
- all porting,
- valve reshaping,
- 3 angle seat-cutting,
- volume checks,
- chamber works,
- face skim
- NPT & bung in the back of the head

The last item on the list is to tap an existing cast boss at the back of the head for a water temp sensor for future development of separate electric water pump & rad fan control to stop any overheating issues post runs.

Roger provides flow bench figures for his heads so for the technological amongst you, the following flowtests are in imperial figures in increment changes of 50thou. Tests were done on a Superflow 110 machine and are cubic feet of air per minute.


The first hurdle was an assessment of the head’s condition to see if it was still ok to do the work.  Most will know that the K-series has a reputation for head gasket failure but some of the contributing factors are the quality of the head castings and the material used.  No point in spending a chunk of cash on a head that’s not going to last. Roger checked it hadn’t been skimmed already and gave it a general check for porosity around the fire ring areas and said it’s acceptable. There are some marks around no.1 but with the skim and a good MLS gasket, it will seal.  Good news, as hunting for a replacement for a 20 year old head in mint condition is like trying to find rocking horse poo! 

The next good news was that the exhaust guides were within specifications as well so a bit saved there!

Roger has had the head for 8 weeks which is a bit longer than quoted (but good guys are always busy) and I type this morning the head is done, built up and ready to post back to Head Shop so I can’t wait to see it in the flesh.  He has kept me up to date throughout the work with loads of photos so a selection of them below:

Comparing original to new bigger inlet valves.

Comparing the valve seats original vs new bigger seats

Drill bit as a guide to where the water way drillings run in the head before porting - Yes, it’s on the piss which is why he checks before hand!

Seats cut & valves blued to check lapping

Valve stem heads relieved to allow stem seals to fit without risk of premature failure

The state of the followers before being stripped, cleaned, checked & reassembled- 

Built up & ready to go!

So much for more activity soon! Some has been made but as usual it’s taking longer than expected due to outside influences.  Still, onwards!

Split the gearbox from the bell housing as they were both filthy and it was easier to clean them.  Positive evidence of where the bell housing was sourced by Reliant was uncovered😁. 


Painted the box and checked the fill plug was loose as I didn’t want to find it was tight with it back in the car.  Re-assembled them and then replaced the anti-rattle sleeve on the pivot and fitted the new release bearing and lever.  I also fitted the new WRC spec gearbox mount as the old one was definitely beyond its best. Parts ordered for later were a new boot and spring for the clutch lever, as well as a bronze gear change saddle & short shifter.

Next step was fitting the clutch to the fly wheel, which was easy with the clutch locating tool (amazon special but surprisingly good). Once all torqued up I then offered up the gearbox to the engine and couldn’t get it to fit.  It would all go nicely but I couldn’t close the last 10mm to get the faces together. Apart it came again and alignment was rechecked, which was all good, before trying again.  Same result!


So, clutch off and out with the vernier to check the depth of the pilot in the crank.  This was part of the machining work carried out by Headshop, who were supplied with the drawing from Reliant giving the dimensions and methodology (see earlier post). It turns out that they had drilled & reamed the hole correctly for the spigot bearing but not for the clearance for the shaft.  They had left it 15mm shy of the required depth on the drawings and as a result the shaft was bottoming out in the hole.

This was, of course, the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend so no chance of getting hold of anyone at Headshop to see what could be done so plan B was put in play.  Back on Amazon for a small internal bearing puller set to remove the spigot bearing, ordered a new spigot bearing use in case and then retrieved the 17mm spanner from where it was thrown! 

Back in September, I had the foresight to have a local engineering firm make a guide for drilling the crank of the K-Series in situ, way before I decided to have the engine built. So, once the bearing puller arrived, I extracted the spigot bearing and bolted the tool to the flywheel.  The tool has 3 separate sized guides which maintain the drilling at exactly centre and parallel. I took a deep breath, a fresh 20mm bit and drilled the extra 15mm required.  Once cleaned, the new spigot bearing was fitted, the clutch re-fitted and the gearbox offered up again.  This time it slid home without issue and was bolted to the new engine. That little adventure cost me another week, and breath!



Next job was to fit the starter motor.  With everything so tight on space on the hot side in the car, the starter motor sits very tight to the block on the 1400 but on the 1800 there are a couple of mounting brackets/webs in the way so a quick trawl through the Caterham forums confirmed that the from the ‘factory‘ solution used for the R500 was a smaller starter and an angle or die grinder😳.  Duly purchased a Wosp starter for said Caterham R500 and was very happy with the space saved.  Nice quality too.



So out with the angry grinder and after surprisingly little time later…



Work is calling so a pause for now with more to follow shortly.
TTFN