Featured T140e Recovery... (single Carb Conversion)

Time will tell...

There is absolutely no information on these conversions that I can find, someone has taken a lot of time & effort into welding the alloy intake onto the head so converting the parallel intake ports into one.

As to the tuning of the carb that's going to be interesting...
I have bought what I can from the SU Carb people 'Burlen' to replace some internal parts for the FZX1367 HIF6 (1 3/4") carb.... but as its discontinued (Re: they didn't sell many 'modified SU's to fit bikes) they don't make any of the parts which were individual to it anymore.
Stripping it down though was a doddle using the download from 'Burlen'.
( http://sucarb.co.uk/technical-hif-type-carburetter-dismantling ).

I think my 35+ year old 'colour tune' kit might be coming out to play in the near future to get the mixture somewhere near right. (Then maybe a plug chop or two!).

Maybe the SU carb owning freaks who have old Rovers or Mini's might be able to help me out here???

 

As we are talking about the head conversion here's a couple of pictures of the modified cylinder head as its an SU Carb conversion.

I'll be looking for another head & carbs, airbox, cables, bank to rob if it all doesn't work...

It looks as though someone has been doing a little porting & polishing work at some point in the past too. 'Push over' exhaust stubs fitted at some time and both the spark plug threads have had inserts fitted.

When the head was stripped down I used a soft plastic blast media just to clean up the head. (After masking off all those important little places of course like the head gasket surface etc..).


It has a welded on inlet/intake stub. (55 x 2.5mm O-Ring to seal the carb face to the intake).




The new guides were put in by Andy Gregory at 'Tricor' and a couple of the smaller sized threads needed helicoils as they were shagged/worn.

Here it is with the new valves, springs & collets fitted after lapping the valves in.

 

Got the carb fitting finished after waiting for the nylok nuts for 10 days after the courier lost them...

Bought these fuel filters but they looked shite when I fitted them so swopped them out for the ones below...



Fitted new fuel taps with PTFE tape on the threads and new Dowty washers, installed some smaller inline fuel filters... New stainless exhaust clamps from Tricor were stuck on after I'd finished polishing the downpipes.

 

Timing Gasket doesn't fit exactly but its not stopping me from fitting the timing cover. With a bit of a wiggle & a slight nudge it fitted when the cover went on.
Snipped off the horrible loose red connectors for the Boyer Ignition and replaced them with Japanese connectors.

 

The previous Oil Pump was well shagged after chomping its way through blast media left in the frame by the previous owner after powder coating…. The PRV I changed just in case...
Here's a photo of one of the oil pump plungers... (This two valve pump was brand new before being 'ground'...)

 

I've spent a fair amount of time, effort & money on cleaning & repairing the engine, new cams & bushes, cam followers & housings, new main bearings (both sides are the roller type now), reground crank, new 'Thunder' conrods, Pistons/rings & a rebore etc..etc.. etc... the list is feckin' endless.... but if you are going to do a job you might as well do it right (or better!).

This was the state of the brand new pistons & barrels that the previous owner fitted after he ran the engine with the blast media in the oil...
Didn't run happily for long mind as they couldn't get the oil light to go off (for some reason!)... so he changed the oil pressure switch and tried again...

 

The cam followers didn't fare to well either...


It didn't help matters that the exhaust followers were fitted incorrectly as well with the oil hole 'cut-outs' facing the wrong way in the housing.

 

Crank didn't escape either... Big ends were well shagged...


The crank was ground and I sent it off to SRM Engineering (With the new Rods, Pistons, Shells etc) to be balanced & checked over.

Once it came back I fitted these babies from Thunder Engineering. With new shells of course!

 

You can image what I was thinking / swearing in the garage as I got further under the engine casings...



Just because a fuckwit hadn't bothered to think further than the end of their nose about cleaning the frame out...

 

My missus isn't that pleased or excited I can tell you.... this has been a money pit engine wise

My 'mate' has disappeared off the radar funnily enough...

 

But there are some shit components out there, manufactured by supposedly 'Quality' British parts suppliers...

Here's another example of what turned up in the post during the rebuild...




I bought 4 new push rods and they were all in the same condition.... okay you wouldn't fit them before giving them at least a wipe over, but come on...(some people might fit them tho without checking them properly).

This photo was after I cleaned the swarf off the worst one...



It Fecks me right off!

 

So this is what I have fitted to catch all those random particles that float round the engine in future...

The original 'Charlie's' BSA type filter that was fitted to the bike has been upgraded to a Mercedes 190 oil filter...


I have bought from the States (but not received it as yet) a MAP filter to go on the return line...

 

If you want quality you have to pay for it but my pockets are quite deep... (not shallow like my personality! )
I did fancy some chrome moly steel pushrods from SRM, but at £63 a set I thought nahhhh… (plus my missus was in the car outside SRM so I doubt if I would of got away with smuggling them into the car unseen...).

 

More fooked up engine parts... Big End Shells completely bolloxed by the blast media dancing its merry way unhindered through the oil system...