Cam Cover Best Stripped?

[TeeJay]

Miles Wilkins book, "LOTUS Twin-Cam-Engine", states that my 1968 +2 should have a red not black cam cover.

Finally got round to purchase a can of red "VHT High Temp Wrinkle Plus paint". And as it says on the can, at first a smooth finish, but after 1 hour the wrinkles started to appear.

Looking good or best as stripped?

[Old English White]

Keep it red .
On "OEW" , it was coverd by 6 layers of different colors ...
Initialy was "light green hamered" , because of its special equipement cams+webers , it get a new color each time the PO wanted to have a new engine !
Spend days in paint remover ... and since never painted , only a few drops of polish ... But I had love to reproduce the initial color if my engine was left original .

Should have been like this ...

... Ended like that.
Christian.

[alexblack13]

The Red for me trev'. It looks just fine like that. Did you 'cook' it in the oven like I did? When the wife was at work?

I got banned from the kitchen for a while. Did the valve clearances on the kitchen table!

Alex B....

[JJDraper]

Dishwasher makes a pretty degreasing bath....

Shh...

Jeremy

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

The "as cast finish" is rotten & the effort to polish out all of the defects must be huge.
Even the finest polished ones don't float my boat.
The red crackle finish looks great, especiallly when the LOTUS bit has been freshly milled or polished.
The best derivitive of them all IMHO.
A touch of "Testa Rossa" can't do any harm can it?
I did my "Stromberg" engines cover with the red crackle finish & was very happy with the result, even though the engine is now wrapped up in a plastic bag at the back of my garage

John

[elansprint]

Where else would you work on a valuable twin cam it is too dirty in the garage
Ian

[alexblack13]

The "as cast finish" is rotten & the effort to polish out all of the defects must be huge.
Even the finest polished ones don't float my boat.
The red crackle finish looks great, especiallly when the LOTUS bit has been freshly milled or polished.
The best derivitive of them all IMHO.
A touch of "Testa Rossa" can't do any harm can it?
I did my "Stromberg" engines cover with the red crackle finish & was very happy with the result, even though the engine is now wrapped up in a plastic bag at the back of my garage

John

[alexblack13]

OOPs!! sorry guys. Slip of the finger!!

Ment to ask John what was wrong with storing his engine in the dining room? Well?? ....

I had mine there for a while. Sat along side a Lambretta.. Both just great to look at.



Alex B....

[TeeJay]

Christian, an engine bay all Alloy, very distinctive.

Alex, Yep, after initial air dry, cured in the adapted oven, see photo. First used the adapted oven, (old metal box, a perfect fit to oven seals) to fit valve guides and seats.
Wife comes home, complains of oily stink and I?m sin binned. Lesson learned for the cam cover. As she departs for work, oven on, job done, several hours with doors and windows open. I also cooked a strong curry for evening meal. No Problem.

Jeremy. What, I?m the dish washer and good for the environment too.

John. One more to add to the list, mill the ?LOTUS? bit.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

OOPs!! sorry guys. Slip of the finger!!

Ment to ask John what was wrong with storing his engine in the dining room? Well?? ....

I had mine there for a while. Sat along side a Lambretta.. Both just great to look at.



Alex B....

Suppose I could do that; the Missus did a runner years ago so no complaints from that corner
Trouble is it's Stromberg & it's the Weber's that add that touch of "Art"

By the way I sprayed my Zetec cam cover with normal paint from a can. There's not enough heat up there to make high temperature paint a necessity.

Cheers
John

[alexblack13]

Sorry to hear that John. Suppose it allows max freedom though. I do not have that luxury, although Mrs B is ok with most of what I get up to. Esp' since the bypass. I got away with murder

We have our 40th aniversary soon!

I have a stripped lambretta awaiting my attention as a winter job. Doing a lot of tidying up just now. Off on Hols 22nd touring the Z4 with my mates (On Honda st1300's). I was not allowed to use my ST Honda. Doc' went spare when I suggested it

Ah Well.....

You sound like you could take part in a 'tour' next year. I am going to propose something soon. See who is up for what.

Back to topic..

What temp readout did you get on the mm Stuart? Did you have the thermocouple just placed in the 'box'? Must admit I did not do the head work. I had colisbro's and hard seats fitted by a local company who took time to set all the valve depths the same. Made shimming easier as he gave me the shim thicknesses to start. Around .109'' from memory. Some pillock had set the clearances previously with way to thin shims and ground valve tops where he could not find a thin shim to fit!!!!!! What a twat! The Doctor who owned the car had no idea he had monkies working on his car. It was some mess. Their 'care' of his car was reflected in its overall condition. Awfull!!

I Know a local guy who did a similar bodge on his head recently. He knew better and still took the cheepo route ''It won't be getting raced or driven hard'' said he incredibly. I was surprised to say the least.

I had no choice really & although I could have done it myself, other things took priority. I wanted the car on the road also.

Still got accused of a cheque book restoration though. ... I wish!!


Alex B.....

[TeeJay]

Alex.
The MM is the Draper Expert and Temp Spec -20 to 760 degree C.
Good job that the oven maxes out at 230 degree C.
The thermocouple was positioned inside a tapped hole on the head which was slowly raised to a temperature of 150 degree C.
I also fitted colisdro guides and hard seats and cut / lapped them to achieve similar shim thickness?s around 0.128?
I researched the info via this forum and the Miles Wilkins Twink book.
One great bit of advice from the forum was to weld a ?bead? on the old seats; this made them easy to remove.

I have read many of your posts on your restoration project, good that you have deep pockets.
posting.php?mode=reply&f=15&t=19000#

By the way, who is Stuart?

Oh, I still cannot get the Smilies to work??

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Oh don't feel sorry for me Alex; yes I did spend a long time crying into my beer but after that I realised that I'd had a lucky escape in reality.
Now if you really want a sob story, here goes.
My lovely Elan has been SORNed since last October, when the MOT expired.
The new fangled "on line" MOT & the heavy penalties for missuse have really put the damper on me obtaining the reqired bit of paper.
I'm not prepared to make an annual 1000 mile trip in the Elan in order to get that piece of paper.
I'm now looking into registering the car here but am anticipating a bloody minefield with all of the modifications that I've made to it.
The hardest part is the search for a T?V person who has the ability to turn two blind eyes.
He's out there somewhere, it's just a matter of finding him.
If your trip does turn out to be a "Continental" one, Dachau could be a stopping off place for a night;
It's a wildly exiting place

Cheers
John

[alexblack13]

Sorry Trevor..Senior moment there.

That is the correct way to do it Trevor. Well done. Great tips there boys...

John. I might be on the lookout for a base somewhere depending on who fancies what. Munich for the beer festival at the end of a trip could be good. I will get back to you.

Does sound like a problem there John. If we can help in any way ??

Alex B....

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Sorry Trevor..Senior moment there.

That is the correct way to do it Trevor. Well done. Great tips there boys...

John. I might be on the lookout for a base somewhere depending on who fancies what. Munich for the beer festival at the end of a trip could be good. I will get back to you.

Does sound like a problem there John. If we can help in any way ??

Alex B....

Accomodation would be a problem at that time of year, Munich gets "sold out".
With sufficient planningtime accomodation in Dachau could be possible. 20 minute train ride to the Oktoberfest.
I've PM'd you.