Another Lurker emerges...
Posted: 29 Apr 2010 19:35
I have been watching from the shadows for a while and decided it's time to join in the fun. I have a 1980 TR7 DHC that I bought after sitting for 7-8 years with a blown head gasket. The motor was rusted solid, but it came with a spare low mile motor that had also been sitting for years.
I pulled the rusted "boat anchor" out and refreshed the spare with new pan gasket, front and rear main seals, timing chain & tensioner, clutch, trans oil pump, fuel pump, rebuilt the carbs, water pump and clutch slave/master, and refurbished the distributer and tested saprk and curve on my club's Sun machine. The struts have been rebuilt and all bushings replaced with poly. Cleaned up and painted the engine bay (low budget...krylon "International Harvester red" over brown primer is a pretty close match for Carmine Red).
I put it all back together and fired it up, set the timing and mixture and it seemed to be running really well. I figured, get some tires and brakes on it and it would be time for a road test. Wrong! I went out to start it up one night and the motor seized up while turning it over. Turns out an intake valve stuck open, struck the piston and snapped off. Luckily(?), since it wasn't running, there was no major damage to the piston, head or cylinder wall. I just got the head back from the machine shop and set the valve clearances. Now I need to get a few heli coils in for the exhaust manifold before I put it back together and try again...
This is my first project car and my first wedge, although I have loved them since I saw the first television ad...
1980 TR7 DHC
I pulled the rusted "boat anchor" out and refreshed the spare with new pan gasket, front and rear main seals, timing chain & tensioner, clutch, trans oil pump, fuel pump, rebuilt the carbs, water pump and clutch slave/master, and refurbished the distributer and tested saprk and curve on my club's Sun machine. The struts have been rebuilt and all bushings replaced with poly. Cleaned up and painted the engine bay (low budget...krylon "International Harvester red" over brown primer is a pretty close match for Carmine Red).
I put it all back together and fired it up, set the timing and mixture and it seemed to be running really well. I figured, get some tires and brakes on it and it would be time for a road test. Wrong! I went out to start it up one night and the motor seized up while turning it over. Turns out an intake valve stuck open, struck the piston and snapped off. Luckily(?), since it wasn't running, there was no major damage to the piston, head or cylinder wall. I just got the head back from the machine shop and set the valve clearances. Now I need to get a few heli coils in for the exhaust manifold before I put it back together and try again...
This is my first project car and my first wedge, although I have loved them since I saw the first television ad...
1980 TR7 DHC
