Rebuilding Austin Healy Sprite Engine No 9C-U-H 619
Ancillaries
I then turned to the manifolds. I have the very early exhaust manifold, which
is actually a Morris Minor part. It is bolted down along with the intake and
some of the nuts and bolts compress two flanges. I found that not everything
was always the same height and I had to be a little creative to ensure that
I would end up with enough clamping pressure everywhere. Unfortunately, I don't
have clear pictures of those flanges.
As for the water pump: it is simply bolted on, after a gasket is glued on. Chris
Hollum, who is a great supplier of parts here in Montreal, suggested that I
use a simple piece of rubber hose between the pump and the head, as shown below.
Will Munns and others, on the MG Club website suggested that I was taking
unncessary risks here, and that I sould really put some clamps on the hose.
I will do that nest weekend (This edit is in July 2004)
The thermostat housing is also simply bolted down, on a gasket, as shown above.
Then, the oil filter. I had to scrounge a bit for the gasket, until Chris suggested
that the gasket meant to be used here was not necessarily the exact shape of
the filter tower. Here what the parts look like.
Installation of the distributor is quite straightforward. I did later have to
fabricate from scratch a vacuum line, using the fittings (or endings) that came
from the old engine. I silver soldered those fitting onto a new small soft copper
tube that I bought in a hardware store.
Same for the oil pressure sender: I cut the little endings off the old beat-up
lines, and soldered them onto a new soft copper tube.
The rocker cover is a breeze to install.
Here is how the engine looked at this point, left side first:
Note the that the fuel pump is not correct, I believe. In any event, I ended
up taking it off, blanking the hole and using an old electrical fuel pump that
I had. That electrical pump is negative ground, but it was mounted on rubber
busings and I carefully wrapped it to ensure it would not touch something and
short out. It passed the techincal inspection.
and right side:
I'm not sure whether my engine left the factory with a two blade or a four blade
fan. I've got two blades in the pictures, but I later installed the other blades
so that I am now running the car with four.
The dipstick is also a Morris Minor part.
At this point, I decided to paint the engine. I took a few parts off and bought
a couple of cans of Austin Healey green engine paint. A couple of hours later,
the engine was looking even spiffier.
Next is the installation of the flywheel and clutch.