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In my long rambling post, I forgot to ask what condition your cams & rocker slipper profiles are in? I notice you said the torque drops off a cliff above 3,200? Sounds like it’s running out of puff, doesn’t it?
I think I’d take any dyno figures with a grain of salt. They’re good for comparative testing, but as an indicator or absolute BHP I’m not so sure. I rebuilt a Harley engine for a friend once, and, much to my surprise, it went like an absolute rocket (the reason I was surprised was that he had bought a kit off eBay, like you do, and it wasn’t really the spec he wanted, as you could tell by just glancing at the big fat cam lobes). Anyway, he put it on a dyno and complained that the figures were lower than the manufacturer claimed. I gave him the same advice as above.
Anyway, I am new to Lagondas so have no experience of these interesting engines. But having read Tim Wadsworth’s post, it seems that he is the living proof that .004″ will work ok.
As I said earlier, though, the profiles of the rocker pads are critical to the effective cam profile. I suspect that any wear here will upset the performance.
What is the spec of your engine?
My car (EWF 99) is a hybrid – it looks like a 2 litre Speed Model but started off in life as a 14/60 saloon. It has high comp pistons & twin SU’s. My cams and rockers are worn, but not terribly, and that will be another job for another day – when I get my new down-draught head from Wessex.
Right now I am trying to figure a way of sticking the dynamo on the side of the engine – I fitted a new water jacket side plate which the Club says is ‘ready to fit’, and in a sense it is. But after I had spent hours drilling out the snapped off bolts (a task abandoned by the previous owner), then enlarging the holes in the side plate so it would fit where the bolts had been drilled slightly off by the previous owner (who had tried to do it in situ), and then sealing it all up with RTV including fibre washers under the bolt heads, I then noticed that I was missing a couple of tapped holes in the side plate for the dynamo strap! The old plate had turned to dust so I had nothing to compare. I’m hanged if I’m taking that plate off again so that’s another little challenge before I put the engine back in (good job I noticed it before I did!).Well, I bought this old girl at the auction. I was prevailed upon by a rather pleasant young lady to bid a heck of a lot more than I had intended! Turns out it was her father’s car, whose estate this formed a part of (along with two vintage MG’s and an E Type in bits). And she has three equally delightful sisters, all of whom have sort of adopted me, so that is a bonus!
There was one other phone bidder, who actually outbid me, but they hesitated a split second and the auctioneer dropped his gavel just as their hand went up. I’m trying to figure out which of the other three girls was the secret telephone bidder!
Anyway, when I got the car home I filled the carburettors with fresh petrol, hooked up a battery (which meant taking the seats and entire floor out!), hot-wired the coil (it has a coil and a magneto), pressed the starter solenoid & she started right up. I managed to drive her round the block before parking up & getting stuck in.
At present I have the engine out, to replace the clutch and to drill out all the 1/4″ bolts that held the right hand water jacket on and which the previous owner had snapped off. That bit is done, and I’m now waiting for the clutch & other bits.
And I’d have waited a long time had I not checked and found that I had neglected to pay for the order! There is a quirk on the Club website that notifies you that ‘your order has been placed’ before you actually pay. I took that at face value, completely forgetting that I hadn’t entered my card details. I only noticed this oversight when I went to order some other parts today.
Hopefully, when these bits all turn up I should be back on the road in a few days.H 54 John wrote: ….. the flaw in my assumptions is that the thermal regime is unchanged – it must be the case that the more mixture in, the bigger the bang and the more heat produced. So it will have been perfectly reasonable to play safe and increase the gap, thereby ensuring that the valve definitely closes under all circumstances………
Ah, but I think there is a flaw in this argument also – the instruction book gives a gap of .004 hot OR cold! So it may not be as susceptible to temperature variations as you imagine?
Oh, I forgot to say, the Lagonda 2 litre engine is complicated by the fact that the rockers bear directly on the camshafts with a profiled pad. The profile of this pad is critical to valve timing and opening profile, and as these wear unevenly (as mine have) this will throw everything out, regardless of clearances or actual cam timing.
Just joined the Club & seen this. A similar discussion came up on the E Type forum a while back; Jaguar changed the cam profile at some point, and altered the clearance from 4 I & 6 Ex, to 12-14 for both. I questioned why they had found it necessary to double the gap.
The consensus was that otherwise the valve timing would be wrong with the new cams. I made myself unpopular by refusing to buy this explanation. I cannot accept that Jaguar would re-design the cam and then say “Oops, now the timing is out but if we open up the gaps we can get it back to where it should be.”
Others suggested that they opened the gap because the previous gap had been too small. Once again, I find it impossible to believe that it would take forty years for such a shortcoming to become apparent.
Still no idea why they did it though – it remains one of life’s mysteries!Thanks for all the input – as luck would have it, there is a Lagonda meeting at Wisborough Green, just five minutes from me, on Saturday, but I’m in Florida right now so I shall miss it.
But I will be back for the auction on the 27th, so we’ll see what that brings.
In the meanwhile I shall check out the Facebook page.
There was a 16/80 up for auction here at Fort Lauderdale last week – on German license plates for some reason – I was going to check it out but decided against it. It sold for $80,000 (I think that would be plus premium).Thank you – I have just joined the Club. All I need now is a car! This one may be a bitsa, but it looks like a fun project. I’ll probably just jump in at the deep end as usual 😉
I have just fitted an electric power-steering mod to an E Type I am rebuilding. It’s not on the road yet so I haven’t tried it out, but everybody speaks highly of it. I think it was supplied by EZ-steer – the kit consisted of a complete upper steering column to replace the original. The supplier was completely unfazed when I asked if they did a kit for a 1917 American LaFrance which I am also rebuilding, so I would definitely speak to them about the Lagonda, although a complete column might be more challenging than it was for the E Type. Not cheap though, about $2,800 (Pounds!) if I recall. I don’t have the contact details right now as I’m in the States.
Some people have successfully modified the electric steering ass.y from a modern car to fit an E Type, which would be a cheap way of doing it but a bit more work!
PS a longer drop arm will make the steering heavier, not lighter.