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An old post, but I might as well add my two pennorth! Peter…I used to have much the same problem with mine. I thought mine was boiling….but then I realised water was blowing out of the radiator cap even before the engine was thoroughly warm. My engine was pretty worn…bores quite worn, & many piston rings broken. In fact the problem was that the crank case was being pressurised from blow-by past the pistons passing the (pretty non existent) pump oil seal & carbon seal, raising the water pressure & thus blowing it out.
I did replace the carbon seal, which improved things, but obviously not a complete cure. I was driving back from a club meeting one night…actually drove past my home as I was enjoying the drive. 100mph on the A3 (no 50mph cameras in those days!), all fine…then suddenly a fountain of brown water from the radiator, which took several seconds for the wipers to clear. I had to remember the curve in the road as I couldn’t see a thing…worrying at that speed! Fortunately 3 lanes to play with & not much traffic about.
Incidentally, unlikely your impellor is corroded, it should be bronze…if there is a problem with the pump, it’s far more likely to be corrosion of the aluminium housing…Lagonda’s aluminium seems to have been pretty poor quality.
LaurenceHi Bill,
Many thanks, but already spoken to Mel as he was working on my car when this went missing.
Laurence
Hi Peter,
Sometimes “new” doesn’t necessarily equate with “good”; witness pattern rotor arms that last a few weeks if you’re lucky. Is that coil any particular make? Bosch of course you won’t go far wrong with. Lucas sports coils are oil -filled so superior to the pitch insulated ones I associate with that black painted finish.Laurence
Hi all,
The fake badges are back; if I’ve got it right, link herewith.
Laurence
I had my V12 & Riley RMB springs rebuilt & retempered by Paddington Springs. They also made up new springs for my LG6 special. Unfortunately despite returning several times, they never got the setting right for the LG6. Lovely guy to deal with though. In the end I went to Jones Springs…& they seem to have got it right (I took along every relevant measurement I could think of, but he simply wanted to know how much higher I wanted the car to sit)…incidentally, they were impressed with Paddington’s workmanship.
If your car is to standard specification, you should find that theses firms will have the data to reset your springs correctly…& if they don’t get it right, will redo them without charge.
Being a special (with shortened chassis), I had the springs for the LG6 made shorter, & with fewer leaves, so there would have been no set data for them.
LaurenceSorry, just checked & they’re no longer advertised. They were flat imitations of the badge heading our forum. The sculpted area was poorly defined & was possibly enamelled, with a plain border all around the edge, & the “LAGONDA” script was wrong…particularly the “A”s of course.
If they re-appear I’ll see if i can set up a link.Laurence
Oh!, some confusion, I was referring to bonnet/radiator badges, as the post title!
The club supply these ID plates so it wouldn’t be that difficult for fakers to make something up.Hi Colin,
My LG6 engine was “rebuilt” by bozos (perhaps they retained the stripped threads in the name of originality!). I stripped the front of the engine down soon after getting the car, and of course the vibration damper had to come off to remove the timing cover. Needless to say, it had received no attention whatsoever, & was seized solid. It was pretty easy to dismantle, clean & lubricate…think I sprayed it with WD40…doubtless someone will tell me that was wrong.
Anyway…now I get a fair amount of vibration between 60 & 70mph, so freeing it off in my case perhaps was the wrong thing to do…ho hum.
Your friend’s logic makes sense, especially if the oil used was a heavier grade, or it hasn’t been apart & lubricated for years. Thinking about it, could you not use a stroboscopic timing light to check operation? A white mark on the damper rim (anywhere) should appear stationary at a steady rpm, but move whilst the engine is accelerated.Laurence
Hi Peter,
Fortunately tyre treads are less visible on 50s cars than earlier ones. That said, the tread you have there doesn’t look “wrong” to me. The Michelin “X” pattern dates back to that era & I think was a similar tread pattern. Accepted not perhaps a factory fitment, but owners could have opted for radials had they wished.
Laurence
Hi Peter x2,
Dome nuts were not original fitments on the water jacket plates. If water is leaking along the threads, it follows that the gasket material is insufficient or past its best. Alternatively, the jacket plates being aluminium, corrode quite badly, so it is possible that leakage is a sign that the plates need replacement…urgently!When I bought my V12 I noticed the inner V plates were looking iffy, and had a good idea, thinking I’d unbolt them, use them as templates for cutting out some thick copper sheet, & bolt them back over that. Unbolted one….& there’s some thick copper sheet there already!
Laurence
Hi Peter,
Be interesting to hear how you find them. My only experience in this direction was changing from 125/12 to 135/12 on my old Fiat 500 (proper air cooled one, not the recent pastiche), & I certainly noticed an improvement on that.
Laurence
Hi Peter,
175 sounds a bit narrow for such a large car, but perhaps they cleared the antiroll bar & 185s didn’t. The difference must be fairly marginal, you could always space the wheels out slightly. Check more importantly that they don’t rub on brake hoses.
“Austone” radial tyres seem quite popular for Rileys, might be worth investigating those. You need to get the diameter as near that of the crossplies as possible to keep the speedo reading accurate….but smaller diameter will give you better acceleration..at the expense of lower maximum speeds of course.Laurence
Hi Peter,
My other “love” is RM series Rileys; I have a 1951 RMB. The standard tyre size for that is also 6.00×16, but many members prefer to fit radials, either 175/16 or 185/16. As you already appreciate, you have to put up with a lower rolling radius, and the tyres might not look quite so “right” on the car. The major benefit is a serious improvement in roadholding & handling…and that with a car that has a fine reputation for those qualities on crossplies. Tyres in these sizes are available nowadays mainly it seems as they are a standard size for taxis, so it might be worth some research to see which have the highest rolling radii. You would need to source inner tubes specifically made for radial tyres, or see if you can get away with a tubeless fitting…the wheels were not made to be airtight, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be.
Yes steering would be heavier, but it seems they run these at over 30 psi, whereas Riley’s recommendation (for crossplies) was 24 psi. There was talk years ago that the higher loadings resulting from the increased grip & different “footprint” would result in increased wear on steering components…but I don’t think that has proved true in practice.
Incidentally, you might be amazed at how much rolling radii can differ…I found that, out of the more commonly available tyres for the V12 & LG6, Michelin Conforts have far the highest. Regarding Blockleys; that brand is targeted at pre-war cars, where such tread patterns would look more in keeping.Laurence
Nice one. Can’t understand how people can own (and presumably have enthusiasm for) a particular car, and yet decide (surely it has to be a decision, one cannot possibly be ignorant of the fact that appropriate clubs exist) not to join the appropriate club. Apart from the very obvious spares & technical assistance, surely the camaderie entailed is reason enough.
The bizarre still happens though. Only recently Riley RM Club members spotted a restored RM at a show. Car completely unknown to the club, the owner had “restored” it sourcing bits from anywhere & everywhere…so although “restored” it’s wrong almost everywhere. The Club membership is relatively cheap & the spares service second to none. Weird.Doesn’t say on Wefco site, but it looks like others also act as agents for them…one indicated a charge of ?135 per spring.
Wefco themselves need you to complete a form detailing measurements so that they can provide a quote.