It took three hours and losses were heavy on both sides but the '73 project has been dragged and shoved into my workshop for its dissection. A catalogue (I guess you could call my system of organized chaos that) of the spare parts piled in the car yielded no glaring omissions so it appears to be a pretty complete car. The rear resonators are missing but I knew that when I bought the car. The interior is mildewed but it appears to be mostly if not all savable, even to my germaphobe wife. We (my brother-in-law and I) pulled the dead lump out of the car - not really difficult but time consuming. The P.O. had apparently overheated the car and the head gasket is breached. I planned on swapping the engine anyway but, for experimental purposes, I did attempt to start the engine. We had spark, fuel, and sort of compression but it was a no go. A smoking negative battery terminal prompted me to quit.



out of the car

dirty engine bay




We were surprised at the lack of rodent action in the engine bay. Apparently the rodents had decided the exhaust system was a much better domicile. I found acorn hulls in the header. A contributing factor to the no-start situation? Maybe...

What surprised me was the level of bodging in the engine bay. We found vacuum lines plugged with everything imaginable, even a stick. More to come on that; pictures are worth a thousand words...

 

Hi Ken,
I found a dirt dabber nest the size of the pipe inside one of the silencers on my barn find, also had similar rodent nests in my parts cars, both exhaust & intakes ! The sticks might be golf tees ?
Wish I had a enclosed shop, working on mine in a open air carport ! Inside of the house looks more like a garage off American Pickers instead of a home right now....sometimes it's nice being single.

Good luck with your project !
Happy Thanksgiving !
Brian

 

No, Brian; it was a stick.

We also have a coolant overflow made from a gallon solvent tin and a creative solution to adjusting the alternator belt tension. I found at least six hoses plugged by something or another but the hoses were so rotten it wouldn't have mattered. Not sure why the distributor vacuum advance was plugged, though.


stick plug

not sure how you will get vacuum advance

mend and make do

what's the BL part number for this?

That last one was rubbing on the belt rather badly. No worries; I have the bits to fix it.

 

Wow. Quite a project, but so happy to see another classic being saved. Wish I had your shop!
Best of luck.

Jeff H.

 

Hey Ken....
I had noticed the solvent can for the overflow.... What a hoot....
It's fun to see everything you are finding. I wish you could have went with me to meet the previous owner. Just having spoken with him briefly a few times, I can understand the "why" in the things you are finding. He was a really interesting guy.....
Cheers,
David
shop.EverydayXJ.com

 

Looks like you've got the shop, lift and equipment to get the job done. Good luck. I'll be reading your posts with anticipation.

 

I love these rebuild threads.........
(';')

 

I built this shop four years ago and I've outgrown it already.

I do plan on going through everything on this car and it would make sense to go ahead and paint the engine bay before the donor engine goes back in but I need the car to move under its own power. I need the lift for service work on my other cars and my brother-in-law's MGB body shell is coming over here for final bodywork/painting in a month or two.

I guess I need to thin the herd so the Corvair must go...

 

CORVAIR? YOU HAVE A CORVAIR?

I saw one of those once, couldn't tell the real color between primer and very weathered original silver/gray paint.
However that was only the outside.
Inside was an aluminum dog house with only an air cleaner sticking out, which housed a 327 Chevy, just ahead of the diff and behind the driver. Radiator was in the front where the "trunk" had been.
It sort of gurgled as it hugged the ground and disappeared on 8 inch street slicks.
Squat 'n' Skoot.
(';')

 

Corvairs!!! Always had a soft spot for them!!! Several have been at our house.

It began in the mid 60's. Mr. Nader opened his yap. I found a nice 63 Monza tudor with four on the floor. A ball to drive. sorta poor guy Porsche!!! Dear departed decided to drive. No luck with the stick shift. found a nice 65 Monza. tudor. Black in and out. Two speed PG. she delighted in it and passed her driving test in it! Alas, monkey business in it's past. Engine wore out rapidly as did the PG!!!!

Next up. 63 Camper van Corvair. Bare camp needs in side.. Stove, sink, ice box, water tank...

And, rough version of one like the one Elinor described. etc... Ran well, sorta. Over heat issue prevalent!!!


Then a Corsaized Monza 65. got it to run great. too much effort on a poor body!!!
It was fun, though...

Carl

 

This one is a '61 Monza with the powerglide. Bought it for my wife. She drove the wheels off it for the first year and a half we had it. As it turns out she likes the idea of daily driving a classic but prefers the convenience of a modern. It's the only thing besides my truck (and her modern appliance) that isn't British so it must go. I find the acceleration glacial with the powerglide - you plant your foot on the floor and steer. Even my '77 Midget will beat it off the line.

Sounds like you saw a Crown conversion, Lnr. I have read they handle very well and give much more oomph than even the high performance pancake engines did...

Cleaned up and painted the donor engine and gearbox for the '73 this weekend. Hope to put it back in over the next few evenings. More photos to follow.

 

I've had some diversions on the '73 so I've not made progress as quickly as I'd like. My brother-in-law's MGB arrived over Christmas and took up residence in the shed in preparation for painting. The shell has been stripped but was left outside so it still needs some more clean-up. Several days were spent patching rust holes and undercoating the body shell so the '73 waited patiently on the lift while it was ignored. I felt bad for it. The joys of home ownership (yard work, plumbing, etc.) kept me occupied on the side as well.

Finally painted the engine bay in order to receive the transplant. The powerplant is ready to go back in but I still have to get to the brakes. Still finding interesting solutions to problems performed by the PO - an arrowhead for a plug and Berber carpet for gasket material...


The Diversion


Berber blower gasket



Cleaner engine bay. Decided to go with Regency Red. Figure I'd wait to touch up that front until I get a LH hinge and bash a dent out of the lower scuttle.



Canadian spec. SIII engine mated to BW Type 12. The valve covers will be changed as the SI engine uses a bigger oil fill cap than the SIII. I'm still debating changing the water pump or fabricating a different nipple for the bypass hose. On the SIII engine it is 3/4' and removable but its 1 1/4" and pressed in place on the SI.

 

Figured I'd add another picture - I title it How My Brother-in-law Learned to Embrace the Awesomeness of the Mighty XK and Start Living.

Alcohol may have been involved.

 

Great work. Iove the S1's.

I've mentioned this before, but I hope you didn't miss it:

The head at the back, where the cam cover mates on a S3 does not have drilled and tapped holes for the S1 type round plug with seal.

The S3's did away with that and so the machining was not done. However, you need those drilled and tapped holes to mount the throttle linkage.

You need to tap those holes before you install the engine, because there's no room once installed. I ran into this installing a S3 into a S1 myself. One of the last jobs was to hookup the linkage, and that's where I ran into this issue. I made a bracket off a head nut, but it didn't look good.

Good luck,
Rob

 

Robert,

I remembered that at about three o'clock this morning. Don't ask...

I still have to fabricate a bypass for the SIII spin oil filter body, add the mounts for the power steering pump, install the oil pressure switch, and attach the heater piping before installing the secondary manifold so I have a few things to finish before I can reinstall the lump. I have a SIII steering rack installed in the car and wonder if I can use the SI power steering pump. I know the fittings are metric on the rack.

I might be able to fabricate a hinge for the left side but if you have one for a '73 PM me. It'll save a step.

 

The hood hinges are unique for the '73's, as they support the ring bumperettes.

I don't have any, but this might be your chance to switch to the earlier bumper are hinges. Lots of people don't like the '73 look.

But this means you would need a bumper too.

Good luck,

Rob

 

Way back when, dear departed and I bought a house with only a double car port. In a rush, I made it in to a garage. Sutud walls sheathed in redwood planks and battens. And my proide. Sliding doors of the same material on a sliding brn door hanger.... Carl e

 

I've heard opinions on the bumperettes and admit they do look rather ghastly. The problem is that the bumper is in good shape so I'll figure something out. Have just a couple of other things to do before I get there.

There are a number of aftermarket nerf bars, over riders, etc. out there; I should be able to find something to work.

 

I think someone here suggested leaving the bumperettes off, and use a chrome carriage bolt to hide the hole.

Rob

 

Spurious duties such as work, house chores, etc. have slowed my progress somewhat but we're getting there. The brakes were all frozen solid but nothing a homemade adapter and a grease gun couldn't cure so we now have operating brakes. The lump is back in and the accessories are mostly back on. The alternator was very dirty and the slip rings showed advanced wear. Luckily I had a rebuilt 25ACR from an earlier project so I elected to use it instead. I'll rebuild the original down the road.

The engine harness was mangled but repairable and it cleaned up alright.

the lump back in its proper place
I ended up swapping the SI water pump to the engine because of the size of the hose fittings. Used the SI crankcase snorkel as well.


late SI coolant tank

This car, being a late SI, has elements of SI and SII cars. The car came with a rather rusty SII tank - it patched and cleaned up well.


hoses rerouted around the horn mount
Had some fun with plumbing the SIII rack to a SI power steering pump. The SIII high pressure hose fitting will fit a SI pump but the hose end
needs to be modified and it took a little creative tube bending to get the hoses to go around the driver's side horn mount.


Modified hose end.

More to come...