1969 Silver Century

[livewire]

Well thanks to this forum and Steve (St3v3) following a donation to the RNLI i am the proud owner of a 1969 Silver Century.

Now i feel very well in tune with the 40minus and 40plus models but this is my first encounter with a century and the Amal. It does turn over but feels stiff so i will be stripping her down, but how much?





Would you remove the flywheel? to help paint it and clean out underneath the flywheel.

I am thinking that i will remove the block from the crank case in order to check the piston, rings and bore. Then check the crank moves freely in the crank shaft bearings.

The fuel system will be stripped and cleaned, learning about the Amal on the way.

I would like to make any inprovements i can in the engine running whilst it's apart.

Finally i would like to finish her back to original colours. Am i right in finishing with, black tank, silver block, gold fly wheel?

Lastly can you get stainless straps for the fuel tank?

Andy

[charlesp]

If she's stiff to turn then maybe a good first move would be to part the power head from the gearbox. That's just two nuts, the ones holding the drive shaft casing to the crankcase. That way you can see if the stiffness is bottom or top end.

For tank straps first port of call must be John.

Good idea to have the flywheel off, there looks to be a lot of flaky stuff lurking in there.

They always look better for a clean, doubtless someone will be along soon to recommend a suitable automotive gold finish for the flywheel.

[Horsley-Anarak]

Looks like a salt water engine.

I would drop the gearbox off and see if the power head is still stiff.

Looking at this engine, my money would be on the water ways in the block being rusted up.

Flywheel removal could be a problem, but there are plenty of spares about if you bend the crank.

Having only spent 20 quid you have done well as the carb is worth that, also plug cap is worth having.

I think the condition of the cylinder and bore will determine you next move, so if it were mine I would have the head off.

Nice to see good pictures it makes it a whole lot easier to assess.

H-A

[livewire]

Cheers for the quick replies.

I suppose the main question was do i commit and do the two risky moves, remove the flywheel and removing the head.

I know i will he happier with the engine having done a full strip down so just needed your reasurance that you would remove the head and flywheel. So now i will do a full strip starting tomorrow. Once i get the block off i will invert it and fill the waterway with penetrating oil in the hope to balance the scales in my favour.

I will of course let you know how i get on, thanks once again.

Andy

[Keith.P]

With the amount of corrosion shown, I don't think you have much option other than to strip it down.
Just take your time and soak free what ever you can, which can take time.
If you don't pull apart, you may find a major problem and all your time and effort will be wasted.

[livewire]

Well the engine parts had been treated to WD40 for a couple of days now and i had a couple of hours to spare.

The photos speak for themselves on my success.





Nothing went wrong, used cord through the flywheel and upto my garage roof to remove the flywheel on my own. As for the head i thought i'd just tweek them with a spanner and see what they feel like and all 4 came out with ease.

As for the slightly stiff feel to the engine when turned by hand, that went after i struck the spanner to loosen the fly wheel nut. So assume a bit of friction was on the crankshaft bearings.

Even the pistons and rings looked good with not even a stuck ring.



Only things that caused a problem was the fuel tank securing clamps, exhaust tube to block and the Amal Carb. Is there a previous posting on stripping the Amal as i don't want to risk causing damage to it as it's a bugger to strip. I've so far removed the intake cowling and float chamber but can't get into the float chamber yet or remove the top of the slider. I've seen loads of info on the Villiers Carb but not so much on the Amal.

Last question for now, why do some engines like mine have the different fuel tank base plate and clamps. Where as other engines just have the two studs that bolt to the cylinder head?

[Horsley-Anarak]

Looks like you are onto a winner.

Salty storage, perhaps not much salt use.

Won't take long

Cylinder looks very good, what is the bore like?

H-A

[livewire]

No i have to admit HA that the inside looks much better than i imagined from the outside. I have cleaned most of the corrosion out of the waterways and it's softer than what i have encountered before on another engine.
The bore looks very good, but i will give it a more indepth clean and a closer inspection.

The exhasut tube might as well of been welded to the block, not sure if i'll get away using it again as it has hairline cracks running from the slits where it connects to the block.

My main problem now is stripping the carb, i don't want to damage it whilst getting it apart.

[Horsley-Anarak]

I use a small ultrasonic tank for carb cleaning.

Looking at the corrosion in the rest of the engine, you may also be lucky with the carb.

Give it a good soak in WD40, gently warm it up and undo the mixing chamber cap.

If the banjo bolt came undone then you will have no problems.

H-A

[livewire]

Hmmm ultrasonic cleaning tank in your garage, sounds handy. We used to have big ardrox cleaning tanks in our avionic building at work they were boiled in the tank and to stop the fumes the tanks had a cooling ring around it to condense the vapors. They were pretty handy for personnal jobs but unfortunately they have all gone now.

So following your advise i applied penetrating oil externally and internally and applied heat then gave it some welly and she came apart.



Photo was taken after a good clean so it's ready for paint.

One thing, before i paint it is there any scope in these carbs to improve running/performance?

[Horsley-Anarak]

One thing, before I paint it is there any scope in these carbs to improve running/performance?

I did open up and polish the one that I use on my 102 race engine.

Don't forget to clean the top hat filter in the banjo bolt.

H-A

[livewire]

I can see that you have smoothed the intake as mine has a bit of a ridge. Did you ream or increase the bore size all the way through?

Also if racing do you use the air intake cowling? I would have guessed that a tube type intake would be better. Like this sort of thing,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMAL-CARBURET ... 3a61a236ad

Have to say though that the outside of yours is very clean and shiny as well.

Oh i didn't forget to clean the filter out, and it had loads of crud in it.

[livewire]

Very pleased the forum is back and running. I'd like to share this with you as i know others would approve if i can get others into Seagull improvments and racing.

It's funny but when i look at my original photos of this engine i think 'what a dog' however after cleaning, time, paint and a little love she is coming along nicely. I haven't photographed all the pieces as i will finish with the completed beast when she is finished. So to give you a taste i will show you some of the improvements.

The carb, has been stripped cleaned then fitted to the block and opened up slightly with a reamer through the carb and block intake.




As previously mentioned the block inlet has been reamed out as well as grinding out a smoother inlet.




By far the most difficult was the transfer port, i bet most are misaligned when viewed through the exhaust port. I tried to even the two halves, also the rest of the transfer port could do with grinding but i do not currently have anything to access it.




The crankcase has had some areas filled in, this will increase crankcase compression and will also increase the vacum.




The gearbox has been stripped, cleaned and i also fitted a modern type oil seal onto the prop shaft. This will stop the thinner oil from weeping out and creates less friction on the shaft. I then ground the gearbox casing down to match and polished it a little.



The rest is still in working progress, so very much looking forward to starting her up.

Many thanks to CharlesUK for his assistance in my latest project.

[livewire]

Today i finished the build and had her running in the garden.












Next step, give her a run.

[skyetoyman]

another one saved -- almost -- why not finish they job by doing up the mounting bracket . strip down and use caustic soda on the brass bits
Don't know what your running it on the back off but a vital chore is to get the angle correct on the transom