Re: Pressurised engines

From: Charles Ping - [email protected]
Date: 27 Oct 2001
Time: 01:47:56
Remote Name: 194.205.4.1

Comments

Well I’ve put a Phoenix crank and rods into both coil and magneto engines and a magneto engine is easier –but that’s no help for a Nippy owner! In brief the work is: knock out the oil jets and blank off the holes with a ¼ BSF grub screw. Take an oil outlet from the back of the crankcase (drill and retap 1/4BSP where the feed to the oil pressure gauge comes out) and run it through a remote filter head and on towards the front of the engine. On a coil engine this requires a whole new front timing cover/nosepiece casting machined to hold a bush (I used phosphour bronze). This takes the oil and forces it through the bush and into the extended hollow starter dog that comes with the phoenix crank. The oil is retained with a modern lip seal. The fun with a coil engine is machining the whole new front timing cover/nosepiece casting and getting the oil to the starter dog. On a mag engine it’s easier because you can keep the original timing front cover and just replace the oil felt housing with a machined lump of aluminium. The points to watch out for are: – oil flow. The oil has a long path to number 4 big end and if pressure or volume are low trouble is just around the corner. The answer is a bigger gear type oil pump from Lois Raeburn and make sure you use large bore oil hoses. – Con rods. You can use Renault 4 conrods or phoenix ones but you need to specify when you order the crank.

If you want to take an easier route or lack a decent lathe (I did it the first time with a 3.5 inch lathe)I recall that Tim Myall does a kit that provides the parts ready machined to do all the awkward bits around the front timing cover and getting the oil into the front of the crank. A friend of mine used this path and it worked very well although lacks a little on the originality front.

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Last Modified: Saturday, 29 December 2001