RILEY 9 MONACO TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF VINTAGE CAR OWNERSHIP ( Part II )

This video is about trials and tribulations of vintage car ownership ( part II ), the continuing saga of mechanical maladies and solutions to get tne 1929 Riley 9 Monaco back on the road...

[@andreasvenator]

Yeah, I went down memory lane with you when the "Sentimental Walk" theme music from the DIVA film came up (14:20s). Being more of a 616 type 4 cyl. Porsche motor afficionado, I was aghast when I read that my RMA piston rings all had to be turned towards the exhaust valves. On the 616 engines you´re supposed to turn each of the three piston rings by 120 degrees to the previous ring to insure NO blowby whatsoever...Huh! What was Dr. Ferdinand trying to tell us there...?

[@TweedsGarage]

I was always lead to believe piston rings were always set 120 degrees apart on 4 strokes, on 2 strokes the gaps are either side of the pins, all in a line seems to fly in the face of standard practice, maybe RMA's like a bit of lubrication on the exhaust valves 🙂

[@mikeadams7829]

I had to replace the spigot bearing of my car when I rebuilt the engine in 2005, same condition , when I replaced it I made a cap to fit over the flywheel hub with an i/d a little larger than the gearbox input shaft o/d ,hopefully it's still keeping the grease in !! Cheers keep up the good work.

[@TweedsGarage]

that's a great idea, what grease did you use on the bearing?

[@mikeadams7829]

@@TweedsGarage I can't remember ,just a regular bearing grease I think.

[@nazdagg2027]

hello, I just found this channel. good show out in the shed. subscribed.

[@TweedsGarage]

welcome aboard

[@asciimation]

Finally some more Riley 9 content! You're luckier than me, I have to put my car together from bits. Many of which I don't have. I couldn't use my original crank. It's worth getting them crack tested too. Mine was cracked. So new Arrows crank and rods. That did mean I had to machine the piston tops to give clearance. I also need to repair my eccentrics to fix the oversize holes. I was considering bronze brazing them up then drilling new holes on the mill but your method might be better. My problem now is valves and valve gear. After spending so much on crank and rods I am not sure I can bring myself to not use new guides and pistons in it too. Looking forward to part 2!

[@TweedsGarage]

its an endless spiral of costs and difficult to know where to stop, yours is coming along great and your standard of work is impressive.

[@asciimation]

@@TweedsGarage I have a big spreadsheet of costs and it's frankly quite frightening! Prices add up quickly. For example replacing just one valve (valve, guide, tappet, rod, spring, collets, rocker, etc) is about 150 quid. And there are 8 of them of course plus other sundries. It's great we can get all these parts and it is well worth joining the clubs to support them making them. But when the clubs talk about getting 'young people' involved they need to realise it's not cheap. Unless you spend up large on an already restored car buying a cheap one will cost you money. And you can't just go to the local pick-a-part to get spares. Not a cheap hobby but rewarding because at the end of it you actually have something you can drive and enjoy and hopefully has some value. Since it takes me so long to build my cars (the Austin 7 is past 10 years now) I think in terms of costs per year and it's not so bad then! If you count hours of scraping muck off old bits as entertainment you'd otherwise have to pay for it's positively a bargain!

[@russellnixon9981]

Wear do you get all this knowledge to be able to do all this stuff.? I'm amazed.

[@TweedsGarage]

a life long interest in anything with an engine in it and model engineering, 12 weeks training in the trog shop ( engineering training shop during my apprenticeship) and encouragement and advice from my Uncle who was an excellent model engineer........and a dislike of being ripped off to have something serviced/repaired that you are capable of doing yourself.

[@thephilpott2194]

......Are you sure you want to hang onto the red fibre intermediate timing gear? Batches of metal ones have been made in the past. The fibre ones may be quiet, but having seen all the other surprises this car has thrown up...how long has it been in situ? Being hemi-head i think failure can ding the valves...not 100% sure of the clearance.

[@TweedsGarage]

I've checked them out and they are in good order, with the standard valve springs, cams and smaller loadings of short pushrods they are up to the job for now, the wallet isn't bottomless and at £700 plus a set steel gears will be an improvement in the future

[@thephilpott2194]

@@TweedsGarage Talking of valve gear- it's widely known in these circles that spare s/h inlet camshafts were available for many decades after production ceased- but exhaust camshafts were in short supply. The reason: It was established quite early on that an exhaust camshaft fitted to the inlet side of the engine 'improves' the response of the engine- but it's timing needs to be changed by one tooth. (i forget which way!!) The extent to which your car has been altered over the years, i wouldn't be at all surprised to see that this had already been done.. as you know, a Riley 9 saloon needs anticipation for steep hills 'what goes up in second, stays in second' Best of luck with the work.

[@TweedsGarage]

@@thephilpott2194 I had heard about this mod but didn't check the cams when I removed them as I don't think I would of known how to tell the difference, if I knew what lift and opening/ closing angles I could check with dial indicator and degree wheel and thanks for the tip " what goes up in second stays in second " , I had started to get an incling when driving it about before the strip down, hopefully with all the problems sorted it should have a bit more pep for getting up the hills 😀 ( once run In of course)

[@kenphillips5221]

Did you have to machine the piston tops to give valve clearance?

[@TweedsGarage]

Hi Ken, with standard cams and rods there is plenty of clearance on these pistons, this type of piston was used in the later Rileys.

[@asciimation]

I used an Arrow crank and new rods (with modern shell bearings from a Ford Orion I think it is) so needed to machine the pistons (Omega) in mine. Since they are 60 thou over I had to machine a step to avoid hitting the head then mill flats at 45 degrees to avoid hitting the valves.