Why this Lagonda Rapier is too valuable for any cockups! 

Your pins are tight in the pistons because they're cold. Put them in hot water or better still your parts wash. When hot they're loose. If they're loose when cold they'll be even more loose when hot.

Would LOVE to see this engine running when in the car, Glad to see Vintage/Veteran cars still with us instead of BORING EVs 🥱😡😠🥱

You really do need to get Paul to teach you how to properly handle the camera to eliminate all the distracting waving about. The difference between Paul's footage and yours is striking.

I noticed the piston circlips are the stamped "eye" type. Being stamped they have a rounded edge and a sharp one. Years ago I rebuilt a perkins 4203 engine and didn't check the orientation of the circlips. Apparently they should be fitted with sharp edge towards the bore wall. I didn't know. Sure enough a few years later a circlip ended up in bits and scored up the bore either end of the gudgeon pin. Had to fit another liner etc. You probably know anyway.

I’m reliving my experiences with the old school methods you’ve been explaining. My proudest moment being a straight six Rover block, hand honed everything, ran as sweet as a nut. Patience is king.

When checking ring gaps with flat top pistons I was taught to put one ring on the piston so when you have your ring in the bore push it down with the piston upside down until the ring on the piston is touching block, ensuring the ring to be checked is square in the bore

what a pleasure to see the Lagonda. What an old piece of history!!! AWESOME!!

This is a good and sound way to gap rings without special tools. Our gapping tool is quite expensive for a hobbyist. I started with this file technique decades ago. I moved on the rotary gapping tool. We now have the "state of the art" device to take care of that task. It is not a tool for those that will build 2 or 3 motors a year. You have done a service for those that want to work within their means. Great job. Have a deluxe day! looking forward to seeing you Friday!

What happened to the American that was going to send you new machining equipment?

I'm surprised to see the gudgeon pins for those pistons sliding in/out when the piston is cold. When I rebuilt an engine with new pistons, one had to warm the piston up slightly, to release the gudgeon pin.

Very interesting again, like the diy gapping technique, interested to see the wet/dry nut/split pin alignment technique

Thank you for showing us how you are working on that Lagonda engine. Quite informative

That Lagonda crank is amazing.Very large and heavy throws on it.I bet it is very slow to rev but once it has you are away like a washing machine drum on fast spin.Huge inertia.

I would have liked to see the process of the crank installation

Rule of thumb that will never let you down is : most plain bearings are 0.001" per inch of journal, so a 1 &1/2" journal is 0.0015 " water cooled piston rings are 0.001 ' per 1 " of bore, BUT ! you must multiply the bore x PIE ( 3.172 ) to get the circumference length, so a 3" bore x PIE = best part of 0.010" you have to double this for air cooled pistons rob NZ

love the old school ring gapping seems the right way for an old engine like the Lagonda!

Hi Love that lagonda crank it makes a modern one look like a bent bit of wire Must feel like a privilege to be entrusted with a piece of history

would love to see how they put that white metal bearing material in and how they finish it

I'm not slating you for that method of filing the ring gaps! That's exactly how I was taught to gap them 60 years ago and every ring had to be done individually to each bore! The only difference is that I was taught to rub chalk on the file!

What a gorgeous old long stroke engine. Looks so strong and industrial! Would have thought the ring gaps would be a little bigger than you suggested at .005" Used to have a rule of .003" plus per inch of bore for liquid cooled engines and the bore looks to be 3" or more. Air cooled even more. Also a bit curious as to the gudgeon pin fit in piston . Always warmed the pistons up in very hot water prior to fitting to conrods and the pins would slide in beautifully and would be free floating when engine was hot. EDIT I miss heard the ring gap and thought you said 005" not 012". Apologies for that error.

Good morning from Wisconsin . WE had a all night rain on top of our snow last night everything is quite slushy. Thanks for showing adjusting ring gap in you garden shed I always want to see a proper procedure done. .

Good morning from New Zealand. A bit wet at the moment.

We call that white metal bearing babbitt bearings or the process is called babbitting over here in the States. It is an art we are slowly losing to time.

No mention of balancing that huge crank. Would be wise, wouldn't you agree?

Hi Lee, regarding your last vid on energy use, get some quotes for solar panels i think you will be surprised, im pushing 70 but i can still see the "white metal "on the floor where my Father worked.

I have built plenty of winning race motors using the file method. A gap grinder is great to have and if you have the money buy one BUT this method will work just as well just takes longer and more patients

The two head men at Burum Enginges Pual and Isaac I would like you to watch Scott Speed Jr videos he works forTotal Seal , he a qualified oil technician. You will add H.P to your performance builds . Kit from Down Under

Rather than a split pin in the castellated nuts, would you not wire-lock them like an aero engine?

I would like to see a far more detailed video on the Lagonda engine, specially all about White metalling. It would be a nice change from the usual stories about Cosworth engines. I hope you get more vintage work. It is far more interesting!

This is a great RU-vid channel.👍

Ageless!...Unbelievable...thanks V/Much.

hi, did you check the orientation of the circlips .. they will be under load and pop out if the wrong way around.

Back in 90, I used to do Dorking market and one of my loyal customers a terribly suffering old gent with his missus would talk for a bit and in the end I asked him about his many apparent injuries and he says to me "Oh I used to work in the car business" so I am thinking he must have had a major industrial accident or something and said so and he was "oh no, I was Aston Martin's crash driver" and he explained to me how he would be paid quite a lot to literally drive cars into brick walls, other cars, off high edges and at some speed too and he had broken every bone in his body more than once. He bought a huge house and lived in quite some luxury on what he was paid lol

Nice engine. How are the thrusts set up on it? Did you get any pictures of the old bearings and crank? The wear can tell a story, but to me that is some kind of aftermarket crank, but I am not familiar with the inards of a that legonda engine. I have a couple of 1930s Meadows engines that'll likely need similar TLC once I open them up and see how they are set up, and then rebuild similarly, so this has given me a bit of a spur to dig them out of the back of the shed and get on with it. For gap measuring, just use an inverted piston with a ring in it to push the test ring down the bore. It stops square, easily & quickly. For filing a simple tapered jig to hold the ring flat and lightly squeeze it in and block holding the needle file nice and square works well, unless you have a wheel turned ring-gapper tool that makes the operation a cinch. Is next weeks lesson on hand scraping bearings or even face scraping to flatten the block or head if you have a power cut? All nice and theraputic if you have all the time in the world, and a good referencing tool...

Damn! I still do ring end clearances this way! You mean there is a better way?

Nice to see the white metal bearings as I did my own white metal ( Babbitt) bearings on my 1934 SS2 , very satisfying but took me about 2 weeks to scrap them all in 😂 , happy days 😀😀

There must be a torque tolerance for the crank shaft big end journals? If so you can go to that torque setting to see if the split pins line up? Then you don’t need to touch the nuts.

Wet / Dry papering the bottom face of the rod nuts in order to have the castellations on the nuts to line up with the holes at the proper torque.. Now if that doesn't prove to you that the quality of the work that this shop turns out is impeccable, nothing will prove it to you. Some other shop would have either tightened or loosened the nuts a bit in order to get a cotter pin inserted.

A great job there and so interesting

Don't you check the piston pin end gap?

Its not the way ive done ring gaps, but your way seems better, although i would of used gaffa tape in the vice

Really enjoyed that well done guys.

Lee's OBVIOUSLY Count 10

How many rubs to remove a 1000th of an inch Paul. Only joking mate😁! Great video as always!

Oh this makes me feel ILL watching this, but not for reasons you might expect. As a kid, I 'helped' mum clear out the attic & burned a whole lot of old papers & books, including my grandfather's Lagonda papers & workshop manuals. Only years later did I realise what I had done. 😭

How do you gap the oil control ring if it's solid and too tight

Hence the expression " that bastard file took too much off my rings."

Just out of interest, who did you use to remetal the bearings? They guy we used to use retired and I'm looking for recommendations.

That's just proper engineering 👍 wet and drying the nuts down to achieve the torque setting, how many other 'engine builders' would just nip that nut a fraction to line up the hole 🤔

Lee what's the cc of that Lagonda lump? And what's the stroke? That looks one hell of a long stroke crank, it look to be best the part of 5-6 inches! Nice to see an old engine having new Babet bearings made for it, there can't be too many guys out there doing this sort of work anymore.

I have not seen u rebuild a Trump Spitfire 1500cc motor.

why use castleated nuts? Is it for authenticity? surely nylocks or locktight would be a better option?

Brilliant channel, I love the work you do. Subscribed and loved.

White metalled??? Whats that ?? 🤔

👍👍

Biggest crank webs I've seen. Mist create a serious amount of windage

Loooooong stroke block, small pistons.Tall block. Steam engine bearings. Wow.

Why do engines cost so much ?

If it works don't knock it

Fettle? I learn new words every day here!

Not at all -that is a good tip.

What happened to the American that was going to send you new machining equipment?