A clean sweep

Roger Parker’s old V8 engine makes way for a new custom 3.5-litre build by Vitesse.

I mentioned in my column in the December 2019 issue that my GT V8 had munched its big ends on numbers one and two rods, and, in so doing, had gouged the number one crank big end journal. This occurred mid-morning on 3 July and, before the end of that afternoon, the AA had returned the car and me to my son Matt’s workshop. As we were annoyed, frustrated and curious in equal measures we had the engine in bits, surveying the sorry but very localised damage, that same day. Oddly there was also a single bent pushrod, probably a pre-existing condition from the time I had to overcome the sticking valves just after taking the car on in 2013! However, that rapid start soon slowed to a stop/start and the replacement engine wasn’t running until 16 September. However the time was put to good use with an engine bay repaint.

I felt fortunate (yes, perhaps an ironic choice of word under the circumstances) that, when examining the rest of the engine, there were no further signs of damage or residues from the failure. The damage was localised to the big ends, on numbers one and two and, with the significant heat that developed during the shredding of the big end, the shells had blued the rods and caused partial seizure of the pistons on those two rods.

That ‘fortunate’ view was because the SD1 heads on the engine had been subject to some significant internal port and valve modifications so the fact they could be cleaned and re-used was a real bonus too. The block looked untouched, as did the front cover, oil pump and, on cleaning out the oil hoses, the cooler and filter had no sign of residues. However, I chose to fit a new oil cooler and hoses simply to avoid any possibility of small bits having lodged in the cooler matrix which could, at some future time, decide to move and possibly get through the filter and damage the replacement engine.