AFTER THE MOTOR DISASTER, A MORE ENERGETIC SPROUT PARPS OUT & ABOUT...
Austin Healey Sprite — PART TWO
It was May 2010 and 49 days after motor meltdown, before Sprite was ready to collect from Mike Rolls MG, after the expenditure of more than £2000. As a nosey owner/journalist, I had visited the 52-year old patient regularly. Aside from the primary motor tasks, other issues needed resolving.
Purchased from Frogeye Spares, the combined reservoir for brake and clutch hydraulics was installed, which improved the drum system beyond belief. Repairing the speedometer was good value and a legal requirement, a £6.81 cable rather less painful than the £75+ often required for second-hand Frogeye Sprite dials. Sprout also required a new door lock assembly, because the driver’s side sprung open in response to my reactions within left-handers!
Including those ancillaries, Rolls’ labour charges accounted for £850. Aside from stripping the damaged exchange engine (red in our pictures) and the £100 Nadder Valley Classics spares original (OE green), there were machining services. Reassembling new and machined components around Nadder’s pedigree block, a veteran of 70,000 spirited miles, would require a substantial rebore, bringing bore sizes up to +0.60-inch and the motor to 998cc.
Meanwhile, the red motor’s crankshaft was reground. That meltdown motor already carried external period tuning. Larger SU carbs (1.25 inch instead of 1 1/8”) and a tubular top exhaust manifold with a fruity note from a single tailpipe were most obvious.
At £250 the biggest individual motor charge was a resurfaced cylinder head to unleaded spec, actually the red head of MG 1100 ancestry. It demanded not just harder valve seats but also slightly (+1mm) oversize valves and a final 9.75:1 compression. No, it does not pink, the first A series I’ve driven to operate without detonation under load, or on switch off, although 2600 miles later, part-throttle pinking did rear it’s worrying head.
Next major item (£225) was a set of flat top AE pistons. Earlier cylinder head tuning had left the compression below 7:1 with the previous combination of 1100 combustion chambers and 948 pistons. No wonder it was so slow!
Machining services swallowed a £180 significant share of reborn motor costs. Regrinding the red motor’s crankshaft demanded £95: reboring the green 70k-mile block asked a tenner less. Replacement big ends and main bearings asked £73. And a new camshaft, profiled to Mini Cooper 998 showroom specification, cost £60.
The rest of the engine parts bill was for critical smaller items. The expected new head and ancillary gaskets, oil and water pumps, thermostat, timing chain with two O-ring tensioners, eight cam followers, gearbox and engine mounts, thrust washers, lock tabs, throttle return springs, assorted oil and fuel filters, plus the mounts for motor, gearbox and one for the exhaust system. That lot, and a few sundries like paint, brake fluid and oils, required £200 of the £2,215.43 total.
The result was a revived A-series with an anticipated minimum of 55 horsepower by 5800 rpm. Sadly this has not been checked as oil pressure begun to droop recently over a sustained 4500 in top. Before 30-35psi became a 4500 rpm issue I saw 5500 and 91 mph in circuit use, so 998 Mini Cooper horsepower seems a realistic guesstimate.
A thousand miles of running in were worrying. The original 4:1 diff allowed only 46 mph at the tight motor limit of 3000 rpm. You don’t want to be at that crawl for long in 21st century traffic. A lengthening queue of white vans, campers and caravans form a disgruntled traffic jam behind you. The compensation at today’s 97-99 octane fuel prices is that you’ll get 40 mpg on the road to hold-up hell.
I fitted a correct 4-speed gear lever knob to replace the aftermarket Alexander item, one that had lost its badge, plus an electronic oil temperature gauge. The latter was planned to ensure the precious new motor was coddled from cold. It would sit amongst the plethora of non-functional dashboard auxiliary dials that had been installed to fill holes in the original dash!
Worse still, a British Leyland radio defiled that dash, defunct of course!
SPRITING BACK TO HAPPINESS
For 200 miles after collecting my revived Frog with fresh motor from Mike Rolls I took things really easy, ridiculously so. It had been a wallet-bleeding lesson in the merits of demanding a proper replacement oil filter seal worth less than a couple of quid, versus a motor rebuild in excess of £2000. I had no wish for a rerun, although I now had a motor of rare A-series quality. Without that filter disaster and consequent total oil loss, I would never acquired such a civil unit.
As the running-in miles slipped by, I enjoyed Sprite’s sharp steering, revived drum brakes and docile motor. All offered more pleasures than I remembered of hasty road test hacks in the sixties 1098 and 1275cc Spridgets.
To regain full forward vision, via the new screen I purchased from Frogeye Spares, slotted within the old frame. Locally, Aidy’s bodyshop utilized the new rubber surround I had also bought in that Midlands Frog heaven. One side effect was that when I ran through local rainstorms, the baby Healey blew soapy bubbles at me! A legacy of the slippery solutions applied to ease the screen into position.
I sold my milky old screen, an older spare screen and a second surround, through the Midget & Sprite Club, provoked by a sea of bills. This proved a Bad Move as the new screen cracked heavily in July 2011...
Next 2010 assignment was a MoT. Since a rear winker and the horn were not working, I took it into the nearest electrical specialist. Peter Jenkins at Auto Services laboriously sorted out a hidden trim screw rubbing through a rear wire run, reconnected a hidden horn wire and ensured that my bodge securing a headlamp rim endured. MoT passed without advisories, doubles all round!
Some 500 miles clocked up and Sprite was managing 37 mpg regularly. It returned to Mike Rolls for a check, the unleaded head tightened down and an oil change. Ancillary repairs included replacement rpm-counter mechanical gears (cable driven from back of dynamo) and I also had an oil catch tank fitted. The tank is an attractive alloy unit, flash for a period engine bay, but was affordable through eBay. Sadly, rev counter repairs asked almost £70.
There were a couple of hiccups as the motor loosened up. There was the obvious whiff of fuel, which I fixed with shortened pipe and tweaked up jubilee clip security. I also attached the vacuum pipe from distributor to carburettors, taped securely. I used the same sort of racer’s resource to wedge under dash stays into place (hanging loose), reduce gear lever buzz, and with comparatively high tech split rubber beading I trimmed the sharper edges of the doors and front number plate. Now I do not have to give blood every time I lift the heavy bonnet clamshell, slashing my wrists on the edge of the number plate!
By late July and with some 800 miles under the revived motor, I felt more confident in the power potential. When the Low Tension (LT) lead in the distributor failed and the Sprite returned to Rolls, I asked them to fit a 3.9:1 final drive as well. The secondhand diff replaced the usual 4.22:1 production item through most Sprite production years until later run 1275s, which adopted that 3.9:1 ratio. It altered rpm per 1000 rpm from 15.2 to 16.5 mph per thousand. In top this means 70 mph is 4242rpm instead of 4605 rpm and, after 1500 miles, this proved a pretty regular pace. I now felt confident enough to tackle a 200 mile round trip, but a big gap between second and third remains annoying.
THE GOOD BIT
Autumn 2010 saw the Frog prove its mastery of lanes and tricky questions. To prepare it for a closed event called Bring Your Own Car Day (BOYCD) run by the Guild of Motoring Writers, which included a back lane treasure hunt; I decided some safety belts were required. The fastest tailored safety belt service came from Quickfit SBS, 104 miles from home.
I had a sentimental leaning toward Willans safety belts from my racing days during my exploration of the crash-worthiness of assorted Fords, but I wanted these fitted properly, hopefully secured on Sprite’s sound floors. Willians did not offer a fitting service. Quickfit were rapid and neat, fitting my choice of dull green lap belts with period chrome buckles in 1 hour 50 minutes.
The total bill was £296.69 and both passengers and myself feel a mild boost in safety as the tiny 2-seater tears into traffic. Routine 120 mph closing speeds of 2-way roads also prompt less high anxiety for the occupants. Weeks later, I discovered the same restraining straps on board a flight to the USA!
The 210-mile London trip was not entirely without incident. A total silence greeted the pull switch starter knob and the rev counter failed utterly. The non-start was just a loose nut on the coil, but it was a long time before the Smith counter was refurbished, by which time the speedometer had failed and the end of the fuel gauge needle had vibrated off…
A 25ºC September day saw the now run-in Sprite venture boldly onto the M4 and spend most of the day above 60 mph/3636 rpm, bumbling through heavy London suburban traffic happily enough unless we were at an absolute standstill for five minutes plus. A 2-lap GP track outing at the 2011 Silverstone Classic provoked similar queue behaviour, but – unlike expensive machinery surrounding Sprout — it did not boil.
The BOYCD event? Pretty good. The Sprite was so agile it backtracked swiftly on missed clues strewn along narrow lanes, its top ten potential in a separate morning trial rewarded by a half point win in the afternoon. The post- event BBQ and live group kept us away from our beds long enough to have to discover the candlelight progress of a Sprite on a damp night. (Next time I’ll bring a torch! — PO)
Insurance is a perpetual classic conundrum and it bit me in 2011. Brokers and risk assessors generally like classic clientele for their advanced ages and lower risk mileage. I was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place as my 635 BMW ‘Helga’ is perfect for longer motorway runs and usually exceeds 5000 miles a year. In contrast, I recorded 2072 miles in the Sprite’s opening 12 months.
Hagerty, who I met through their excellent classic car runs based on Silverstone, took on the BMW after the Sprite. I briefly ran both for far less than Privilege’s £400 plus BMW-only premium, but mileage restriction on the 635 was broken. I had go to Footman James on the BMW and 6000 miles pa for 273.32.
A wooden steering wheel bought for £25.
Getting the correct centre boss was protracted. It allegedly had an MG Midget Mk1 boss, but the difference in size and splines was such that I think it came from an MGB. After some false starts I tested Merlin Motorsport’s knowledgeable counter staff and finally got a Springalex boss from them at just over £21. Fitting was comparatively simple and I now have a correct logo to complement the key fob, both bought less than £3 at Footman James Restoration Show in October 2011.
Set of spare ignition and (originally optional) locking petrol cap keys came at very modest cost from Ian Conley, who also has a white Frogeye and is in the classic car business. I’m just glad he runs this useful business as a sideline.
NOT SO GOOD...
Our next report covers another £1000 plus Mike Rolls bill, but the fun factor with a new anti-roll bar acquired through eBay almost made up for it! This Sprite is certainly an excellent drive according to the experts.
Turned away by a number of companies and hearing reports of poor fits even on new steel bonnets, I opted for local company Coachbuilt Horsepower to fix the previously damaged bonnet. They are currently trial fitting the original flip-up unit with fresher hinges acquired at Beaulieu autojumble for £12.
CONTACTS:
Mike Rolls MG Services (Dorset)
01258 820337 • www.mikerolls4mgs.co.uk
Frogeye Spares Company (Midlands)
01885 400791 • www.frogeyespares.co.uk
Rawles Motorsport Ltd, Alton. (Hampshire)
01420 23212 • www.rawlesmotorsport.com
Nadder Valley Classics, Dinton, Salisbury
01722 716052 • www.naddervalleyclassics.co.uk
Quickfit SBS Ltd, Stanmore Middx, HA7 1EP.
0208 206 0101 • www.quickfitsbs.com • sales@quickfitsbs.com
Hagerty Classic Car Insurance (Northants).
0844 824 1130 • www.hagertyinsurance.co.uk
Ian Cooley (keys) can be reached on 07778 380380 •
ian@radlettclassic cars.co.uk
Merlin Motorsport, Castle Combe circuit, Wilts SN14 7EY
01249.782101 • www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk
Coachbuilt Horsepower, Wiltshire.
01985 847002.
Auto Services (Warminster, Wilts)
01985 215749
Aidy’s Bodyshop (Warminster, Wiltshire)
01985 841234
