got the verdict from Martin Taylor at taylor machine services onthe damage to the engine…

martin mailed me some pictures from his phone showing more detail…

luckily the damage is not too bad, the big end bearing on number one cylinder let go and disintegrated, the extra ‘slop’ on the con rod meant that the piston crown had a good go at battering the head off the end of the barrel on number one cylinder but it has all survived…
the verdict, one set of new H-Beam connecting rods, skim heads & pistons, polish crank and balance all. new bearing set and reassembly. i’ve decided to change the cooling for a porsche style fan shroud (as i originally intended) that will help the cooling, give more amps out from the alternator and sap much less power than the original type one cooling. apparently an upright beetle style fan & shroud ‘stalls’ areodynamically at about 5,500rpm and saps about 15hp at high revs! the porsche fan is efficient all the way through the rev range and apparently only saps 3hp… no contetst.

here you can see how well the combustion has been. considering that this is a fairly laery engine this is lovely. I heart fuel injection ! makes me laugh to see the size of the valves…. compare this with a picture of a standard beetle head… 🙂 you can also see how well it’s all been sealing… pity i broke it really

here you can see the leaking where the piston on number one has tried to batter the head off as the bearing disintegrated…

and here are some of the bearings. the middle and left are form my engine, the right hand side one is a new one. they should all be the same size. somehow the ones from the engine have become a LOT wider and somewhat thinner….