12/05/26 – Planks, Brackets and Gaskets

Hello and welcome to another bumper weekend update from the team at Quorn, a day later this week as we’ve worked 3 days. Progress has been made with the Lowfit, Tank 3689 and the Test Car’s generator.

Dan has completed most of the bodyside lettering on the Lowfit B452718.

The Robins that had been nesting in the Lowfit had left the nest so Ernie, Nick and Charlie were able to loose-lay the floor; then mark and remove each plank in-turn for drilling the mounting holes. Some of the holes in the underframe also had to be opened up a little with the drill. The floor planks were then bolted in place.

Mark, Oliver and Tom cleaned out and applied undercoat to some of the end pockets and inner underframe areas of Tank 3689.

Ross, Ernie and myself marked out the positions for the Esso plate brackets on the West side of 3689, removed the paint and dressed the plate brackets that we’d previously made.

We then mounted the brackets to our special Esso Plate ‘jig’, and positioned the ‘jig’ onto the wagon. After checking the position of the brackets these were tack welded into place. The ‘jig’ was then removed and the brackets fully welded.

The brackets were left to cool, wire brushed and then given a coat of re-oxide primer.

On Monday, Ross and myself turned our attention to the Test Car’s generator. The studs that were removed last week from the old cylinder head were cleaned and fitted to the new one. The cam followers/tappets were then cleaned, oiled and fitted to the head. The rocker shaft oil feed adaptor from the old cylinder head was however not correct for the ¹/₈” BSP threaded hole in the new head, therefore one will have to be ordered.

The cylinder block was carefully cleaned and lightly scraped whilst hoovering any debris. The cylinder head mounting studs were cleaned and replaced into the block.

The camshaft was oiled then the new head gasket fitted into place. The cylinder head was then lowered carefully onto the block. The nuts were fitted and the head was torqued down in stages, strictly following the correct tightening sequence from the workshop manual.

The tappets were all set to a low position and the rocker shaft fitted into position. Rotating the crank to the correct positions as directed by the workshop manual, each tappet was then raised to the correct height in-turn and checked with feeler gauges. The crank was then rotated slowly by hand to confirm the correct operation of the valves.

The thermostat housing, thermostat, radiator hoses and inlet manifold were cleaned up and fitted using new gaskets and sealant.

The three fuel injectors which we’d previously had checked professionally were installed followed by the associated fuel pipework. The rocker cover was cleaned and loose fitted, this will be finally fitted with a new gasket once we get the new oil feed adaptor. The oil-filled air filter was also fitted.

The exhaust manifold was given a good clean out to remove as much coke as possible; the silencer flanges were then cleaned up. Exhaust assembly paste was applied and the exhaust manifold was then fitted with new gaskets along with the silencer unit which was attached to the exhaust upright flexi-pipe.