I really need to stay off Facebook marketplace as I've now picked up another distraction....
In mid September while perusing FB during my lunch break, I decided to key in Coventry Climax as sometimes things pop up (found an FWA cylinder and block a few years ago that I've now donated to the brother of a coworker who has an Elite). Lo and behold a firepump popped up in the search. Upon closer inspection of the photos it appeared to have a proper FWA/B/E cylinder head casting. I asked the seller if he could send me a photo of the manifold side of the block, and to my surprise it was an FWB block casting. After looking at the photos, telling the GF about it, and having one too many pints, I bought it sight unseen (other than the photos).
The motor was on Vancouver Island, so required a ferry trip. We headed over to pick it up, in hopes it would fit in the back of dear old dads Dodge Journey (it was a bit too big to fit in my Jag XF). After much struggling we managed to get the pump assembly up on the lip of the tailgate area, but quickly found out that the pump cage was about 2 inches too tall to fit. We then elected to call it a day, and figure out another way to get it back to Vancouver. We had another trip to Scotland that was going to delay getting back across the Salish Sea. By coincidence my cousin was over on the island while we were touring Islay, and he, single-handedly, managed to get it in the back of his pickup and deliver it to the garage.
Which brings the little story up to this past weekend, Saturday saw me pull the motor and pump out of the cradle:
The pump was removed:
I then started to investigate what I really had. I pulled the head and it turns out it is a genuine FWB pump, meaning it has the 3" bore and 3.15" stroke (1460 cc). It also, by some strange reason, had a proper rear main seal:
The earlier pump that I converted years ago had a scroll on the crank acting as a seal, and the proper automotive type Climaxes had a piston ring type seal. Both are now typically changed out for a lip seal after machining the crank.
Next, the oil pan was removed, and what came out of the pan can only really be described as a chocolate milkshake. I was fearing the worse for the bottom end, I though for sure it would be totally corroded. Luckily, that wasn't the case, everything looked fairly decent:
The best bit was next, it turns out the crankshaft is a forged EN24 crank. I couldn't believe my luck, this means the motor is very useable as a conversion. The earlier pumps had cast cranks which work fine for engine speeds below 6k rpm, above that things go bang.
I did have a good look at the cylinder head (but forgot to take photos), it appears to be useable in stock form other than swapping out the valve springs. The valves are the correct automotive sizes, and it looks like it has the smaller combustion chambers.
After all that excitement it was loosely put back together and parked beside the other projects:
It will require a full tear down, new pistons sourced (the current ones have soup bowls for piston crowns), a new crank pulley, new water pump pulley, a steel timing gear, and some minor machining done for the oil filter take off. But, the big question is what should I do with it? Make a coffee table with it? Send an RFQ to the laser cutting company I used to get a quote on either a Lotus 7 or 11 chassis cut? Sell it? I already have way too many projects on the go, and really shouldn't have bought it, but the asking price was less than two nights out at the pub.
