What’s the most stupid thing you have done to your Stag?
Here goes:-
I have come to realise that, in life, it is possible to succeed despite displaying a very considerable degree of incompetence, I had however never thought that in acquiring a fine piece of British Engineering like the "Stag", that this incompetence would be quite so comprehensively revealed, I live in hope that someone will admit to having their own failings similarly exposed !
Here is the sorry tale :-
As previously reported on the Forum I had a small water leak in the Vee of the engine.
Somebody suggested I remove the air filter assembly so that I could see underneath it and perhaps locate the leak.
At this point I thought I had located the leak and tightened up some bolts on the inlet manifold. After examining the air box I decided to rub it down and repaint it. I sprayed primer on the air box and put the car away. Next day put more paint on the air box etc went to put the car away again but the battery was flat, the doors had been left open with the radio playing etc. Charged battery for a while then started the car.
Now the stupid bit. [/b]
So that I didn’t lose them I screwed the air box bolts back into the carburettor intake. I then decided to take a little drive to charge the battery up a bit. Unfortunately one of the bolts vibrated loose and fell into the exposed carburettor intake. The bolt stayed but the washer got sucked into the engine and is now sitting on one of the pistons. Rang fellow Stag owner Ray with my tale of woe and he agreed to have a look. Head now needs to come off.
With the head removed! There is some damage to both the head and the piston but we feel that it is minor and we will still be able to use both the head and the piston. After a major clean up and smooth off we (this is a regal we i.e. Ray does the work I watch) reassembled the engine. We feel we might have worked out where the water leak was coming from. The inlet manifold will not fit properly between the Vee. Eventually the manifold was bolted down and the engine turned over regrettably water gushing from the manifold. Ray had a spare manifold and decided to fit that one instead as it was obvious that the original manifold had caused problems in the past. Engine started, lovely sound run until up to temperature then left to cool until morning.
This afternoon we checked and double checked everything cleaned and put away tools and ran the car around the block, a little moisture in the Vee. The car now back from a 15 mile blast up the motorway back along the bendy old road everything fine even the moisture in the Vee no worse.
So that's it.
I bought the Stag thinking it would provide a welcome relief from the stresses of running a business in the present recession, had not quite realised it's own capability to induce stress - good fun though really !!
Finally a huge thanks to Ray Preston (on the Forum) for all his efforts and if any of you need work on your Stags in East Kent PM him as I’m sure he will be able to help.
Phil
Here goes:-
I have come to realise that, in life, it is possible to succeed despite displaying a very considerable degree of incompetence, I had however never thought that in acquiring a fine piece of British Engineering like the "Stag", that this incompetence would be quite so comprehensively revealed, I live in hope that someone will admit to having their own failings similarly exposed !
Here is the sorry tale :-
As previously reported on the Forum I had a small water leak in the Vee of the engine.
Somebody suggested I remove the air filter assembly so that I could see underneath it and perhaps locate the leak.
At this point I thought I had located the leak and tightened up some bolts on the inlet manifold. After examining the air box I decided to rub it down and repaint it. I sprayed primer on the air box and put the car away. Next day put more paint on the air box etc went to put the car away again but the battery was flat, the doors had been left open with the radio playing etc. Charged battery for a while then started the car.
Now the stupid bit. [/b]
So that I didn’t lose them I screwed the air box bolts back into the carburettor intake. I then decided to take a little drive to charge the battery up a bit. Unfortunately one of the bolts vibrated loose and fell into the exposed carburettor intake. The bolt stayed but the washer got sucked into the engine and is now sitting on one of the pistons. Rang fellow Stag owner Ray with my tale of woe and he agreed to have a look. Head now needs to come off.
With the head removed! There is some damage to both the head and the piston but we feel that it is minor and we will still be able to use both the head and the piston. After a major clean up and smooth off we (this is a regal we i.e. Ray does the work I watch) reassembled the engine. We feel we might have worked out where the water leak was coming from. The inlet manifold will not fit properly between the Vee. Eventually the manifold was bolted down and the engine turned over regrettably water gushing from the manifold. Ray had a spare manifold and decided to fit that one instead as it was obvious that the original manifold had caused problems in the past. Engine started, lovely sound run until up to temperature then left to cool until morning.
This afternoon we checked and double checked everything cleaned and put away tools and ran the car around the block, a little moisture in the Vee. The car now back from a 15 mile blast up the motorway back along the bendy old road everything fine even the moisture in the Vee no worse.
So that's it.
I bought the Stag thinking it would provide a welcome relief from the stresses of running a business in the present recession, had not quite realised it's own capability to induce stress - good fun though really !!
Finally a huge thanks to Ray Preston (on the Forum) for all his efforts and if any of you need work on your Stags in East Kent PM him as I’m sure he will be able to help.
Phil
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