The Rebuild

Returning from one such event in 1984, the No.2 conrod sheared at the pinch bolt saw cut, and the resultant damage to crankshaft, crankcase, sump and camshaft effectively brought an end to Robert’s racing career.  Over the intervening 20 years business commitments, grandchildren and the sheer scale of the task of repairing the damage meant that the job was never really started.  Retirement and relocation to Herefordshire raised the possibility of repair, but it was diagnosis of terminal cancer which provided the final impetus to finish the job.

Sadly, Robert didn’t live to see out the engine work, and I, as his son-in-law, was left with a substantially complete car, but an engine reduced to it’s smallest components.  We had jointly decided to put a Phoenix crank and rods into the repaired crankcase on the basis that if the car was to be used and not to become a museum piece then we couldn’t afford the risk of another major incident.  The new crank and rods are, however, substantially lighter than the standard Phoenix offering, although not pared down to the almost featherweight proportions of the components Robert was using previously.  A new cam to the original racing specification was commissioned from Leonard Reece and the original block, sidelined in favour of a later version after having cracked during a wartime-long soujourn in a field, was repaired by Cast Iron Welding Services.  A further two months was taken getting this right and whilst the repaired block shows signs of all of this abuse, at least it’s at home in the right place again.

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