Tag Archives: Engine Start

Starting the engine in the car and a few issues

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With June 2025 upon us, it was time to wrap up a few final items and get the engine started. This step is always exciting but also riddled with anxiety!

Good friend Randy Forbes helped us improve the looks of the engine bay by carefully bending a 1/2″ stainless steel pipe to replace the original copper heater pipe.

Original copper and new stainless steel heater pipe

The stainless pipe clearly looks better in the engine bay!

New stainless heater pipe mounted in place

Then it was time to get our electric fan’s thermostatic controller working. The water temperature fitting in the engine cylinder head is used for the water temperature gauge in the dash. Fortunately, there is also a bung for a temperature sensor or thermostatic switch in the top of the aluminum radiator. We modified an original temperature sender fitting by tapping it with 1/8″ NPT threads to receive a new switch that we picked up from Amazon. It turns on the electric fan at 190 degrees and cuts off at 175 degrees. We also have an override switch built in behind the dashboard. The wiring for the switch was previously anticipated and incorporated in our wiring loom.

Modified sender fitting and new thermostatic switch

Electric Fan Thermostatic Switch Install

With that job completed we then put about four gallons of fuel in the fuel tank and checked to see if we had any leaks. Experiencing none, we then turned on the ignition and ran the SU fuel pump to pump fuel to the HIF44 carb in the engine bay. Again, no leaks!!

No fuel leaks below the fuel fittings

With that behind us we then turned off the ignition and cranked the starter to generate fuel pressure as observed at the water temperature/oil pressure gauge.

The engine started right away as anticipated, since we had previously run it on a stand in the garage. However, we also encountered a very bad vibration and knocking sound. The noise seemed to emanate from the driveshaft tunnel. While we initially thought the noise might be coming from the driveshaft striking the body, after thinking about it for a while, we determined that they carburetor was running too rich, and the idle was set too low. once adjusted the engine smoothed out and the vibration disappeared. Hooray! The problem and solution can be seen and heard in Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven.

We also discovered that we had a problem with the gear shifter hitting the driveshaft tunnel thereby restricting its full range of motion.

Gear Shifter Hitting the Gearbox Tunnel

That was nothing that the careful application of the Dremel tool couldn’t solve. After a little paint was applied we reassembled everything and it was another problem solved.

The next problem we encountered was that the alternator was not charging the battery. We are using a Speed Hut, electronic tachometer supplied by Bugeyeguys.com. The electronic tachometerr does have provision for a charging light, but it is an LED. Unfortunately, an LED bulb does not generate sufficient load to signal the alternator to start charging the battery. We found out that you must have an incandescent bulb in the circuit to get the alternator to do its job. So, we modified our wiring and added an incandescent warning bulb in the charging circuit. The wiring modification is routed through Deutcsh connector D1. This process is also shown in the Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven. We just tucked the new light under the dash out of sight.

Finally, we made a slight modification in the carburetor float bowl overflow pipe by cutting off the curve at the end of the cunifer pipe and fitting a piece of quarter-inch rubber fuel hose at the end. We also replaced two 3 1/2″ bolts that go through the chassis floor into the gearbox mount with two 3 1/4″ bolts to avoid the possibility that the longer bolts might contact the upper part of the mount and cause vibration.

Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven:

https://vimeo.com/1092260334/7e6d3cd034?share=copy

Content summary:

0:00 – Heater pipe stainless steel replacement

0:25 – Radiator fan thermostatic switch 

1:33 – Fuel in the tank

2:32 – No fuel leaks!

3:02 – Rotating starter for oil pressure

3:17 – Engine start

4:45 – Knocking and vibration

5:25 – Searching for source of vibration

6:03 – Shifter surround modification

6:35 – Vibration problem solved

7:30 – Shifter problem fixed

8:06 – Alternator not charging

9:07 – Wiring modification in charging system

10:52 – Modifying the carb overflow drain pipe

11:18 – Gearbox mount bolts

 

 

Preparing for Engine Start

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As has been stated previously, our plan is to start the engine and getting it running reasonably well before we put it back in the car. We were experiencing an oil leak from the front of the engine and suspected the timing chain cover or the crank seal, so we decided to pull the cover and replace both the gasket and seal. While we were at it we freshened up the paint and upon reinstalling the cover we used a custom reinforcement plate for the cover that serves to spread the load evenly to create a better gasket seal. 

One has to remove the water pump fan pulley to loosen and remove the fan belt. Alternatively, the same could be accomplished with slacking off the alternator but in our case the water pump pulley was easy. The tab on the crank bolt tab washer was bent back and an impact driver was used to loosen the bolt. After the bolt and washer were removed the pulley slipped right off. 

The 1275 “A” series engine originally came with a crank pulley but at some point in time that pulley was replaced with an harmonic balancer that is commonly sold by the major parts vendors. The balancer has a rubber component that helps with vibration and it is, obviously, balanced. Evidence of the balancing is clear in the drilling of the balancer face. The harmonic balancer is deeper than the original pulley which results in the tab washer not having any purchase or key to retain it. To compensate, there is a flat on the balancer face that permits the punching downward of the washer face to create a flat to prevent rotation.  This is demonstrated in the accompanying video.

A combination of 5/16″-24 and 1/4″-28 hex bolts with lock washers is used to fasten the timing cover to the engine.

Timing Chain Cover Mounting Bolts

The video also shows the “massaging” of the bolt holes in the face of the timing chain cover to ensure a flat surface before mounting to the engine. A steel flat edge is used to determine that a flat face is realized. The old crank shaft seal was removed and a new seal was installed with the open “spring-side” of the seal toward the engine. A light smear of oil on the seal was all that was required and it was tapped into place with a piece of wood and light hammering. The face of the engine was carefully cleaned with a razor blade and brake cleaner.

The oil slinger was never removed but if it is in your case, it should be reinstalled properly. There is an “F” stamped in the face of the slinger and it faces “front” toward the radiator – away from the engine.

The gasket was then secured to the cover with Gasgacinch and a black RTV was lightly used on the face of the gasket to the engine. A couple of the upper short bolts were then loosely mounted and the cover was lightly pressed against the engine face. Before tightening the cover the pulley was reinstalled on the crank shaft and the cover was adjusted a bit to ensure that it was centered.

The timingchain cover reinforcement plate sourced from John Howell at Britcarfixes https://www.britcarfixes.com was then installed. This is a very nice high-quality product with very complete instructions.

Britcarfixes Reinforcement Plate

We found it easiest to put a little grease on the bolt spacers to hold them to the face of the cover and we could then easily hold the plate in place and insert the mounting bolts. Our ignition timing pointer was used in place of the bolt supplied by John. After wiggling the cover again to make sure it was centered on the crank shaft, each of the bolts was tightened by hand and the torqued to 8-10 ft. lbs.

The harmonic balancer tab washer was then reinstalled and the crank bolt was finger-tightened to the crank. The tab washer was then wiggled a bit to ensure that it was centered on the lip of the bolt and the bolt was then tightened to 70 ft. lbs. To do so, we removed the starter and slid a pry bar between some teeth in the ring gear of the flywheel. This held the crank in place while we tighten to the 70 lbs.

Holding the flywheel to prevent crankshaft turning

 

We then used a punch and hammer to press down the washer along the harmonic balancer flat (pointed out in the video) and then used a chisel to bend part of the washer up against a flat on the bolt to keep everything in place. Finally, we reinstalled the water pump fan pulley, the fan belt, the radiator and its hoses and the electric fan.

The following Bugeye Restoration Video Episode Forty-seven shows the process involved in replacing the timing chain cover gasket and crank seal:

https://vimeo.com/867751162/aeb5d81346?ts=0&share=copy

Moving on to Fueling and Ignition

Next we moved on to some other aspects of preparing the engine for starting. To use the single HIF 44 carburetor we obviously had to change the intake manifold and that was sourced from Maniflow in the U.K. https://maniflow.co.uk/index.php?view=category&category=162

This particular manifold must be used to lower the carb thus preventing it from conflicting with the Sprite bonnet when closed. After receiving the manifold, we sent it to Jet-Hot Coating https://www.jet-hot.com/thermal-barrier  to receive their classic ceramic finish and it looks amazing!

Maniflow 1 3/4″ Intake Manifold Jet-Hot Coated

Just to see how things will look we installed the new intake, the tired exhaust headers (that will get the Jet-Hot treatment eventually), as well as the carb heat shield, gaskets and spacer. These will be featured in a future video that will be included in this post once we receive the carb from the U.K. As shown in the photos below, the sequencing order of the gaskets, spacer, and heat shield is incorrect but will be changed before the carb is mounted. The proper sequencing beginning at the manifold is gasket, phenolic spacer, gasket, heat shield, gasket, carb.

New Intake Assembly Mounted

New Intake Assembly Mounted

After receiving the new HIF 44 carb from the UK it was installed and set up for initial running. The carburetor and its settings are detailed in another post under “personalizations.” 

We then began preparations for actually starting the motor. The first step was to get oil into the engine and water into the radiator.