eclecticalan

  • 1988 Alfa Romeo Spider – Continuing the clean-up

    Because of the large amount of leaks, the entire front of the engine looked almost black. As you can see, some elbow grease along with some safety kleen (plus a drip tray) can do wonders for these Alfa Romeo blocks. Our parts have arrived. A new water pump, oil pump, complete gasket set and head…

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  • 1988 Alfa Romeo Spider – Disassembly, inspection, and cleanup

    Once we removed the engine, we mounted it to an engine stand and removed the cylinder head, front cover, and other items. While on the stand we’ll clean the engine with safety kleen and a brush. The cylinder head has already been cleaned up in this photograph, and the cams, gears, and bearings inspected. Alfa…

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  • 1988 Alfa Romeo Spider – Re-sealing the engine

    This 1988 Alfa Romeo Spider is in great condition, but its engine is pretending to be British – i.e. it’s leaking fluids everywhere. It’s time to re-seal everything with fresh gaskets, seals, and hoses, and to clean up the mess while we’re at it. The easiest way to do all of the work is actually…

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  • 1977 Triumph TR7 Race Car

    We’ve had this 1977 Triumph TR7 Race Car in the shop before, and it’s been run locally in the VSCDA circuit for a few years now after the grandson of it’s original driver decided to pull it out and start racing again. This year’s project is all about safety. We’re going to update the roll…

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  • 1960 Jaguar MK IX – Arrival and Inspection

    This 1960 Jaguar MK IX arrived this fall from the other side of Michigan. It’s a beautiful car that has had some modifications done that the owner wishes to bring back to stock, including replacing the aftermarket alternator and power steering setups with an original generator and power steering pump. In addition, a GM T700-R4…

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  • 1954 Jaguar XK120 – Arrival

    The owner of this rusty but untouched Jaguar XK120 is doing much of the work himself. He’s trusting us with some of the heavy lifting. Here are some pictures of he car as it arrived for us to do some of the disassembly. The car was so rusty that the body came off in two…

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  • Adding water cooling

    A big issue with adding a Subaru engine to an aircooled Vanagon is the complete and utter lack of water cooling (obviously). We did some research and opted to install a later factory water-cooled Vanagon radiator in the front of the van. We didn’t have any of the mounting hardware, but we found one place…

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