Restoration restart

It's been many years since my last post. I'm ashamed to say that I have made no progress in that time due to a combination of parenting duties and lethargy - mainly the latter. However last weekend my daughter headed off to University and so I thought I should give myself a kick.

When I last wrote I had split the crank case and was about to start cleaning. After lifting out the crank shaft and the distributor drive I noticed that the bottom of the fuel pump pedestal was still in the case. This is made of a hard plastic and it had split in two when the fuel pump was being removed. Removing this chunk of plastic turned out to be simple, but only after I'd watched this video.

I then set about stripping down the cylinder heads. I removed all the valve strings and then the valves. However the inlet valve for cylinder 1 did not slide out like the others. I had to use some 600 wet dry paper on the top of the valve before it would come out (to be safe I'll replace the valve and it must have been damaged in some way).

Tonight I started cleaning the cylinder head for cylinders 3 and 4. After a quick wash round with white spirit the top looked presentable and I could see no damage.

I then flipped the head over and started on the combustion chambers. Here's what they looked like before cleaning.

The combustion chambers themselves aren't bad however the inlet ports are full of carbon. Here's a close up of cylinder 4. Notice that there is barely any opening. I can only assume this engine was run with badly set valves for a long time. This is may be why the car was laid up in the first place.

I cleaned using WD40 and a non-metallic scouring pad (for cleaning pots and pans). This was the result. Notice that I've chipped some of the carbon away but there is still a lot to remove. I'm pondering whether to take both heads to be soda blasted.

I'll give the same treatment to the other cylinder head and then clean the valves.