Wolseley engine swap: A heart of gold.

The Wolseley is up and running again. It took some good old fashioned tinkering. Here's what we did after removing the old engine.

The first job was to compare what the differences are. The "new" gold coloured engine is actually a Princess 1800 unit. As the Princess is more modern than a Landcrab, the most obvious items are the 45D distributor, engine mounts and the alternator, but there are several other, less obvious differences.

As I found new differential seals unobtainable at such short notice and the ones on the old engine were less than a year old, I decided to try to make a tool to extract them intact.

 The tool worked fine, but then I discovered the Princess uses different sized seals.

 

 So I needed to swap the differential end covers as well. Behind the covers there are shims to adjust the endfloat of the differential bearings, so I tried to avoid disturbing these. I'm not sure if this differential is going to be a long term fitment as the princess drive shaft ends have different chamfering and the 1800 axle ends seem to lightly touch something when turned in opposing directions. Forward or backword seems smooth enough though. Maybe we'll need to change the gearbox anyway. But if it works...

  
The waterpump, thermostat and housing, fuel pump,crankshaft pulley and radiator bracket fitted to the Princess engine.

 Starter motor and distributor.

 The car seems ready to swallow this pill..

 In theory it's just a matter of refitting all the items removed earlier. Down she goes..

 I started with the dirty stuff underneath: engine mounts, gear change mechanism and exhaust...

 Drive couplings: one new Moulton and one UJ-QH.
 
It's wonderful to be able to fit the driveshafts without taking apart the steering knuckle, but it is still hard to push the driveshaft back, so I decided to make a simple driveshaft contraction tool. 

 Here the tool does its job. Very easy.

Then we can move to the top of the engine. Dynamo, carbs, lots of wires, that radiator surround from hell and the battery. After adding oil and water the bonnet is lowered in place too. 

And then it's all in. It almost looks as if not much has changed. Except for the golden block. Then we adjust the tappets and ignition timing and it's time to start the car.

Oil pressure and temperature look fine after a short test run. No funny noises and not even a big cloud of smoke.

Looking good and ready!