Unbelievably this week we arrive at part 17 of Marc Gruninger’s excellent Hawk 289FIA build. We thank you for your kind words and it’s clear that Marc definitely has a way with words, that has met with approval because you say he has made the build process understandable. Let’s join him in the workshop as he gets down to the nitty-gritty…

Getting ready to start the engine.

There are still a few issues to be cleared up with the engine and its ancillaries before I can attempt to start it. The Stewart Warner water temperature sender still needs an adapter so it can be fitted to the Edelbrock inlet manifold. I did not really have the sort of machinery needed to make an adapter, and I could not seem to source one either. The answer came from a friendly visiting plumber who came to sort out the central heating and wound up looking at the Hawk 289 FIA in the garage!  Before the he departed the plumber commented on a few adapters that he used that would be ideal for my purposes and he kindly dropped them off next morning.  He handed me three adapters and then drove off refusing to accept payment for them. Nice chap!  The adapters fitted into each other, which in turn fitted the Stewart Warner temperature sender nicely.   The problem I now had was the manifold thread being slightly different to the adapter thread.  Using a die, I recut the thread in the adapter and hey presto all fitted well. Just in case of any leakage I soldered all three of its parts together. This worked well, and would do the job until I found the correct part.

Pic one - A homemade adapter (badly painted) to connect the Stewart Warner water temperature sender to the inlet manifold.

The other sender unit still awaiting an adapter was the oil temperature gauge.  One side of the Rover sump has an oil level sensor, which was not going to be used. It was un-screwed from the sump pan and fixed lightly into a vice.  All the plastic insides of the unit were then melted with a propane blowtorch.  All that survived was the main brass housing, which consisted of the thread and the nut head (can’t think what else to call it!). I now needed to find a brass adapter that would fit the sender. This proved a little harder than I thought although in the end I found one in an old oxyacetylene torch regulator.  All that needed to be done was to find a way of connecting the two together and I finally ended up opting for trying to solder them. I know this sounds like a complete bodge but it really worked well and the adapter was both strong and oil tight.

Pic two – A homemade adapter to join the Stewart Warner oil temperature
sender and the Rover sump pan together.

The rev counter was just a case of wiring and presented no problems. The oil pressure gauge was connected using the braided hose supplied by Hawk Cars.  The fuel pressure unit could be left until later so I'll chicken out and not connect it for now. The last gauge remaining is the speedometer, which doesn’t work off the engine so could also be left at this stage. I purchased five litres of non-synthetic thick oil, an oil filter and two litres of anti-freeze. The oil filter was fitted and the engine filled with oil and the expansion tank with water and anti freeze. An inspection lamp was used to check for leaks and dealt with.

A bit of swapping!

The starter motor is a bit of problem when fitted in conjunction with the Hawk Cars exhaust manifolds as they run fairly close to the rear of the starter. I 'm not sure just how hot it will get, but it did worry me a bit. I found the answer for the starter motor at a kit car show. One of the exhibitors, an excellent company called Racemettle were selling specially made high torque starters and alternators (Check out their web site via http://www.racemettleltd.co.uk/.)  I asked about a starter motor for a Rover V8 and they came up with a far smaller unit than the one I currently have on the car. It was beautifully engineered and really did look the part. According to the spec sheet it was 50 % lighter (3.9kg) and 50% more powerful (1.4kw).

Pic three - On the left the original starter motor. On the right the beautiful replacement from Racemettle

Being lighter or more powerful does not really matter to me but being smaller is exactly what I was looking for.  The same company also supplied lightweight alternators and again these are very small and almost fir in the hand. I didn't really need the alternator but I'm a sucker for nicely engineered things so I bought them both!  In order to take the old starter motor off I had to remove the exhaust system and manifold. This was a real pain in the bum actually and something that I would not have needed to do if I had fitted the Powerlite starter in the first place. These units are so much smaller they can be fitted and removed without taking the exhaust system off.

Pic Four - The top shows the old starter motor and the bottom shows the new Powerlite unit. There is more space between the exhaust and the starter now. It also means if I ever have to remove starter, the exhaust can stay in situ. The wiring at the rear of the starter still has to be either re-routed or a heat shield made up to protect it from the heat.

Changing the starter motor was a case of simply swapping the components over and I didn’t need to make any spacers. The alternator was a different story and since I'm not using the original Rover alternator brackets, it was a case of making up various spacers to get it in the right position. The Hawk uses a 8mm bolt on the main alternator swivel fixing and the Powerlite unit used a 10mm, so a sleeve had to be made for the 8mm bolt. The alternator-fixing swivel is also about an inch and a half shorter in length than the original alternator unit, a spacer had to be made to fit. Once the alternator was on its bracket, aligned with the crank and water pump pulley I could turn my attention to getting the tension adjuster to fit correctly. The adjuster made by Hawk Cars just wasn't going to fit so a curved one had to be made instead. The last spacer was one for the pulley as it was a little too large for the spindle of the new Powerlite item. Thinking about it, I should have bought a pulley from Racemettle with the alternator.

Pic five - Left, the old alternator. Right, the new Powerlite unit.

Starting the beast

I was advised to spin the oil pump round until I had sufficient oil pressure prior to starting the engine. To do this I needed to make an adapter. This is a fairly simple affair and was just a rod with a cut at one end and then sleeved. If the distributor is removed the adapter can be lowered into the timing cover and onto the end of the oil pump drive and a battery powered drill can be used to turn the pump. I took one of the rocker covers off and spun the pump until I saw oil oozing from between the rocker gear.

Pic six - a rough diagram of an adapter for a hand held drill, which can be used to spin the oil pump.

The rocker cover and distributor were fitted back onto the engine and a visual check of the various components was made.  I put four gallons of LRP petrol into the fuel tank and checked for leaks. Thankfully there were none. The battery leads were connected and the ignition was turned on, and the fuel pump came to life, fast at first and then slowing down as the fuel pressure built up, still no leaks. I turned the key and spun the engine over, for the first few seconds nothing happened, then it started to splutter into life although it was fairly obvious by now that the timing was miles out and needed to be adjusted.

I advanced it a little and tried again. This time it was worse! So the ignition timing was retarded and the engine spluttered to life almost immediately and was held at 2000 rpm for 10 minutes. I was advised this needed to be done because I had fitted a new camshaft. I also kept my eye on both the oil pressure and water temperature. The temperature reached 190° Fahrenheit before the radiator fans cut-in and then fell to 180° Fahrenheit where it stabilised. The oil pressure was 60lb when the engine was cold at 2000rpm and 45lb when normal operating temperature was reached. A timing light was used to get the timing roughly correct during the first few minutes of running and then used again at operating temperature to make sure it was spot-on. The engine sounds great although a tad too quiet for my liking, and I think those silencer boxes are going to have to come off! (After SVA of course!).  It’s another milestone reached and I look forward to the day I can drive it, even if it is only a few metres.

Words by Marc Gruninger

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