Crankshaft advice

[Chris KC]

What I would do in those circs is send the crank off for a polish then find a set of sound (crack tested) A7 rods and have them re-metalled and machined to size. 

Whilst I heartily agree with Robert, scraping out old rods does require a certain level of skill, and old white metal may or may not be sound. If you send them off to John Kirkby they will come back 100% (and it sounds like your friend can afford it).

[Bluebird7]

So it's been established its a splash fed engine, but are we still unsure if its a splash-fed or pressure -ed crank yet ????

[Alan]

Plenty of people are using shell bearings with splash cranks. My experience is that it’s ok as long as you get the oil warm before using full power, which is harder than you might think. Austin rods are ok up to about 5000 revs so unless you plan on exceeding that there’s no real need for new rods. I’d find a good set of undersized rods and get our good friend at Alba Austins to machine them. He is rather good at that sort of thing.

[Parazine]

It appears to be a pressurised crank as there are no holes in the oil pick ups on the crank, ie no route for oil the get from the jets to the big end bearings. This is why you have had this problem. You need to change the crank or convert to pressurised, but your crank journals may be damaged.

Sorry not to be more explicit guys, the crankshaft (and the rest of the engine) are perfectly normal, splash feed items and the crankshaft has perfectly normal oil passages for a splash feed crank. My bad photography I'm afraid!  No pressure feed items were used or damaged in this incident!
The damage was caused by corrosion, as explained above; root cause, water or even coolant in the engine.

[Bluebird7]

Bugger, just lost £5 !!!!!