Pressure fed 3 bearing cranks

[Stuart Giles]

This thread has prompted me to make a decision about my pressure fed Reliant crank 3 bearing engine.   I have decided to sell the rather special bottom end of the engine which was built around 30 years ago by Walt Wheaton and Andy Hastings, along the same lines as Chris Goulds record attempt engine.  Stuart Rolt advised on aspects of the build and subsequently dyno tested the engine.
As built it was blown by a Shorrock C75B at a boost of around 6psi.   The blower was removed after a relatively small mileage (about 1000 miles) and the engine was run normally aspirated in my Ulsteroid for several years.  I retained the engine when I sold the car and it has remained unused for around 10 years.  It has done less than 10,000 miles.

Basic spec is as follows:
Austin 3 bearing crankcase machined to take the Reliant SV front and rear main bearing housings.
Reliant SV 3 bearing crank
Plain main bearings (Healey Sprite from memory)
Centre bearing stud modified to create an extra block mounting.
Oil feed to centre main from Hillman (Avenger?) oil pump housed in the sump.  Modified Nippy type deep sump with oil filter.
The rear of the crank is machined to take an Austin 7 flywheel (Reliant crank has a flange mounted flywheel)
Reliant SV rods which are very nice.   Shell type b/e bearings.  The use of Reliant rods requires a spacer plate about 3mm thick between the crankcase and block.  This plate is included.
Standard camshaft and timing gears.

The engine was stripped recently for inspection by a very good engineer friend to establish the reason for a serious oil leak from the rear of the engine.   Originally thought to be due to the spacer plate, the main source of the leak is from the crankshaft rear bearing.   The main bearings are apparently good but there is some minor ovality on the crankshaft.

The bottom end was balanced by the same engineering firm that did Mansell's F1 winning car.

This bottom end needs the attention of someone with rather more engineering expertise than I possess.  I am going to put together a new engine with a new steel crank and white metalled rods.    
For somebody with the necessary skills this is a good opportunity to build a very smooth and quiet bomb-proof engine.   I have a complete Reliant SV engine which will be included in the package.

I will post some photos in the next few days.  The snow has just about cleared so I can get down to the garage again!

Not an easy thing to value but I think £1000 is a fair price.   The machining work on the crankcase alone would probably cost that nowadays.

The buyer will have to arrange collection.

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