Jack Night bottom end

[Gulfb]

Looking to build an engine for a special and wondered if the collective wisdom had any view on the Jack French bottom end listed on eBay or too far gone?
Any guidance appreciated.
Thank you

[Gulfb]

Over 100 views and not a single view?
Am I missing something or should I have phrased the question differently/better?
Or simply no one can help!

[Nick Lettington]

Probably lots of interest in the title? Jack Night?
Some who looked will know their place and not want to comment for fear of ridicule.
Some may well know that it would have been a good starting point but may be unwilling to comment due to the condition.
Some may have thought they'd take a punt on it, so declined to comment...

If it isn't too pricy and you can afford to use it as a template to base the modification of another bottom end if it turns out to be too far gone... Then it might be a good purchase...

Toss a coin?

---

I just refreshed my memory... I slept since I'd seen the eBay listing... It is certainly likely to be a challenging thing to make shiny again...

[stuartu]

I assume you refer to eBay item number: 172995000448?

Assuming this to be so, I began to reply last night but found myself at a loss for words. Perhaps I was not alone! On mature reflection I will say:

I am sure the vendor's description is given in good faith. However I see no reason to suppose that this is a pressurised engine. It appears to have a form of 4 jet lubrication. The camshaft is shinier than the rest and so may well be a hard chromed French camshaft. As far as one can tell from the photographs there is little else that would cause excitement for me, but perhaps this is because I am old and jaded.

Roger can perhaps tell us roughly how many camshafts his father supplied. The presence of the camshaft does not necessarily identify the builder of the engine, of course.


As a general remark the engine appears to have been stored in unfavourable conditions. Ignoring price, this leads one to  wonder how much would be useable.

Regards
Stuart

[Tony Betts]

you may find the forum has hundreds of members, but only a small number of them join in.

the rest will watch for many different reasons, some are just interested in keeping up to date, up to those who enjoy others pain. or are waiting for something contravercial to happen.

as for the engine, stuart is spot on. it may be a jack french cam, but anyone may have built the engine up originally.

if i was looking to buy, i would value the engine as a sum of its parts. but you cant do that properly unless you view it. as prices are subject to condition.

camshaft can be worth £ 0.00 to £120.00
crankcase                   £10.00 to £250.00
flywheel                     £10.00 to £90.00
timing gears               £  0.00 to £30.00
crank is crap
oversized pump           £10.00 to £40.00

cant see much else, so your risk is from £30.00 to £530.00

as stuart suggests, i also think the seller is selling in good faith. but may not have enough knowledge of the item. it doesn`t look to be pressure fed, he may be confused buy the external pipework. probably an external oil filter at one time.

good luck.

[Alan]

Hmmm. Looks like a 4 jetted crankcase and possibly a jack French cam. I don't think I'd want my feet close to that flywheel! Maybe if you wanted to put together a 50s spec engine for a period special it would be a good starting place, but there are better cams available now. It's interesting, but way overpriced.

[Zetomagneto]

Hmmm. Looks like a 4 jetted crankcase and possibly a jack French cam. I don't think I'd want my feet close to that flywheel! Maybe if you wanted to put together a 50s spec engine for a period special it would be a good starting place, but there are better cams available now.  It's interesting, but way overpriced.

This thread should read Jack French, Jack Knight make steering racks and spur cut gears, and many other things, not to be confused with Jack French.

Engine is 4 jet lubrication as per Mike Forrest, oversize oil pump,shiny camshaft, and when I visited Jack French over 30 years ago he had a number of flywheels modified as per the one on the listing. Quite possibly parts that originated with JF but all past their best now.Nothing particularly special about this, and for the starting bid of £650 you could get a decent cam, flywheel,and oil pump and more.
Not a good proposition in MHO.

Alan, re flywheel I was interested in your comments as perhaps in my ignorance I thought this was a good way to get weight off the periphery,the resultant 6 post being tied together by the ringear/clutch cover bolts.I was thinking of this mod for my engine but perhaps I need enlightenment.

I also have an alloy clutch cover, to use this one has machine all the top hat section off the flywheel 
away leaving the flywheel as a disk, any comments

[Ruairidh Dunford]

My experience of lightening flywheels to that extent is that that they break up causing major problems - I rarely lighten them these days but, if I do, I simply take a little off the outside edge.

I have some pictures somewhere of a lightened cover plate that was about to fail when the flywheel beat it - I don't lighten them any more either, but I am not a 'speed' man.

[Alan]

Zeto, nothing wrong in doing that in principle, the one on my Ulster is like that, just I'd rather know where it had been machined before using it !! The other thing of course is take metal off the diameter only, not the web.

[Ian Williams]

I have tried searching eBay but can't seem to find the listing