Pressure Nose Feed Modification

I fitted a new nose cone to my pressure fed engine; this will allow for a starting handle to be remotely fitted, if the need arise. Most pressure fed engines just have the end blanked off thus preventing the use of a handle.

However, having now fitted the very nice copy of the original Austin design which was supplied by Quarry engineering I found that I had a small problem with it.

It all started because I could not start my car due to a flat battery. When I tried to use the starting handle, I found this was not possible, due to engine oil having filled all the cavity and preventing the shaft from moving in [hydraulic lock]. I could not engage the starting handle shaft into the crankshaft and so I had a new nose cone but could not use it!

The original plan was to drill and tap the housing and fit a pipe and tap etc and thus removing the oil trapped, but having removed the nose cone, I found that this was not a good idea, due to location of the pipe and fitting. Also the aluminium wall of the casting was just too thin to accept the fitting [bearing in mind there is 60psi behind it].

A much better solution is to drill down through the starting handle and fit a M6 tapped hole at the end and a small cross drilled hole about 2.5" from the starting handle. This allows for a small bolt to be fitted in the end and thus preventing oil leaking out; this bolt can be removed and allow any oil to escape out through the front in to a waiting rag.

This modification now has the added feature of locating the starting handle by using a bolt to hold it in place and has two benefits:

1. With the handle bolted in place it looks like the original,

2. It does not fly off and hit the wing when starting the car using the handle.

This article, written by Mike Davies, originally appeared in CA7C Seven Focus in Apr 2008 p25.

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