Well, we didn’t make it to the TEAE United, on Long Island, NY in the car
We did get new tires from Pep Boys of all places! But the oil pressure was bothersome. Tiger Tom Ehrhart came over and put some fancy gauges on the oil gallery to measure it. The car was in a tight spot, so he got in and I watched the needle.
“How high should it go,” asked I.
“Oh, about 50,” says he.
He started the engine.
“Wait, wait,” I yelled. “It went to 2.”
“2? No really? 2?”
“Yep.”
“Ok, let’s try this.”
He took the gauge off and handed me a paper towel to catch the oil when it spurted from the hose.
“Get ready,” says he. “The oil will spurt out and make a mess.”
He started the car.
And oil did come out, but more like a dripping nose if you have a bad cold.
So that’s that, no trip to NY this year.
Progress over the winter
Over the winter, we sorted out the brakes, added heater fan, ordered new coil springs for the front and looked for a clear problem with the oil pressure.
In May we had the TEAE BASH (Bring A Sunbeam Here) in our TajMaGarage. About 20+ guys were here for a short gimmick rallye, some food, car talk, and tech sessions.
One was to try to diagnose the oil problem.
There were ideas, testing, greasy hands and frayed minds in trying to diagnose the problem. The outcome? Unable to be determined.
In the end, it was decided that the engine was just too tired to be rebuilt. Besides, we had a rebuilt Sunbeam Alpine 1725 engine from a long-abandoned project sitting on a stand in the garage.
PLUS, also laying around was a perfectly good overdrive unit!
No more granny low gear for me!
Next: “Just” dropping in that Alpine engine