Jon,
I couldn't agree more, of all the cars that I own, ONLY the Spitfire and my
two new vehicles has less than 100k miles on the odometer. My son has the
1987 S15 that I purchased new, The engine had 142k on it when the front main
bearing decided it wanted to spin. And from talking to mechanics I put
about 25k more on it than any they had seen. The only thing that needed to
be fixed was the journal for the front bearing. I have a 1989 Chevy Astro
van with 187k on it and it's as strong as the day I bought it. My 1983 GMC
pickup has 135k, on it but the poor little 5.0 l engine gave up the ghost at
129k. I bought it with 122k on it. I expect that if the Spitfire was a
daily driver now, like it was when I first got it, that it would have better
than 200k on it now, instead of the 47k it has. Just keep changing your oil
and filters, use a premium grade oil, and do it on a regular basis, and
barring unforeseen circumstances, most engines should last 125-200k miles.
Larry Zink
1964 Spitfire4 Mk1
Houston, Texas
-----Original Message-----
From: jonmac <jonmac@ndirect.co.uk>
To: triumphs@autox.team.net <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Date: Tuesday, May 05, 1998 6:12 PM
Subject: How long will an engine last?
>
>Hi, listers
>I'm more than casually interested at the comments I've seen over the last
>few months on this list and the Spridgets
>one as well, about people's concerns regarding likely engine life when
>undertaking a full rebuild.
>For some reason, many people seem to feel (rightly or wrongly) that they
>probably can't hope for much more than
>60k miles out of a rebuilt unit. At least, that's the impression I get.
>Isn't this rather low?
>What I feel many people may be overlooking is the fact that modern
>lubricants, be they mineral or synthetic, are one
>quantum heap better than even 10 years ago. Added to that, operating
>pressures and temperatures in the engines of
>the sixties and seventies are lower than modern units. This has already
>been recently discussed.
>Surely, longevity of power units and drivelines depends rather more on the
>way they are used rather than the distance
>which is travelled. It's well known that short journeys cause more damage
>than longer ones because the engine is probably only operating at normal
>temperature for a brief period before it has to cool off and the wear
>process starts over again the next time it is started.
>Last weekend, I was talking to a man at BMIHT who had a 1957 Standard
>(Triumph) Ten which he claimed had covered 170,000 miles on the original
>unit without a rebuild and only three decokes. It's still on the original
>clutch - though it'll be having a new one during the rebuild!!!!!!!!!! His
>father had bought the car new and had maintained scrupulous records of its
>maintenance. The old man is now long dead and his widow had been using the
>car before surrendering her licence on age grounds. The visitor told me he
>had decided to take out the engine and gearbox for a complete overhaul.
>Apart from the box needing some new synchros, the block only needed minimal
>boring but they took it to + 10 thou and the crank needed no attention at
>all. As this engine was effectively the Spitfire engine of whatever size
>you want to talk about, I think this minimal overbore speaks for itself.
>This isn't at all unusual in my experience and I've seen many BMC and
>Triumph engines over the years that have gone well past 100,000 without any
>problems or excessive oil consumption.
>On top of that, two fitters I have got to know in the Centre workshop, tell
>me that whenever they strip an engine of a pre-war car, they tend to take
>some detailed measurements of bore wear. More often than not, it is
>virtually nil and we are dealing with steels of arguably much inferior
>quality than today.
>My own view is that any LBC engine which is allowed to run for prolonged
>periods, without being unduly stressed or 'red-lined,' has its oil and
>filter changed regularly and is properly cared for during winter lay-ups
>should do at least 75000 miles without any problem at all - and might well
>do far more than that. I'm expecting my own cars to hit six figures on the
>odometer before any attempt is made to pull them down for a rebuild.
>
>John Macartney
>Besotted with Triumphs...
>... but sadly driving Japcrap
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