Getting the engine of a Bristol 410 running for the first time in seven years

[paul410]

Dear Everyone,

I inherited a Bristol 410 off my grandfather when I was 17. He had owned the car, since the early 70's and for forty years it has been stored in a garage and only taken out at weekends. Because of this the car is completely original and has never been restored.

During my ownership it has been sitting in a garage for 7 years and now before it deteriorates further I want to get the engine running and hopefully work towards getting it road legal.

First question is where can I get hold of a new battery for the car and what type of battery do it need? Also the tank is half full of seven year old fuel. Whats the best way of getting this out? Also do any of you have any further tips and advice you can give me?

Thanks Paul

[Claude]

Originally Posted by paul410

Dear Everyone,

I inherited a Bristol 410 off my grandfather when I was 17. He had owned the car, since the early 70's and for forty years it has been stored in a garage and only taken out at weekends. Because of this the car is completely original and has never been restored.

During my ownership it has been sitting in a garage for 7 years and now before it deteriorates further I want to get the engine running and hopefully work towards getting it road legal.

First question is where can I get hold of a new battery for the car and what type of battery do it need? Also the tank is half full of seven year old fuel. Whats the best way of getting this out? Also do any of you have any further tips and advice you can give me?

Thanks Paul

A Bristol 410 uses a standard 12 V car battery. You can buy them everywhere. For draining fuel, you need a local juvenile delinquent to siphon it out. Or barring that, most of the cars have had an electric fuel pump installed, either in the wheel well or below the tank. You can gravity drain much of the fuel (since the tank is behind the rear seat back), and then with your new battery use the fuel pump to get the rest out.

However, the sorts of questions you are asking suggest you know very little about cars. You may be better off having the car towed to a local automotive repair shop and having them do these simple jobs and at the same time check the car over to make sure nothing more serious needs attention (such as the brakes having frozen after seven years). Either that, or find someone experienced, retired and willing to give you a hand.

Enjoy it! It's a great car.

[Janne]

Fully agree with Claude. After sitting for 7 years, you need to check through all systems, like electrical, hydraulic etc, replace all fluids ( brakes, engine oil, powesvsteering, gearbox oil etc) drain and clean the fuel tank, plus lots more.
A normal garage can do most of the work.
If you are lucky you will find a mechanic that can work on and adjust the carburettor etc. locally.
Most of the cosmetic and inteior work you can do yourself.
You are a lucky guy to have inherited one of the most exciting cars there is!

[Kevin H]

Hi Paul,

FUEL TANK
You could pump/siphon most of the fuel out, but you will be very unlikely to get it all out that way, especially what's in the reserve section. But there's a drain plug!

Although the tank is essentially inside the car, behind the back seat, the fuel reserve section protrudes from the bottom of the tank and is accessible from underneath the car - and there's a drain plug there.

I can't find a photo from underneath the car, but I have attached a photo of the bottom of a tank removed from the car which shows what I am talking about.

If you look underneath the car you will find this located above the differential on the drivers side of the car (on a right hand drive car). It's normally painted black and will not doubt be caked in muck.

After draining the fuel tank completely using the drain plug, I would suggest putting the plug back in (it might have a fibre washer which needs replacing - I can't remember), then put a few litres of fresh fuel into the tank and drain that out again via the drain plug.

BATTERY
As for the battery, it's a standard car (or more likely 4 wheel drive) battery, you want something in the range of 750-800 CCA (Cold Cranking Amps).

If there is a battery in the car now, take that to a Halfords or similar so they can see the physical size of the battery, measure up the space.

The battery I just bought for my 411 measures in mm;
Length 306
Width 171
Height 201
Total Height (including terminals) 222

It uses standard terminals.

Make sure you get one with the positive terminal on the same side as the existing battery (likely to be on the left side looking at the front of the battery).

[Stuart]

Having just fired up my 412 after 5 years idle here's a few thoughts:

- Agree with draining the fuel tank but it will also need flushing several times with a few litres of fuel

- The fuel line from the tank to the engine will be full of crud, this also needs flushing

- The mechanical fuel pump (if fitted) should be removed and flushed, mine was stuffed, valves all crudded up, they are only $100 from your local V8 shop...

- There should be an inline fuel filter between the pump and engine, throw away the existing and buy 3 more, that's how many I got through, they are disposable, can't be cleaned

- Take off the carburettor and get it cleaned and reset by a specialist, my car fired up first turn after this...

- Before even trying to turn over the engine remove all the plugs and spray oil into the bores, get an aerosol of oil (not WD40, too thin) aerosol or use an air line and spray, do this every day for 5 days, try and get the oil all round the cylinder, you're trying to soak the rings

- Try and turn over the engine by hand with a socket in the end of the crank and long arm, if you can't turn over the engine then forget it, it has to come out. If you can turn it over then turn it a few revs every day for a week while repeating the oil spraying...

- Dump the engine oil and replace, take care with the grade, these are not modern engines, replace the oil filter

- Dump the water and refill....

- Now time to try and turn it over with the starter motor, plugs out, messy as the oil sprays out. Do this for 20 seconds once every 5 minutes. You should see the engine oil pressure build to 20+ psi, if not then the engine has to come out......

- Check for a spark on each of the plugs, if not then check the resistance of the plug HT lead, should be in the range 5K - 20K Ohms, replace as necessary....

- Plugs back in, get car outdoors, fire extinguisher ready and off you go.... Be prepared for huge clouds of oil smoke from the exhaust for a few minutes....

- After a few minutes of running, dump the engine oil and replace it and the filter....

- Brakes are a challenge, it's very likely that all the slave and master cylinders will need sorting (rebore and sleeve, new seals) along with the servos and replace all flexy pipes.

- Transmission, after initial trial dump the fluid and replace, same with back axle....

Overall not a trivial job, mine took me a couple of weeks part time, not counting the brakes....

Good luck, Stuart

[paul410]

Thanks everyone for you advice. A new car battery had been sourced and purchased, and my car does have a electric fuel pump as you suggested in the boot.

It proberly won't be until next weekend until I drain the fuel and see if the car burbles into action. I ll keep you guys informed anyway.

P.s. my mothers boyfriend who seems to know considerably more about mechanics than i will be on hand. I am excited to learn though.

Thanks

Paul

[Kevin H]

I have been informed by another forum member that my assumption about that little protrusion at the bottom of the tank is wrong. It is in fact a small sump to catch dirt and water - it is not the reserve.

Thinking about it, it couldn't possibly be the reserve because it's wouldn't be big enough.

It does however still allow you to drain the dregs out of the tank without removing the tank.

I'm glad Stuart provided some more suggestions about turning the engine manually, changing oil etc before trying to fire it up!

[paul410]

Thanks for all your advice. The fuel tank turned out to be pretty empty, so I filled it with 2 gallons of 98 octane fuel, connected the battery and after pumping the throttle for 30 seconds the car started! However after 10 minutes of running there was a massive coolant leak from the bottom of the engine bay. Couldn't see any disconnected piping so my mother's boyfriend reckons it is likely to be a core plug that has failed. We are not 100% of this though because the engine was still far too hot investigate further. If it turns out to be a failed core plug, does any of you know how this is accessible or what else its likely to be? Literally all of the engine's coolant emptied from the nearside of the engine bay in about 2 seconds. I imagine it will need to go on a ramp. I really appreciate everyone's help and advice on this. Its exciting times.

Paul

[GREG]

Get your mechanic pal to bash one of these in ! easy job

SET OF 4 CLASSIC MINI CORE PLUGS A SERIES ENGINES 850, 998, 1100 2K8169 2GV4 | eBay

[GREG]

And yes they are the same size :-)

[paul410]

Part purchased. Thanks for the link. Hopefully it solves the probelm.

Regards Paul

[Janne]

Check the rubber hoses between the radiator and engine too.

[paul410]

Hey everyone. I have been having great difficulty tapping in this near side core plug on my 410. Do any of you have any ideas how to do this when there is only 2.5 inches of space? I have tried buying a tiny bottle jack (too big), hitting it with a small hammer (cant generate enough force) and putting on a truck to my local garage who only gave lame excuses not to touch it. So frustrating. Some help and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Check out the attached images of the car cleaned up and for its pointless trip to the local garage.

Regards Paul

[GREG]

A ) do it properly and remove engine

B ) epoxy bodge it in

You can borrow my engine hoist if needed but I'm sure a local garage wouldn't charge much to do it

It just needs a sharp tap with a drift -- maybe some sort of pneumatic nail / hilti gun could do it -- but just get someone to lift the engine up and do it !

[GREG]

Forgot you are in the Wirral - I can come over or send a pal to do it

Piece of piss

[backseateducation]

Looks wonderful and I bet she sounds great.

[paul410]

Well thanks for the offer which was very kind! Where abouts are you based GREG? The garage actually ended up knocking in the core plug which is great. Apparently all the other core plugs are on the way out tho, so will need replacing. The underside of the car apparently looks good too which is great news. The fuel pump has now packed up tho. It did seem to work but it doesn't anymore. I took a picture of it and I know its a SU electric fuel pump but I am not sure of the specification required. SU pumps tend to go for around 50 - 100 pounds on ebay which seems pretty good.

[paul410]

Well thanks for the offer which was very kind! Where about's are you based GREG? The garage actually ended up knocking in the core plug which is great. Apparently all the other core plugs are on the way out tho, so will need replacing. The underside of the car apparently looks good too which is great news. The fuel pump has now packed up tho. It did seem to work but it doesn't anymore. I took a picture of it and I know its a SU electric fuel pump but I am not sure of the specification required. SU pumps tend to go for around 50 - 100 pounds on ebay which seems pretty good.

[paul410]

Found this one. Noticed some guy on google was buying this for his 409, so i imagine this is the right one.

Dual HP Fuel Pump Electronic - Negative Earth - SU Carburetters

[GREG]

Martin Barnes at ACCS will have one