Great job & video so thanks for sharing this, I had the same problems with a Dolly Sprint in the 70’s but was lucky as welding nuts on worked , my mate has one of these cars he had the engine rebuilt by a stag specialist and works great 👍 looking forward to your next episode 😊
Saw the chunk of metal you retrieved and it looked like one of those pressed steel butterfly nuts you see holding pancake filters together. Here's to seeing it running!
Well done for getting so far. Personally, I'd have started to take the engine out for a full rebuild after getting that first head off, but if the owner isn't prepared for that much expenditure.... looking forward to seeing your efforts with the other head.
I did find it very interesting, it bought back memories of helping my mate in Adelaide Australia pull his gearbox in and out for new clutches until we realised the bellhousing bolt holes had stretched, the whole mechanical side is the reason why the car manufacturing industry in England basically failed, how did these designers ever keep their jobs is beyond me.
Yes we did stags in the garages I worked , great car , most all stags well sorted now , actually no problem, if maintained , all the problems with stag engines are not just stag problems like the heads we had a lot worst situations with other car engines , it was ahead of its time , use proper coolant not tap water , fit gravity fed expansion tank like tr7 , flush rad system out every year , also it's how go about it like the starter motor removal go over the top with small extension socket and slide open ended spanner easy , thanks for sharing this , still very interesting,
I bought one new ...for my alleged sins. It blew both head gaskets and being in New Zealand it took months to get gasket sets. I stripped the whole engine down to check things and was amazed to see such tiny crank journals . The damn water pump is under the intake manifold and is also a tiny little device. Even though my car was only 18 months old ,the cursed head studs were stuck. Today I'd use a bolt heater to loosen them and replace them with better quality material. The heads weren't flat so i sent them to a machine shop....who planed them and said"job done". I broke as couple of the cam bearing caps because the entire heads were like a banana.Being a new concept,no one understood that the heads should have been pressed flat and checked for Hardness after getting hot. The engine was put back to gether and placed back in the car ,I tried the starter and without the cam covers off I saw the left hand cam gear turn past slowely. with the single row chain sitting up on the gear...🙄🙄 I remedied that and got it to run .The coolant in the exhaust manifolds from the blown head gaskets had lain in the pipes and rusted them out. Again,another long wait for pipes . Once that was sorted i took it for a drive and a heater hose burst. I sold it as soon as i could. Last month i was looking at cars waiting for repairs at a body shop and spotted a stag sitting in their rotten row. Opening the bonnet revealed something different...a Triumph 2000 engine. I've seen some odd balls over the years such as Rover v8's (which make the stag sit up in front. ) and even a Holden Six. to those who know,it sounded like a holden kingswood. 🤣🤣
When I was a kid I worked at a garage from 70 to 76 and we would regularly get stags in for overheating and cylinder head problems but still a lovely sounding motor when running right, the stag engine is two dolomite sprint engines stuck together the cylinder head studs sometimes snapped as you tried to take them out which was fun.
I've been missing your videos lately, so I watched some of the 100E series again. Glad that you're back on it, looking forward to some solution with the Stag's mess. Good luck, Cheers.
Hi Martin, was amazed you got all the studs out on the first head. I believe the only reason they used studs was to retain the head gasket while on engine production line . I was lucky enough to have new studs made that I had wasted so minimum contact with the head and teflon coated . Good luck with the rebuild and hope all goes well. New water pump and housing is a must at that stage , mine had suffered from lots of cavitation and the aluminium housing was poor. Look forward to you turning the key.
You’re where I was four months ago. Sheared off two studs on one head but took more time with the second and got them all out. I made a screw jack that bolted into the end of the head where the temp sensor fitting bolts on and jacked against the bell housing. This lifted it enough that I could get a wooden wedge in far enough that I could get a hacksaw blade in and cut through the studs. You’ve got to be really careful not to damage the head with the blade because they’re really soft. Mine’s now in the machine shop. Rebore, heads skimmed, block planed, crank polish, unleaded seats, valve guides, balance. Thick end of £3k for the machining. Rebuild kit from Rimmer Bros is another £2k plus. Absolute minimum for your engine I would suggest would be heads skimmed, water pump, timing chains, oil pump. You can get away with the original valve seats on unleaded but the recommendation is they are swapped out. You will need to check how much has already been skimmed off the heads to check the thickness of the head gasket you will need. Also follow the correct procedure for the water pump installation or you will have serious problems.
Hi Mart! So nice to see you back in the garage. I recently watched the finale of the Grand Tour with the boys from Top Gear. James May was driving a Stag and they spoke at length of how poor the engines were. I have a buddy with a MGB that has had an aluminum Buick V8 and T-5 transmission swap. It's a nice combination. Thanks for the video.🙂
Hi Mart. Great video as always. I heard somewhere,many moons ago that it’s possible to buy a new set of stainless steel studs and bolts for refitting. Incidentally the TR7 was the same.
Hello. These engines were a nightmare. I rebuilt mine many years ago. Complete strip is a must. As you already know the extractable studs are at an angle so getting the head off is impossible without getting them out or cutting them off with the head slightly lifted. The blocks were Chromium iron & wore badly. The heads are LM25 Alloy & corroded badly too. Refitting the inlet manifold requires it to be bolted & torqued to one head. That head then torqued down before then lowering the 2nd head down & torque the manifold to that head. Then finally torque the 2nd head to the block. The water pump needs to be shimmed with plastigauge to get to correct gap or it will just cavitate. The oil pump were too small. The head gaskets need to be the solid copper ones as supplied by Tony Pond racing. The radiator is too low so if you loose just one pint of water the flow stops. Had I known all this in the past I would have fitted the Rover V8 lump & fitted a lower ratio diff. As the Rover does not rev to 6500 cleanly. Also the rod bearings were Triumph herald. Way too small. So Cranks wear away quickly. Altogether a bad engine. Steve.
Hi Steve. The engine has been rebuilt not many miles but many years ago. Thanks for all the info. Luckily I did learn a few of the special techniques re the inlet manifold from various posts online. I hope you can follow the rest of the series to see how it goes. Do you still have your Stag? Mart.
@@MartsGarage Hi Mart. No the I had the Stag in 1973-4. Sold it around 1974-5. Rebuilt it twice. There was a place in Bradford at that time that bought all the new reject engines from Triumph & broke them down fro parts. Good luck with the build. Will follow. Steve.
It’s a challenge Mart🤔……I think once you start….. you tend to get deeper into it…… I was waiting for sheared bolts etc…..and unfortunately I was right….sadly…….. when it’s a neighbours motor I also baulk at touching them. Due to making a full commitment. Whatever you do Mart I’m sure you’ll sort it one way or another 🤞🏼good luck son.
Nothing is easy if your not familiar with an engine you never worked on before. All engines are different and set up different. Patients and taking note is the main thing.
Thank you. Those two studs are a bummer but looking on the bright side all of the others came out. I've heard some horrible stories about these bolts where they had to be sawn through between the head and the block . The dedicated extraction tool also seems to be a bit of a hit and miss. Looking at the state of the mating surfaces it could well be that they are also no longer plane. I don't know the owners thoughts but I think he should consider removing the engine and sending it to a machine shop. I'm not doubting your competance but it would be a crying shame if you did all the work but the source of the problem hadn't really been resolved. It's a difficult call, lots of cash involved and a hell of a lot of work. Realistically everything depends upon the overall condition of the vehicle, it's current market value and of course the owners sentimental bond with it. From a purely selfish aspect I'd love to see you continuing with the project. Being perfectly honest their aren't many out there who would have even considered taking on the task.
Good work, and good on your for helping out a friend with a car they've just had to park up. The interior of those cylinders look terrible... sludge, coolant residue, etc. Is it time to pull the whole engine out, and put it on a stand for a complete tear-down and refurbishment?
The engine was rebuilt once before and has not done many miles since. My job was to retrieve the objects in the cylinder. As always project creep sets in as future videos will show. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Done loads of Stags (and Sprints) back in the day, with the snapped studs used to wedge a wedge of hard wood to lift the head a tad, then slow progress with a hacksaw blade cut through the studs and lift head off, the studs are corroded in the head and the threaded bit in the block screws out quite easy, we also converted stags by fitting the 2.5cc straight six triumph motor (better motor and faster than the V8), Bl had the perfect engine that should have gone in there the Rover V8 brilliant engine, the rest is history sadly, good luck.
Oh my, on and On. Mum was in the motor trade in the 70's and yours truly as a teenager in the sixties saw the prototype stag which came out with..... a 6. So yes the engine bay can hold an inline six. Actual cure is to fit the approved uprated radiator. this surprisingly cures the overheating.
A bit late, but I had the same problems, one bolt sheered and one stud refuses to move. I finished up with a replacement engine of good provenance,but exasperatingly the manifold gasket had gone. Of course removed the inlet manifold, and now can’t get it back on. Because you have to loosen the head bolts, and you’ve guessed already, I can’t do that! Has anyone an idea of how you get the manifold on without undoing the head stds and bolts? Pretty please😅
Hi Bill. I saw one youtuber remove the manifold and then when refitting he put the bolts in one side and then used a lever to pry the other side down until the bolts would go in. You could always elongate the bolt holes a bit if necessary, I've heard that mentioned on a forum, also drilling oversize. Be cautious though. I would imagine making sure the gaskets are not thicker than the originals must come into play. Thanks for watching.
Great video and an entertaining presentation. The Stag was a bag of shit. I've no idea why anyone would want one. Tell your neighbour to get it crushed.
Hi David. The big piece was a magnet that was lost while trying to retrieve the bent piece. We will go on to identify the bent piece in a later vid. Thanks for watching.
There supposedly better in some ways than the Buick/ rover v8 I believe 99.9 % of the problems have been solved by specialists now and there are known fixes, shame about the broken studs I’m quite sure you’ll find a way mart
I wouldn't call the 3500 a dog as such...they had their issues but were fairly tough, light & compact. They didn't really make mjch power but then nothing mainstream did at the time.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
You did so well with this,alot of people would have told him no way they would not work on it,
Great job & video so thanks for sharing this, I had the same problems with a Dolly Sprint in the 70’s but was lucky as welding nuts on worked , my mate has one of these cars he had the engine rebuilt by a stag specialist and works great 👍 looking forward to your next episode 😊
Cheers Paul. I'm glad I've got a lot more tools at my disposal than I did in the 1970s. Thanks for watching.
Saw the chunk of metal you retrieved and it looked like one of those pressed steel butterfly nuts you see holding pancake filters together. Here's to seeing it running!
Well done for getting so far. Personally, I'd have started to take the engine out for a full rebuild after getting that first head off, but if the owner isn't prepared for that much expenditure.... looking forward to seeing your efforts with the other head.
I am looking forward to watching you work through this project, Mart. Cheers!
Thanks Eric. Next vid should be out tomorrow. Thanks for watching.
left us on a cliff hanger! thanks for sharing.
I did find it very interesting, it bought back memories of helping my mate in Adelaide Australia pull his gearbox in and out for new clutches until we realised the bellhousing bolt holes had stretched, the whole mechanical side is the reason why the car manufacturing industry in England basically failed, how did these designers ever keep their jobs is beyond me.
Well they didn’t , the whole industry crashed!😅
it's great to see you doing a great blog a gen mate Gary from Crewe 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Yes we did stags in the garages I worked , great car , most all stags well sorted now , actually no problem, if maintained , all the problems with stag engines are not just stag problems like the heads we had a lot worst situations with other car engines , it was ahead of its time , use proper coolant not tap water , fit gravity fed expansion tank like tr7 , flush rad system out every year , also it's how go about it like the starter motor removal go over the top with small extension socket and slide open ended spanner easy , thanks for sharing this , still very interesting,
I bought one new ...for my alleged sins. It blew both head gaskets and being in New Zealand it took months to get gasket sets. I stripped the whole engine down to check things and was amazed to see such tiny crank journals . The damn water pump is under the intake manifold and is also a tiny little device. Even though my car was only 18 months old ,the cursed head studs were stuck. Today I'd use a bolt heater to loosen them and replace them with better quality material. The heads weren't flat so i sent them to a machine shop....who planed them and said"job done". I broke as couple of the cam bearing caps because the entire heads were like a banana.Being a new concept,no one understood that the heads should have been pressed flat and checked for Hardness after getting hot.
The engine was put back to gether and placed back in the car ,I tried the starter and without the cam covers off I saw the left hand cam gear turn past slowely. with the single row chain sitting up on the gear...🙄🙄
I remedied that and got it to run .The coolant in the exhaust manifolds from the blown head gaskets had lain in the pipes and rusted them out.
Again,another long wait for pipes .
Once that was sorted i took it for a drive and a heater hose burst.
I sold it as soon as i could.
Last month i was looking at cars waiting for repairs at a body shop and spotted a stag sitting in their rotten row. Opening the bonnet revealed something different...a Triumph 2000 engine. I've seen some odd balls over the years such as Rover v8's (which make the stag sit up in front. ) and even a Holden Six. to those who know,it sounded like a holden kingswood. 🤣🤣
Glad to see you back Mart! Take care.
Very interesting and enjoyable video, shows problems in the real world. Good luck with the second head.
Nice to see you back Mart, great video as always.
Nice to see you again Mart. Thanks for the new video.
Good to see you back Mart. A real "Monty Python episode..... "Now for something completely different".
When I was a kid I worked at a garage from 70 to 76 and we would regularly get stags in for overheating and cylinder head problems but still a lovely sounding motor when running right, the stag engine is two dolomite sprint engines stuck together the cylinder head studs sometimes snapped as you tried to take them out which was fun.
I've been missing your videos lately, so I watched some of the 100E series again. Glad that you're back on it, looking forward to some solution with the Stag's mess. Good luck, Cheers.
Hi Martin, was amazed you got all the studs out on the first head. I believe the only reason they used studs was to retain the head gasket while on engine production line . I was lucky enough to have new studs made that I had wasted so minimum contact with the head and teflon coated . Good luck with the rebuild and hope all goes well. New water pump and housing is a must at that stage , mine had suffered from lots of cavitation and the aluminium housing was poor. Look forward to you turning the key.
You’re where I was four months ago. Sheared off two studs on one head but took more time with the second and got them all out. I made a screw jack that bolted into the end of the head where the temp sensor fitting bolts on and jacked against the bell housing. This lifted it enough that I could get a wooden wedge in far enough that I could get a hacksaw blade in and cut through the studs. You’ve got to be really careful not to damage the head with the blade because they’re really soft. Mine’s now in the machine shop. Rebore, heads skimmed, block planed, crank polish, unleaded seats, valve guides, balance. Thick end of £3k for the machining. Rebuild kit from Rimmer Bros is another £2k plus. Absolute minimum for your engine I would suggest would be heads skimmed, water pump, timing chains, oil pump. You can get away with the original valve seats on unleaded but the recommendation is they are swapped out. You will need to check how much has already been skimmed off the heads to check the thickness of the head gasket you will need. Also follow the correct procedure for the water pump installation or you will have serious problems.
Great looking car!(more to follow.ha.)Thanks.
Hi Mart! So nice to see you back in the garage. I recently watched the finale of the Grand Tour with the boys from Top Gear. James May was driving a Stag and they spoke at length of how poor the engines were. I have a buddy with a MGB that has had an aluminum Buick V8 and T-5 transmission swap. It's a nice combination. Thanks for the video.🙂
Hi Art. Thanks for watching. The MGB with the rover (Buick) V8 makes a nice swap. The factory made their own version.
I've been waiting for this one, can't wait to see it 🤩
You had it easy on those studs I had some fox wedges made up the I cut the studs off
Hi Mart. Great video as always. I heard somewhere,many moons ago that it’s possible to buy a new set of stainless steel studs and bolts for refitting. Incidentally the TR7 was the same.
Hello. These engines were a nightmare. I rebuilt mine many years ago. Complete strip is a must. As you already know the extractable studs are at an angle so getting the head off is impossible without getting them out or cutting them off with the head slightly lifted. The blocks were Chromium iron & wore badly. The heads are LM25 Alloy & corroded badly too. Refitting the inlet manifold requires it to be bolted & torqued to one head. That head then torqued down before then lowering the 2nd head down & torque the manifold to that head. Then finally torque the 2nd head to the block. The water pump needs to be shimmed with plastigauge to get to correct gap or it will just cavitate. The oil pump were too small. The head gaskets need to be the solid copper ones as supplied by Tony Pond racing. The radiator is too low so if you loose just one pint of water the flow stops. Had I known all this in the past I would have fitted the Rover V8 lump & fitted a lower ratio diff. As the Rover does not rev to 6500 cleanly. Also the rod bearings were Triumph herald. Way too small. So Cranks wear away quickly. Altogether a bad engine.
Steve.
Hi Steve. The engine has been rebuilt not many miles but many years ago. Thanks for all the info. Luckily I did learn a few of the special techniques re the inlet manifold from various posts online. I hope you can follow the rest of the series to see how it goes. Do you still have your Stag?
Mart.
@@MartsGarage Hi Mart. No the I had the Stag in 1973-4. Sold it around 1974-5. Rebuilt it twice. There was a place in Bradford at that time that bought all the new reject engines from Triumph & broke them down fro parts. Good luck with the build. Will follow.
Steve.
Great to see you back Mart. This will be an interesting one! I wonder if the piece of metal is a valve seat or spring 🤔
It’s a challenge Mart🤔……I think once you start….. you tend to get deeper into it…… I was waiting for sheared bolts etc…..and unfortunately I was right….sadly…….. when it’s a neighbours motor I also baulk at touching them. Due to making a full commitment.
Whatever you do Mart I’m sure you’ll sort it one way or another 🤞🏼good luck son.
Am sure you will get it running no bother to a man with your skill that rear cylinder looked like it had water in it for some time 👍
A proper old school mechanic, a bit like I am trying to be
Nothing is easy if your not familiar with an engine you never worked on before. All engines are different and set up different. Patients and taking note is the main thing.
Cheers Graham. Yes, a steep learning curve for me for sure.
Thank you. Those two studs are a bummer but looking on the bright side all of the others came out. I've heard some horrible stories about these bolts where they had to be sawn through between the head and the block . The dedicated extraction tool also seems to be a bit of a hit and miss. Looking at the state of the mating surfaces it could well be that they are also no longer plane. I don't know the owners thoughts but I think he should consider removing the engine and sending it to a machine shop. I'm not doubting your competance but it would be a crying shame if you did all the work but the source of the problem hadn't really been resolved. It's a difficult call, lots of cash involved and a hell of a lot of work. Realistically everything depends upon the overall condition of the vehicle, it's current market value and of course the owners sentimental bond with it. From a purely selfish aspect I'd love to see you continuing with the project. Being perfectly honest their aren't many out there who would have even considered taking on the task.
oh cr*p, what have you got yourself into with this !!!!!😢😢😢😢 very much look forward to the next video. cheers
Good work, and good on your for helping out a friend with a car they've just had to park up.
The interior of those cylinders look terrible... sludge, coolant residue, etc. Is it time to pull the whole engine out, and put it on a stand for a complete tear-down and refurbishment?
The engine was rebuilt once before and has not done many miles since. My job was to retrieve the objects in the cylinder. As always project creep sets in as future videos will show. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Done loads of Stags (and Sprints) back in the day, with the snapped studs used to wedge a wedge of hard wood to lift the head a tad, then slow progress with a hacksaw blade cut through the studs and lift head off, the studs are corroded in the head and the threaded bit in the block screws out quite easy, we also converted stags by fitting the 2.5cc straight six triumph motor (better motor and faster than the V8), Bl had the perfect engine that should have gone in there the Rover V8 brilliant engine, the rest is history sadly, good luck.
Does the six go in without much fuss? Always wondered if it had ever been done.
Oh my, on and On. Mum was in the motor trade in the 70's and yours truly as a teenager in the sixties saw the prototype stag which came out with..... a 6. So yes the engine bay can hold an inline six. Actual cure is to fit the approved uprated radiator. this surprisingly cures the overheating.
I think you need to swap a Flathead into that engine bay😂
Yes, a nice French Simca vedette flat head!
Replace the water pump is essential .
A bit late, but I had the same problems, one bolt sheered and one stud refuses to move.
I finished up with a replacement engine of good provenance,but exasperatingly the manifold gasket had gone. Of course removed the inlet manifold, and now can’t get it back on. Because you have to loosen the head bolts, and you’ve guessed already, I can’t do that!
Has anyone an idea of how you get the manifold on without undoing the head stds and bolts? Pretty please😅
Hi Bill. I saw one youtuber remove the manifold and then when refitting he put the bolts in one side and then used a lever to pry the other side down until the bolts would go in. You could always elongate the bolt holes a bit if necessary, I've heard that mentioned on a forum, also drilling oversize. Be cautious though. I would imagine making sure the gaskets are not thicker than the originals must come into play. Thanks for watching.
@@MartsGarage thanks for that!
Great video and an entertaining presentation.
The Stag was a bag of shit. I've no idea why anyone would want one.
Tell your neighbour to get it crushed.
😅😂
Keep your camera steady Going dizzy looking at it. to
Sorry Nick. This ain't Hollywood.
i cannot see how that bit of metal got past the inlet valve
Hi David. The big piece was a magnet that was lost while trying to retrieve the bent piece. We will go on to identify the bent piece in a later vid. Thanks for watching.
There supposedly better in some ways than the Buick/ rover v8 I believe 99.9 % of the problems have been solved by specialists now and there are known fixes, shame about the broken studs I’m quite sure you’ll find a way mart
A handsome design ... the British proverbial can of worms 😅 proper old school, cheers Mart 👍
I believe it’s main problem was overheating. It was made the same way under licence as Buick made it and it was a dog. Just like the Rover 3500.
I wouldn't call the 3500 a dog as such...they had their issues but were fairly tough, light & compact. They didn't really make mjch power but then nothing mainstream did at the time.
Great video mart not a fan of that engine prefer the triumph 6cyl
The fun and adventure of the ICE car. Warms the soul. Just try drooling over an EV . Pretentious posers.
I think you should start with ? Will you ever get the heads off.😂 worlds worst head stud design.
Poorly built as casting sand was left in the blocks they were doomed from.the start and caused overheating
😬
Engine is so poor overheating was terre
I'm not a Stag expert. There seem to be plenty that have overcome the historic issues.
Fook , that was boriing,
Congrats! My first negative comment!
Maybe cut that giant weed down
Yeah Maybe.