Category Archives: Sunbeam 20.9

Other uses for Aluminium Cups

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The VSCC has a New Years day outing to the old Muckleford South school so I thought the Sunbeam with it’s now clean radiator would be a good candidate for about a 500Km round trip that should shake out some gremlins.

The other bit of logistics for the day was dropping Sue off at the airport on the way.  Given the Sunbeam’s unpredictable record so far this was thought an unwise decision so Sue found more reliable transport in Des’s BMW.  As it happened this wariness was completely misplaced as I made it to Sunbury (several Kms past the airport) before the boiling started.  After that the trip was punctuated with regular stops to refill the radiator the rate being about 10Km/litre which was greater than the fuel consumption, although only a little.

Sunbeam 20.9’s have a history of heads that crack and after inspection, the No. 6 spark plug was very clean so of course I assumed the worst, but the only thing that did not gel was the lack of a big cloud of steam out the tailpipe.  To cut a long story short it seemed that a baffle was missing in the top of the radiator so at high engine speeds water was going straight out the overflow.

The pictures below show an alternate use for an Aluminum cup, I’m not sure of it’s longevity but they come in packs of six so plenty of of time before I have to haunt the Op shops for more. The result, 50Km traveled yesterday with no perceivable drop in water level, the cylinder head leak must be very small enough to leave for the moment…I hope.

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The hazards of a clean car

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Two lunches of note this weekend, Dave Robbo organised Saturday at Du Fermier Trentham the weather was a little warm at 34°C so the only brave souls were Richard and Judy in the 20/60 Sunbeam, shaming the rest of us in our air conditioned appliances.  The food was good, so was the wine and the company was not bad either.  The cool change arrived as we left the restaurant so bravery has its rewards.

Sunday I was determined to get the Sunbeam finished for the test run/lunch  to Jinks Creek Winery this time organised by Des.  So up early to man handle the radiator back into the car, this is easier said than done as firstly it is very heavy and secondly the headlight bar does not come off without far too much effort so the bloody thing has to be lifted up to about head (my head) height then jiggled around past the fan.  New radiator hoses fitted and Sue lost one of her stockings to a good cause as a filter for the top hose.

This brief description glosses over  my ineptitude as most of it had to done at least twice so it was not ready to go until 12:30.  I had half an hour to have a shower and wash the car, it was not a great wash but looked much better for it, the same could not be said about myself.  Sue is ready so let’s go, or not,   high voltages and water do not seem to mix.

Plan B (for Bugatti) started straight away and seemed to forgive my attentions latterly being dominated by an overweight English pretender.  Like on Saturday the Food, Wine and company were great and when we got home I learned a bit more about magnetos (BTH in particular) and will attend to some basic water proofing at some later and no doubt wetter time.

Lastly went for a quick spin around the block with no boiling, I then let it idle and shot the radiator with the IR temperature gun and the temps are even across with about a 20°C gradient top to bottom.  All in all not a bad weekend.

The Radiator That Doesn’t

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Warm weather at last and the Sunbeam has past her inspections and has a nice new set of tyres so last Sunday we thought a 35Km trip to Andy’s (Jinks Creek Winery) would make a fine second maiden voyage for the Sunbeam as she failed to proceed during the first so it did not count.  Also I read in the newspaper this week 1 in 200 first mothers in the USA claim a virgin birth so the Sunbeam can definitely have a second maiden voyage.

Like most voyages this one involved getting wet, not from any sort of precipitation from the heavens but more a local gushing from the radiator, I bid consider turning on the wipers at one point. Luckily we were completely ignorant of the severity of the situation as the Sunbeam does not have a temperature gauge.

The car sitting around with little use and no inhibitor has taken it’s toll.  Back in the shed the next day I ran her for 10 minutes at a fast idle and only the right most 100mm of the radiator was warm so today another nice day I got drenched trying to dislodge rust flakes with water and compressed air:

IMG_2999  As I have missed the Christmas message, have a Happy New Year and I hope you did have a merry Christmas.