Exeter Engineering

Crazy, time seems to just fly by at the moment... 5 months since our last post! We are incredibly busy with the spring rush and our usual sporadic posting should resume shortly!

More importantly however, the office will be closed on the 24th (tomorrow) through to 27th (Monday) with normal service resuming on Tuesday the 28th, so if you need to get hold of us, or would like to pop in, please do so from Tuesday onwards!

In the meantime, he's a sporty little number we've been tinkering with... An MG J2 Special with a little Ford E93A side valve engine! Don't knock it, it's great fun, and after all, thats what it's all about right?

It's another which would you rather!? The timelessly elegant Healey 3000 BJ7, or the Grandfather of all prowling big cats, the Jaguar XK120?

The Healey popped in for some service work and MOT.

The XK120 visited us to solve a rather frustrating noise from the gearbox, which resulted in removal and rebuild. While the engine was out, we ran some tests and established it wasn't too healthy either. It subsequently had an engine refresh including a cylinder head rebuild, new oil pump and timing chains and she's purring way once again!

That's the 200TDI engine build finished and ready to be slotted back into the Landrover 110. This has not only had a full engine build, but all ancillaries have been seen too, plus its had an upgraded R380 Gearbox with taller 5th, and various diff upgrades too!

Pretty handsome pair! Which would you rather? Both very different cars, but both brilliant in their own respects.

The Capri is a regular and just popped in for a long overdue diff rebuild, the Midget a first time visitor, needed various small jobs sorting, plus some carb and ignition fettling. Another visit required to sort some worn out suspension at some point this Autumn!

And thats it for another batch of WW2 Willys jeep blocks heading back to the customer. These were just in for machining having had many, many thread repairs, crack repairs, liners or rebores, valve seats cut, and some replaced plus a skim removing as little material as possible! These now head back to the customer for final cleaning, painting and assembly.

Well it's been a long time in build... but this engine is going to be pretty special once it's tuned up! For those that aren't in the know, it's a Datsun L28 with a twist... Its running an LD28 (diesel) crank, some rather long rods, some rather dumpy pistons, with a large overbore, turning what was once a 2.8L into 3.1L of pure torque! It'll stay naturally aspirated, on HS8's for the time being, possibly upgrade to twin Webers later on.

Big thanks to for the exhaust system, , .eu, and for parts for the engine and the rest of the following build!

What a lot of fun this Series 1 Landy is! It's got the Rover P4 cylinder head and carburettor fitted to its original bottom end, so it goes considerably well for a series 1! It came into us with starting issues, so we rebuilt the carb and went through the ignition system and she now starts on the button and purrs like a kitten!

Yes, yes... it has a K&N fitted... hardly period we know, but it's better than nothing... and the original filter is long gone!

It's been an incredibly busy summer over here at Exeter Engineering... so busy that we've not been able to catch up on here! But here's a lovely little Frogeye we rebuild the engine on in the summer, not only this, but we saw to various issues with its steering and suspension, so not only does it go rather nicely now, but it handles well too!

A team effort this one! We've carried out quite some work on this peppy TR2 over the course of the winter, its Standard Vanguard engine was fully re-built in house, along with its carbs and ignition. Its clutch hydraulics have been replaced in their entirety, along with the brakes and a complete rear axle overhaul. Fortunately the body and chassis was in great order so the fab shop didn't need to get involved, which is unusual!

It's now back on the road ready to be enjoyed as the weather improves!

Not our usual cup of tea of here ! This Pontiac GTO came in for it's carbs to be overhauled, and noticing it wasn't tuning as it should, we ran a compression check to find the rear two cylinders very low on compression... one engine rebuild later and she's now sweet as a nut!