Going Deeper – Issues with the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane

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By Craig Ranson

The workshop team at Bridge Classic Cars have been going through the 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane as part of its recommissioning.

As part of that, the team have been cleaning up the original rocker cover gasket but while off, the team have gone through adjusting the tappets to the correct tolerances before the team began to try and get the classic tourer started.

Jon, one of our amazing technicians, has recently rebuilt the carburettor to make sure everything was clean and freed up to work correctly. Then, once back on the car the team could make the adjustments and start to get it running.

Eventually, Jon got the car started. However, the team noted a problem. As the engine was running, the exhaust was spitting out raw fuel from the exhaust pipes. An issue the team haven’t come across before but are determined to get to the bottom of.

The team have noted that the car is fitted with a later SU carburettor (originally this would have been a Stromberg 55) which could be part of the running issue with the Hurricane.

After it had fired up, Jon rechecked the tappets and found the coolant was actually coming up through one of the head studs which holds the cylinder head to the engine block, both of these issues will need to be investigated further.

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