Hi Robin here, come on gang, give us some help here, the valve cover looks like it has a oil breather hole where a oil breather pipe should be, but I can find no reference to it,is it supposed to have one? the distributor, is the needle on the advance and retard bracket supposed to sit in the centre of the graduated lines and then moves either side for the advance and retard, and finally can someone give me an idea of what the compresion should be in cylinders with a higher compession head, can you point me in the right direction, cheers gang , looking forward to your replies, Robin

Robin, your plea touches me!
Dear old Herbert provided four little breather holes in the tappet chest cover. When you think of all the oil mist in the crankcase when the engine is running, I think it is fair to say that even the best engine will emit some fumes from here; the worst engine will fill the cabin with fumes!
Since the worst engine will probably still drag the car about, folks tend to turn their minds to channeling the fumes, so many tappet chests have been modified so you can lead a hose somewhere innoffensive (into a catch tank if you compete) and then the driver can breathe again. Some proprietary alloy valve chest covers came without drillings for the breather so you could make your own arrangements.

I note with approval that you have done some reading, so I don't need to tell you how to set up the timing because you can consult your copy of Williams, Nicholson, Abbey, 750 Companion etc etc. However I will say that not everyone does so and that it is prefectly possible to set the ignition timing so that it works but the indicator on the little clamp round the distributor is nowhere near the scale, let alone in the middle of it.
The only way to be sure about the ignition is to set it up with reference to TDC compression.
If you search for "compression pressures" on this site you will find some info, but I would be happy enough with a reading somewhere between 80-100 on your compression tester. Your '37 head may have the combustion chamber volume it left the factory with, I suppose, but many don't.
I have had engines that ran well with compression pressures of 60 or less. If they're all similar pressures and it goes I shouldn't worry.

Hope this answers your questions,

Regards, Stuart

Hi stuart, thankyou so much for your reply I also got some info from barry riseley, which was also very helpful, battery has had it so will replace it and go from there compression is about 55 but when its only being turned by hand its probably not to accurate, when the battery arrives will go through the timing methodically and check everything, any suggestions for battery source welcome,so thanks again for your help stuart, will keep you all posted on outcome

Robin,

If you search this forum for "battery" you will find a couple of previous threads about battery sources and prices, look out for Apr 13 & Jun 14th.

Dave Griffith

Cheers david will give it a go, Best wishes , Robin