Misfire stops play for historic Vauxhall

The car would not pull out of fast corners and was very flat on the straight. I soldiered on to finish 25th and very frustrated. Amazingly, I picked up a ‘gong’ for coming third in class due to the high retirement rate.

With the use of a camera down the distributer hole we could see that there was a problem with the oil pump and distributor drives onto the camshaft. The camshaft gear looked very worn.

I withdrew from the planned next race at Brands Hatch and the engine (above) was stripped. This confirmed that the problem was caused by the oil pump gear drive coming loose and upsetting the timing.

The camshaft was ruined and had to be replaced, together with the gear wheel on the distributor. Neither parts are ‘off the shelf’ items but I was fortunate to find a supplier with a number of new camshafts still in their grease.

We are also taking the opportunity to beef up the synchromesh rings, which have been a problem – so who knows? The car may run well at its next outing at Oulton Park this month.

C&SC and Vauxhall are supporting Paul as he campaigns his ex-Bill Blydenstein VX4/90 in historic racing through 2015