Over to Pete for the latest update on Snoopy:

Since my last update I have put the dynamo and fan back onto the engine and with the help of Geoff Payne torced the head back down and put everything back into place so that we could bench test it before putting it back into Snoopy. Sadly things did not go to plan as the engine still would not start. We did a repeat compression test and it was lower than before! Geoff put some oil into the top of the pistons to wet test it, they went up a little and it was decided that the piston rings had gone. I contacted Birmingham Reliant and obtained some new pistons and rings, only to find that they were the wrong size, they were the standard size, what my engine needed was 0.020 plus, very difficult to source.

So I logged onto ebay to start my search, I found an old 700cc engine but it was situated up North, I enquired on R3W if anyone lived in the area who could collect it for me and drop it off at one of our meets. Steve and John White (aka Bigdaddy and Not the Stig) kindly offered to collect it for me and brought it to the Birmingham R.O.C Branch 50th birthday bash.(Thanks guys)

This engine was then stripped down and checked the piston size which luckily were standard. On closer inspection found that one of the studs in the engine block had been bodged up, so I then had to find somewhere that could helicoil the block so that a normal size stud would fit. This also meant that the head would be no good as the hole in that would be too wide for the normal stud, luckily the head from Snoopy’s engine was in good condition so we used this.

Pete and Geoff rebuilding the engine.

Geoff gets a face wash from Mollie whilst working on the engine.