I'm soon to embark on the restoration of an Albatross Alpine and I have a few questions which I hope you experts can answer for me.

When these boats were built, Rootes were still using mechanical rev. counters in their cars but they list an electronic tacho. in the parts list for the Alpine Marine engine. Is this the same as the tacho. used by Albatross? - It's a Smiths Industries unit marked RVI.1400/00 and, if Albatross did use it, does anyone have a spare or know which vehicle it came from?

Is the sump drain pump used by Rootes a standard part used by other boat manufacturers and, again, can anyone suggest a source?

Albatross painted a lot of engine bay components a dark green on earlier models and some of the components on this boat also have traces of dark green paint underneath a later re-paint but can anyone tell me if they painted the original Rootes engines dark green as well? I know of no Albatross Alpine with its original engine but if anyone knows of the whereabouts of an original Alpine Marine engine, no matter what condition or what boat it is from, I would be very interested, even if only to take photos.

Does anyone have pictures of the original exhaust system?

Rootes list a pressure cap for the cooling system but I've been told that Albatross didn't pressurise their systems. Is this true and is it because the heat exchangers wouldn't stand it?

I'm sure I'll think of more questions later!

PM sent.

Well done. post some picture. I bet you get it faster than,Coventry climax of A series.

I might help with drain plug pump

Alacrity wrote:PM sent.

Many thanks for the contact information, I shall definitely follow that up.

Howstar wrote:Well done. post some picture. I bet you get it faster than,Coventry climax of A series.

I might help with drain plug pump

I'm not in a position to post pictures yet (although I do have several) and, as I said before, my quest is primarily for originality as these boats are so rare. Let's face it, it will be interesting to see what she'll do with a well sorted original spec. engine before deciding whether to tune her or not.

Any information on the oil drain pump will be very welcome.

I haven't decided what to call her yet. - All sensible suggestions gratefully received.

Rev counter on mine is from early alpine but has to be postive earth Jaagger .they work diferent way than the latter negitive earth ones

The sump pug has hole drilled then a 90 degres 15mm ish ELBOW brazed in and thread taped you can get them from any plumbers shop

Hmmmm. . . . . . . The Rootes parts list shows a curved pipe but the difficult part is the pump unless it's a standard part. I'm just hoping that Rootes bought them in but I can't be sure.

Electronic tachos were introduced for the Series IV Sunbeam Alpine and there were three models, all +ve earth, until the change to -ve earth with the Series V in 1965 when the 1,724cc engine was introduced. However, all of them start RVI.2***/** and have red pointers. They were made by Smiths Industries and other models were used on a host of different cars from Ford to Aston Martin and were badged as both "Smiths" and "British Jaeger". I've repaired many of those (over 100) for various classic car enthusiasts and converted dozens to -ve earth but what I want is the correct 1961 original as used by Albatross and which appears to pre-date most automotive applications.

engine

engine

Interesting - where did you find it? I'm assuming it came off an Albatross because of the "gearbox" on what appears to be the short automotive version of the Rootes bell-housing.

The block appears to be five-bearing which makes it late '65 at the earliest and I think it has the three-bolt engine mounts which make it '67 or later but it's not easy to tell from those pics. Do you have the engine number? It'll either be stamped on the ledge near the fuel pump or on the back near the bell-housing. The oil filter mount is '64 or later. The sump is definitely from a three-bearing engine but it doesn't appear to be the Rootes marine version. The head is '67 or later so is from a five-bearing engine. The water outlet appears to be a special as it doesn't have the temperature sender, the thermostat housing or the spigot for the bypass hose. The exhaust is obviously a marine special and the inlet is intriguing because it's obviously marine but it's not Rootes as they used either twin Zeniths, a twin-choke Solex, twin Strombergs or twin two-choke Webers; never SUs.

By the way, the distributor is mounted 180° out.