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Petelobus

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  1. Nothing beats having a look! Take plenty of pictures please, sounds intriguing. I suppose it is possible a Pax engine and gearbox fitted at later date. Equally as intriguing.
  2. There were a small number of sub-4 ton Dennises built prewar with the Perkins 'Wolf' diesel engine, I'm not sure whether this was offered in trade literature or just operator spec. In the same way, the 4LK was a possibility as a few were built as such, but not sure it was ever listed.
  3. Richard, East Kent had a small batch of near identical Dennis Aces, I think they ended their days with roof chopped off, as small open toppers in Hastings!
  4. The engine is almost certainly well used, it was second or third hand when it was fitted to the bus in the 70s, but it did no work at all until late 2019 when a small group of us decided enough was enough, after various people had fiddled with it to no avail, we had sump, manifolds, carb off and started on those again. It had air, exhaust, and petrol leaks galore. I am told it was honed and had new rings, valves etc. back in the 70s, as they were still then commonly available. I have seen pictures of this work being done. I was quite pleased that after a couple of weekends worth we got it to behave itself. You are quite correct, top has to be treated like an overdrive, it slots in at 30mph on the dead level. I am not convinced of the efficiency of the vacuum advance, but I daren't advance it up any further. Accelerator pump was just a thought as this is something it lacks. Being a fairly heavy 4 cyl engine, the revs are slow to drop, but the clutch stop is very effective, so this helps. Not much was done in 2020, so still early days really.
  5. Thanks David. They aren't a very revvy engine, so I agree a governor is not really here or there nowadays. Could they be used as a hand throttle, or 'cruise control' for military purposes? I was actually more interested in the advantages an accelerator pump might endow the vehicles I am involved with (buses!). The standard Zenith is just fine, until the jump is made from 3rd to 4th. Unless I really scream away in 3rd before changing up, there is very little pull in top. It will eventually wind up to 40mph, which is more than adequate and much faster than I would ever cruise at. It would just be nice to get up to speed with a little less labouring. I think the engine in this bus is among the earlier variants of the engine that Dennis built. They stopped fitting them in trailer pumps circa 1965. Owen.
  6. If I may reopen a thread, I am involved with a number of Dennis vehicles that all share this basic type of 3.7l engine. I am curious to know please, what type of carburettor was fitted to the wartime chassis? I believe they incorporated a governor of sorts. The earlier models all tended to be fitted with a Zenith carb, not a terrible unit in itself but they suffer somewhat from a lack of an accelerator pump. Mammoth is correct, always good practice to drain if not remove a sump on an unknown engine, anything could be hiding in there. At least these engines do have quite a fine strainer and plenty of surface area in the sump for detritus to settle. I would advocate after an initial oil change and grunge out, running to temp on some cheap oil and draining again, just to be sure. These are a sturdily built lump, and they pull well. I think at least 6 or 7 variations on the theme were built (cone or plate clutch, carb spec, manifolds, dual ignition, etc.!).
  7. Blank canvas for somebody. I was tempted to make a start but the reality is with two buses to look after already, plus being involved in various other vehicles and a transport museum, this never gets a look in. It arrived here in a far better state than I imagined, and would love for somebody to take it on. There was an air ministry Dennis chassis, I think in many ways these were similar.
  8. I acquired this chassis originally for spares for a Dennis bus, but it is just too good to break. Mechanically it is complete, and there are many spare parts to go with it, including radiator. Regrettably the body was recently in a state of collapse, but the cab doors and tin work were salvageable. It has a V5 (registered with van body) and I believe some restoration work was started in the past, as various items have had at least a coat of paint. It runs reasonably healthily, the cone clutch is free and it goes into all gears. The engine is the Dennis sidevalve 4 of 3.7litre capacity, common to a few other Dennis models and certainly some pumps. A great project for somebody who has the resources. I would like about £1500 but I am open to serious offers as this really deserves to be restored. It came with very little history but I can assist with provenance as one of its working identities (most likely built as a pantechnicon) is now known.
  9. Very impressive, Ben. I would be very wary of permanently plumbing in the inlet manifold, and suggest that if you decide to do so, incorporate a couple of taps so that you can regulate it. I appreciate that the carb is quite remote and well away from exhaust heat, but our modern petrol seems to be much lighter than they had back in the day, and vapourises very easily when hot... which also gives bad performance, at slower speeds anyway. You may find that it runs quite happily up to a point but then can't catch its breath or stalls at idle! I have had white spirit recommended to me as an additive but have never tried it. I will say that we ran the Dennis for a day last summer on a couple of jerry cans of petrol that had some slight diesel contamination, which it burned through quite happily, running a little cooler than it would otherwise have done making it easier to start when well warm. The only apparent downside was a fumier exhaust as you initially accelerated away. An alternative may be to rig up some way of supplying the engine with warmer air under the bonnet rather than fresh air. Not best practice for efficiency, but in the winter we do jubilee clip a length of pipe, maybe 14", onto the Solex intake so that it doesn't draw cold air up, and this helps to even out the slow running. Owen.
  10. Looks kosher to me, even down to the rear wings. I can appreciate the hood was a worthwhile addition to the canopy. Excellent progress, Duncan. Owen.
  11. Duncan, great to see you have started to work on the body already. A life of just 9 years was quite uncommon for most buses built from the mid '20s, but would have been very acceptable before the emergence of models like the Lion, which were much more efficient, and remained competitive for some time. I suspect the body was taken off as you say in 1934, but the chassis would then have been rebuilt and rebodied to give a more modern appearance, and quite possibly would have soldiered on into the late '40s. If some ID could be found on the body (I never did at Barry's) we could probably work out a rough idea of the vehicle history easily with Google. All the best, Owen.
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