Villiers Mk10

Hi All,
This is my first thread on here having recently joined. I have this Villiers Mk10 which has been waiting for me to work on it for a couple of years. It was originally attached to a cow milker but had sat unused in a barn since the mid 1960s. I did start to strip it down then but an O/C coil and many seized parts left me with little motivation other than to go and spray penetrating oil periodically on the parts over the next few years.

I decided to start again this weekend and have managed to finally get off the bottom stator plate off, the retaining screw for this was pretty much welded in from years of use and decay, I had to partially drill it out in the end so a replacement will be sought. Inside the engine looks to be in good condition so nothing was obviously wrong with it when it was retired.

I now need to find the parts which I will require so I may post a wanted thread here. The fuel tank is too rotten to save so I need a replacement, the ignition coil is a M1634 which is expensive to replace so in the mean time I might see if I can find a working original instead. The exhaust and its studs are too rotten and will also need replacement as well as the throttle spring and idle adjuster. Hopefully the rest can be used. I'm unsure at the moment whether to just repair back into working order or fully strip down and restore it.

For Villiers parts: www.meetens.co.uk/

For bearings, seals ect: www.leics-bearings.co.uk/

Also here

https://www.lsengineers.co.uk/lister-petter-villiers-engine-spare-parts.html

And here: Villiers Services

I have a pretty battered half gallon tank. Filler cap threads are a mess and cap is split but it might keep you going until you find a decent one - unless you have the skills to make a new threaded filler.
Anyway, yours if you will cover the postage.  I have a some other tanks in better condition - PM me if interested.

Thanks everyone for the info regarding parts suppliers, they'll definitely come in handy.

Woodsman, that's a very kind offer and I'm happy to take you up on that as it'll certainly help a lot in the mean time and I may be able to sort it out anyhow.

Today I have stripped the engine more as although it turns it just doesn't feel as free as it should do. I found the exhaust valve to be stuck open so I have removed both valves for now. The big end shells look a bit worn too, not terribly but this engine has certainly seen its fair share of use over the years.

The cylinder wall has some marking and scoring obviously from the years of storage and use. I'm unsure whether I should do anything about this for now but I've attached a photo for you all to see.

So certainly as of today this engine needs a lot more work than I expected. I'm looking forward to getting it back into working order and maybe I'll do a more extensive restoration after all!

I would de-glaze the bore and maybe fit new rings, remember we're not talking a high performance racing engine here...

yes I think that it what I'll do, the piston is +040 oversize so it looks like it's been worked on in the past.

The last few days I've done some more work on the engine. I've finally stripped it all down, the exhaust proved the most stubborn part to remove due to corrosion and I had to cut off the nuts. I then welded new nuts to the studs to free them out as they were really stuck in.

As can be seen by the photos, the engine has sat idle for years with the exhaust valve open which has caused the seat to corrode badly and the valve to stick open. The valve chamber below the manifolds was caked in scabby rust so I had to do a lot of scraping in there before cleaning it out.

I spent some time yesterday de-greasing the main casting in order to apply paint, it took quite a lot of wasing down but it's finally free from 50+ years worth of oil and dirt. I have attempted to re-seat the valve which has got things looking better and it now sits well in the block but it may need more yet. The valve stems are showing some wear and they feel fairly loose in the valve guides.

Hi mate,

Did you get between those two pictures ? Like from the, well, I've seen things on the internet that look like that... to the last picture?