Bugeye maintenance

Bill’s Bugeye adventure-1500 miles from CT to WI to kick off the summer!

June 13, 2025 by bugeyeguy

1594 miles later, Bill arrives in Milwaukee! Not bad for a maiden voyage!

Bill dropped off his Bugeye in a U-Haul trailer roughly 60 days before his trip, and left our building in a refreshed Bugeye with an improved 1380 CC engine (and lots more HP), plus a five speed transmission and many more upgrades. The test drive video below, taken about a week before the big drive, illustrates the ease with which Bill’s car was able to reach 65 miles per hour, an appropriate “cruising altitude” for a Bugeye on the highway.

This is our second long client trip this summer (See Eric’s drive to Hawaii by clicking here). Eric had a stock configuration with a 948 engine and four speed for his journey… Bill had five speeds, plus a larger engine. Both made it with very few issues. Both gave their owners a lifetime of memories.

Check out the video below for an interview with Bill before his trip!

We’d love to prepare a car for you! Call if you want to create your summer adventure with us!!!

Timing cover trouble

June 13, 2025 by bugeyeguy

British cars leak oil. That is just a fact of life. Bugeyes are not immune from the typical underside drippings associated with British car ownership. However, when we spot a sizeable puddle underneath one of our Bugeyes, we notice, and we investigate.

*This much oil on the front edge of the underbody under the oil pan is excessive. Typically this is indicative of a leak at the timing cover.*

In the case of this particular Bugeye, the symptom was excessive dripping present on the front edge of the oil pan and the surrounding underside bodywork. This is indicative of a leak at the front of the engine. Typically, this means that a gasket or seal has failed; the timing cover gasket, the crankshaft seal, and the front oil pan lip seal are all frequent culprits. In fact, this leak looked for all the world like it was originating at the crack shaft seal, but was actually running down from a crack in the vapor canister and dripping from the seal. Glad we caught that!

1275 engines have this large crankcase breather canister on the timing cover that takes the place of the old draft tube used on earlier engines. This can get banged around over time and the brazed seam where they are attached can fail and cause a leak.

We often use a dye kit to accurately trace oil leaks, by the way, and we sell those here… they can really help with diagnostics. In this case, our oil detection efforts led up to the area circled below, the seam between the vapor canister and the timing cover. This seam was brazed or soldered from the factory, and over the years, this seam can develop cracks, and this crack will leak oil, and a lot of it. We will repair this crack and put this timing cover back into service, where it will perform better than new!

This crack in the brazing around the breather (circled) on this 1275 created the massive oil leak. Luckily, we found this before trying an easier solution, like changing the timing cover seal or gasket, *only to do the job over when we realized a crack was the culprit!*

We solder these to repair these covers, and if you have one that needs repair, call us and we can fix it for you!

Whats a Tonto, Kemosahbee?

May 30, 2025 by bugeyeguy

A tonneau is a cover for your Sportscar cockpit, and it is a very important component every open roadster owner should have. Here’s a video all about why they matter. We sell nice ones that are stretchier and that are more likely to fit. Just keep in mind that when you buy one, the fittings are not installed, so your tonneau has to be properly fit to your car, and that is often best done by an auto or marine cover professional to get the best fit.

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Oh, the places they will leak.

May 30, 2025 by bugeyeguy

We are plumbers, and we spend our day chasing leaks. This one is quite satisfying to rectify, as it is one of the culprits that causes the seemingly never ending flow of oil out of the back of a 948 engine and onto your driveway.

Above is a photo of the back plate of a 948 A series engine. The thumb points to the oil pump cover, which is soldered or brazed onto the back plate.

The joint fails.

Next time your engine is out, look closely for oil trails above the crank. Oil often leaks from this oil pump cover and down the back plate, (where it unites with oil already leaking from the rear main seal).

People routinely blame the rear seal for the oil they find on the floor of their garage. And leak they do. But they have help. Stamp out dog dish oil leaks. Check yours next time you remove your engine.

In the video below, we demonstrate how to use a high pressure blow gun and soapy water to test the union between dog dish and back plate. Once repaired, rear engine oil leaks are reduced and occasionally eliminated.

Try to save your exisiting oil pump cover. (They are sometimes pin-holed too!) We have them in our catalog but for 1275 engines only. They are not available for 948 and 1098 engines.

Long distance Bugeye preparation continues!

May 9, 2025 by bugeyeguy

Here you can see a car we are preparing for a summer drive from Connecticut to Minnesota, along with a car we just completed for clients in Pennsylvania. In the video below, you can see reliability improvements and select cosmetic upgrades while we maintain weathered cosmetics… drivability is the priority for both these cars!

Greasy Peazy

May 9, 2025 by bugeyeguy

King pins need grease.

Most of them we see are worn, so it’s pretty easy to surmise that people are not greasing them enough. The owner’s manual suggests we grease them every thousand miles, but I’m not sure anybody’s ever doing that, and as a result they wear out over time, so it’s worth doing them to the owner’s recommendation.

This chart taken from an original 1958 Bugeye owner’s manual has lots of handy maintenance items on it, but the red rectangle highlights the grease points most important in your regular chassis lubrication schedule. *Do these every 1000 miles.*

In the video below, you’ll see the grease points on the top and bottom of the king pin/swivel axle assembly. We also pointed out the other grease fittings present on a Bugeye’s undercarriage, which include the grease fittings on most tie rod ends (although some of them are sealed for life), the front suspension fulcrum pins, the emergency brake cable, and both universal joints on the driveshaft. In some cases, as with the tie rod ends, you may find a sealed lifetime u-joint that cannot be greased, so before you rip up the carpet on your tunnel to try to find the front, keep that in mind.

Chassis grease is our weapon of choice! If you need new u-joints, grease zerks, or even a new mini grease gun to put into your Bugeye tool kit, we have all of these items available and more in our parts catalog! Click on the photos below to learn more about some of the parts we offer, or click here or our complete parts catalog! You can also give us a call if you can’t locate what you need!