Wolseley Wasp

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Wolseley Wasp Car Review

Wolseley

Wolseley Wasp

1935 - 1936
Country:
Soviet Union
Engine:
4L
Capacity:
1069cc
Power:
28 bhp
Transmission:
4 spd. MT
Top Speed:
63 mph
Number Built:
5,815
Collectability:
5 star
Wolseley Wasp
Wolseley Wasp
Reviewed by Len Knight
Our Rating: 4

Introduction



The Wolseley Wasp was a light saloon car produced by Wolseley Motors Limited in 1935 and 1936. It was an updated version of the Wolseley Nine model with a larger engine and steel disc wheels. The overhead cam shaft engine had 12 volt electrics and drove the rear wheels via a four speed gearbox. Hydraulic brakes were fitted.


Another Wasp Sting



Those of you who read Wisely regularly may have noted that my Wasp restoration has taken a very long time, but was finally completed last August and the car MoT’d in September. Now there are those who consider me wise in the ways of Wolseley and maybe even in general and I guess we all acquire knowledge over the years of varying kinds, but as my old dad always said ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’. And so it can be if it leads you to become blasé about any aspect of old car care.

My engineering skills have been largely self-taught over the many years since I started motoring in 1958; I’m more of an artist in my approach than a true engineer although I am capable of dismantling and reassembling an engine and of making parts if they’re relatively simple. But talking to a true engineer like Peter Osborne makes you realise your limitations; so what is all this self-examination leading up to? Well, just a stupid mistake: I guess we all make them and this is just my most recent.

Putting The Wasp On The Road



When putting the Wasp on the road in 2013 for the first time since 1958 (that date being something David Ashburner discovered via the Kithead Trust) I did all the usual things like checking the water, battery, oil etc. and off I went. The journey to the MoT station was only 12 miles or so but by the time the old car had passed with flying colours (the tester said the brakes for example were more efficient than a modern car!) and made the journey back, the oil pressure had dropped to zero. Oh, calamity! As old Robertson Hare used to say, and as I said above, I had checked the oil. However, and it’s a very big ‘however’- although the oil was clean and at the correct level, what I’d forgotten was the fact that as my marathon restoration had taken so long, the restored engine and its (admittedly unused) oil had been back in the car since the early nineties! Furthermore, I knew nothing about the technicalities of modern oil and its relevance to old engines. Research into that followed my discoveries.

To be certain as to the cause of the ‘calamity’ I decided to check every possibility and so removed the oil pump, the sump, and the oil strainer, and in that order even though that may seem illogical; after all, the last named is the most likely and simplest cause, but I wanted to be sure. As it turned out, the pump gears, and its drive gear (a skew off the nose of the crankshaft) were in decent order, but the sump had sludge in the very bottom and the oil strainer (a fine wire gauze affair) was badly sludged-up including the remains of what looked like a small paper gasket. How such a state could occur is beyond me.

Wolseley Wasp Oil Strainer Dismantled
Dismantled Wolseley Wasp Oil Strainer

New Wolseley Wasp Oil Strainer
Starting Oil Strainer Repair.

New Wolseley Wasp Oil Strainer
New oil Strainer.

Does Old Oil Deteriorate?



Does old oil just deteriorate while sitting to the extent that it sludges up I wondered? This engine had only been run on odd occasions in the garage and after that a mere 24 miles on the road. The external pipes (on this car and the Hornet there are a lot) had been all washed out before assembly and I had been assured by the engineers who rebored, reground and remetalled the engine that all the oilways had been cleaned too. So the mystery remained and had to have a solution. Perhaps that repeated turning over of the engine and long periods in between had scraped rust from the bores and washed it into the sump. Whatever the cause of the sludge, the strainer was dismantled and remade with brass wire gauze obtained from ‘letsgetmeshy’ on eBay.

Anyway, apart from restoring the oil pressure, this salutary lesson prompted an investigation into oil and what is the right one for old engines. Hitherto I had been somewhat dismissive of ‘using the right oil’ and adhered to the idea that what’s good for a modern car will do for an old one, although quite recently I had been alerted to the sensitivity of old engines to certain oils by Tim Stopp one of our members. So, old engines having been built to greater tolerances than modern ones, from what I’ve learned, a key ingredient necessary for the wellbeing of an old engine is ZDDP, ideally in combination with ZDP. The former is an acronym for zinc dialkyldithiophosphate and the latter simply zinc dithiophosphate. Apparently a mixture of the two is ideal, and for classic cars a proportion of at least 1200 parts per million.

Classic Motor Oils



As my chemistry is limited, all I can explain is that the former compound is a long-chain alkyl (a hydro-carbon with the general formula CnH2n+1), the molecule containing zinc, phosphorus, oxygen and sulphur, and that their function is to lubricate highly pressured areas such as cam lobes, tappets etc which in modern cars tend to be assisted against wear by rollers rather than having plain surfaces, (the latter compound [ZDP] simply lacks the alkyl molecule). Both were invented before the war and patents exist in three names for various aspects of the compounds’ use in lubrication. Lubrizol appears to be one of the prominent patentees, and it may be of interest to note that the Charles Cheers Wakefield Oil Company derived the Castrol trade name from the early years of the twentieth century when Wakefield’s researchers found that the addition of castor oil enhanced oil flow at high altitude low temperatures, something the Kaiser came to regret! Classic motor oils from various companies are currently available albeit at prices generally above those for modern cars, but one now supposes that the extra cost is worth it.

I completed my check of the oiling system by remaking the gauze filter which, though it had done its job, had seen better days, and flushing out the system with cheap oil plus a flushing additive that was dumped after a few minutes circulation, the sump and filter being re-cleaned yet again afterwards. The pictures show the actual components from my car as well as the layout of the oilways as illustrated in the original handbook and how much was surface pipework. Well, the above was all written before my latest contact with Castrol (my first was in 1959 or 1960 about the lubrication of my then owned Rover 75 Sports Saloon). Back then they responded in a full and generous way by not only sending details of the recommended lubricants for my car, but, when they learned of my interest in old cars, also sending about fifty lubrication charts for various pre- and just post-war cars.

Castrol / BP’s Technology Centre



This time I finished up in contact with their Brian Utton and after quite a lot of correspondence in which Brian was most helpful and explanatory, I was invited to visit Castrol/BP’s Technology Centre near Pangbourne in Berkshire. It was a bit like getting into GCHQ but Brian’s name was the magic words and the tour led by the ever-knowledgeable and never-stumped Dave Taylor was worth every minute of the almost 300 mile round trip journey. The Technology Centre is a hive of activity with laboratories for analysing the effects of various conditions on different oils, spectrometers and other complex machines making measurements and whole buildings taken up with engines running for long periods to establish wear after the use of various oils and additives with astronomical costs involved in each experiment.

What definitively we were able to establish was that ZDDP is a useful ingredient to protect old engines, although now legal requirements limit ZDDP to 1000 ppm to avoid too much production of the oxides of zinc, phosphorus and sulphur which are not only air contaminants but also clog diesel particulate filters. The complex molecule actually bonds to the surface of the metal [but doesn’t come into effect until the oil reaches a temperature of about 60 degrees centigrade Brian Utton tells me] when the molecule breaks down and even then has beneficial effects until further degradation renders it ineffective, but by that time you should have changed your oil anyway!

According to Brian the time of most wear is between 40 and 60 centigrade when the oil is thinner than at initial start-up and thus less protective and yet the ZDDP has not yet kicked in: Castrol’s Magnatec which has special additives that protect surfaces during this critical phase is the answer to this problem. The other ingredients of modern oils such as detergents and dispersants are however, a problem for old engines insofar as they can scour out gummy deposits long-held in the oilways and clog up the oil strainers as was actually proved with my old Wasp. Once these oilways are perfectly clean it is safe to use modern oils, but you have to be sure or you may finish up with zero pressure as I did. So classic oils until you’re certain. Be warned!

Many thanks are due to Castrol and their Brian Utton who says if the club is able to get up a party his company may be able to arrange a tour of the Technology Centre. Anyone interested should contact the club..

Len Knight

Wolseley Wasp Exterior
Wolseley Wasp Exterior
Wolseley Wasp Interior
Wolseley Wasp Interior

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Also see:


Fredrick Wolseley
Wolseley Car Brochures
The History of Wolseley
Wolseley Car Brochures
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Wolseley
1953-56
Wolseley 4/44
4 cyl.
Excellent
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Classic Cars

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