Purolator oil filter and Champion spark plugs,

Recently, Curt Arndt shared an article with me that he wrote, containing a proper exploded view and parts list for all the pieces that go into the original Purolator style oil filter assembly found on many Healey BN1's.
This assembly is somewhat different from the more common Tecalemit oil filter assemblies and is not even covered in the factory workshop manual.
Thanks to Curt's great article though, I was able to finally source the correct pieces I was missing in order to restore mine correctly:

While I was at it, I rolled open the big garage door and let the sunshine highlight my beautifully finished engine:

In other news I'd been trying to source some correct original Champion NA-8 spark plugs for my BN1.
Luckily I have finally found a set available - however I've also run into some interesting questions along the way!

Originally I found and purchased a NOS set of N-8 plugs that were advertised as correct for Healey and XK jags on E-bay.
When they arrived, they were not the black phosphate finish that I was expecting to see - instead they were plated shiny. Not only that, but I also realized Healeys should have NA-8 - not N-8. 

So what's the difference between N-8 and NA-8 plugs?? near as I can tell, it's temperature retention.
However both N-8 and NA-8 plugs have the same modern cross reference of N5C!

Furthermore I found out through some other concours committee members that there were black finished N-8 plugs available, and there were also visible differences between various NA-8 plugs depending on if they were made in UK, Canada, or USA!

Here's some pics of the various differences and similarities between N-8 and NA-8 plugs:

On the left in red boxes are the newer N-8's I purchased online with shiny plated bases,
on the right are a vintage set of NA-8's with blackened bases:

Now here is a vintage N-8 compared to a vintage NA-8: they look and measure identically other than the number code:

Here is a really old NA-8 from 30's era England, compared to one from USA in the 50's:

- and on the right is a pic of unrestored BN1 b#1267 that was found running an older set of blackened N-8's in it (so clearly N-8's will also work just fine in a BN1)

To go along with the spark plugs, I was able to source some of the correct type of shiny black spark plug wire from "The Brillman Company" so I set about cutting the various lengths as per the concourse guidelines, and making up the wires...
I even found a set of the correct molded rubber spark plug boots with the numbers molded in them as original!

I cleaned & rebuilt the distributor with new points, rotor, condenser and ground wires...

That's all for this week,

Until next time -