Well okay Bruce ... let's get started down this road, shall we!?!?
As mentioned above, in the video provided by the seller, the engine looked to run really rough, and it seemed that a lot of pressure (subjective judgement that proved correct) was being used to get it to run at all. When I picked it up, the seller told me that they were using 60-80 psi from his compressor in the video, and it sure wasn't running smooth and fast like it should have. Besides that, it was immediately obvious that the cylinder lagging cover was not on the engine, and that is perhaps the most visually conspicuous and iconic part of a Sipp engine. Furthermore there was a bolt sticking up out of the top of the cylinder that simply had to go all the way into the inside of the cylinder. This is not a normal feature of a Sipp, and was likely used to put a little oil on the piston from time to time when running on air, though it wouldn't do much of anything to oil the D-valve.
Both of those features, or lack thereof, are seen here:
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So this much I knew before I committed to buy it, and drive down to pick it up! But was still hopeful that these were perhaps the only real issues.
Other issues of note that became obvious upon seeing it in person, and getting it home for proper study, showed that it never had that iconic cylinder lagging cover mounted, as the photo also shows the witness marks for locating the cover mounting screws that are cast into the top of the cylinder, have never been drilled and tapped. Furthermore, you can just see from the above photo that the inside walls that project above the ends of the cylinder are not square, but rather tapers toward the top of the photo, which would make mounting the cover difficult at best, and a proper mounting has the cover edges set square and parallel.
Fact is I do believe that this was not a factory finished engine, but was rather sold as a set of partially machined castings, which was an option back in the day.
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