Anyone remember this?
I bought it yonks ago, been laid up for 15 years (!) after the fuel pump went on the blink.
Well I've had it 6 months now and its never yet run despite repeated attempts to bring it to life..... First I buggered up the cam timing when trying to fit a new belt, and was unable to time it up properly. Then I tried to fit a pump (bought from german ebay) and it didnt work, so faffed about for ages trying to get another one cheap. Then I discovered that the fuel tank was full of sheeeaattt and both the outlet pipes from it were blocked solid (not surprised the pump had given up). Oh and the power supply to the fuel pump does not work for some unknown reason. So not altogether successful.
Eventually I cleaned out the tank as best I could (so not terribly well), unblocked the pipes and fitted the belt how I thought it ought to go on, ignoring the fuggin useless haynes ('does not cover injected models') and using all the common sense I could muster. Then Ratdat sent me another pump and I bought an inline pre-filter:
so today, armed with those plus a new 'proper' fuel filter (£12!!! bandits) I have had another go. I boshed in the new bits:
The fuel pump bracket went awol yonks ago so lovely cable ties to the rescue. Also you can see the direct live feed onto the pump, classy.
I stuck a battery on and it coughed and spluttered so I was quite optimistic and after loads of chugging it managed to start, but ran sh1t. Anyway it ran so I reassembled all the timing belt covers, fan belt and pulleys, and all the other curse word. I filled it up with coolant and had another pop; I had to sit with my foot on the accelerator for about 5 mins while all the cylinders finally got stuck in and the engine speed slowly climbed up and up. It was alive! So I put the bonnet back on (on my own without busting anything!!!1), and for the first time in 15 years the Argenta moved under its own steam, out into the daylight:
My excitement was such that I felt obliged to drive it to the end of my lane, embarrassingly though I forgot about all the wibblepoo I had left on the roof of the car so as I drove, my wallet, phone, some cloths, tools ant other tat got distibuted down the road. Anyway I stopped to pick it up and went up and down the lane a couple of times - the brakes, gears etc seemed to work OK and there was no overheating. Excellent!
So now I was feeling very ambitious and decided to have a highly illegal test drive along to the village, where there is a jet wash gizmo. I got there OK and gave it a wash:
Looks pretty good eh?
Well it drove OK but I must say, it was fuggin S-L-O-W. it ran well but felt like a 1200cc not a 2.0 injected twin cam! V poor. Then on the way back it got even slower and started to misfire, now I was worried as the last thing I wanted was to have to fix the uninsured heap at the side of the road. It was clearly fuel starvation and I made it hom, very slowly!
Looking underneath I was not at all surprised to see:
The pre-filter half blocked after 8 miles!
So i cleaned it out, luckily thats pretty easy:
And it ran 'properly' again. But then I noticed:
even with the pre-filter cleaned out, after a couple of minutes it is sufficiently restrictive that the pump practically sucks the pipe closed. What a load of sh1te. So I think I need to drain the tea-coloured old petrol thats in there and maybe rinse the tank and outlet pipes through with a couple of gallons of fresh juice (thats gonna be painful, wasted petrol!!) then hopefully it will not clog up the filter so quickly.
This car is never going to be 'relilable' though unless the tank is taken off and sandblasted inside and sealed up properly, i.e. reconditioned. Theres just too much kaka in it.
Anyway the car is alive, clean and starts off the button so its a good days work!
Here is a random pic of the powerhouse.
L8RZ!!!11111!!!
I bought it yonks ago, been laid up for 15 years (!) after the fuel pump went on the blink.
Well I've had it 6 months now and its never yet run despite repeated attempts to bring it to life..... First I buggered up the cam timing when trying to fit a new belt, and was unable to time it up properly. Then I tried to fit a pump (bought from german ebay) and it didnt work, so faffed about for ages trying to get another one cheap. Then I discovered that the fuel tank was full of sheeeaattt and both the outlet pipes from it were blocked solid (not surprised the pump had given up). Oh and the power supply to the fuel pump does not work for some unknown reason. So not altogether successful.
Eventually I cleaned out the tank as best I could (so not terribly well), unblocked the pipes and fitted the belt how I thought it ought to go on, ignoring the fuggin useless haynes ('does not cover injected models') and using all the common sense I could muster. Then Ratdat sent me another pump and I bought an inline pre-filter:
so today, armed with those plus a new 'proper' fuel filter (£12!!! bandits) I have had another go. I boshed in the new bits:
The fuel pump bracket went awol yonks ago so lovely cable ties to the rescue. Also you can see the direct live feed onto the pump, classy.
I stuck a battery on and it coughed and spluttered so I was quite optimistic and after loads of chugging it managed to start, but ran sh1t. Anyway it ran so I reassembled all the timing belt covers, fan belt and pulleys, and all the other curse word. I filled it up with coolant and had another pop; I had to sit with my foot on the accelerator for about 5 mins while all the cylinders finally got stuck in and the engine speed slowly climbed up and up. It was alive! So I put the bonnet back on (on my own without busting anything!!!1), and for the first time in 15 years the Argenta moved under its own steam, out into the daylight:
My excitement was such that I felt obliged to drive it to the end of my lane, embarrassingly though I forgot about all the wibblepoo I had left on the roof of the car so as I drove, my wallet, phone, some cloths, tools ant other tat got distibuted down the road. Anyway I stopped to pick it up and went up and down the lane a couple of times - the brakes, gears etc seemed to work OK and there was no overheating. Excellent!
So now I was feeling very ambitious and decided to have a highly illegal test drive along to the village, where there is a jet wash gizmo. I got there OK and gave it a wash:
Looks pretty good eh?
Well it drove OK but I must say, it was fuggin S-L-O-W. it ran well but felt like a 1200cc not a 2.0 injected twin cam! V poor. Then on the way back it got even slower and started to misfire, now I was worried as the last thing I wanted was to have to fix the uninsured heap at the side of the road. It was clearly fuel starvation and I made it hom, very slowly!
Looking underneath I was not at all surprised to see:
The pre-filter half blocked after 8 miles!
So i cleaned it out, luckily thats pretty easy:
And it ran 'properly' again. But then I noticed:
even with the pre-filter cleaned out, after a couple of minutes it is sufficiently restrictive that the pump practically sucks the pipe closed. What a load of sh1te. So I think I need to drain the tea-coloured old petrol thats in there and maybe rinse the tank and outlet pipes through with a couple of gallons of fresh juice (thats gonna be painful, wasted petrol!!) then hopefully it will not clog up the filter so quickly.
This car is never going to be 'relilable' though unless the tank is taken off and sandblasted inside and sealed up properly, i.e. reconditioned. Theres just too much kaka in it.
Anyway the car is alive, clean and starts off the button so its a good days work!
Here is a random pic of the powerhouse.
L8RZ!!!11111!!!