eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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I’ve just read all 68 pages over a week and on my free evenings. Love a good long thread to get into over time like this. I’m not even a ford fan let alone a granada fan, but i can relate to a few things. Firstly, the BOB. My only experience of this engine was in a (bloody awful) bug eye scorpio about 10 years ago that my dad owned. I remember taking him to this excentric type chaps house to see it. He had a barn with a semi restored db4/5 and this super clean low mileage purple scorpio. He liked a project, bought it with a broken cam chain and rebuilt the engine with all genuine parts. Spent a small fortune and sold it at a loss... but bless him he was super pleased with himself. I remember the autobox was although nothing like my dsg A3 3.2 but it was bloody good for that era of car. And the car wasn’t particularly fast (gotta be 2 ton?) but it had a decent amount of torque. Secondly, my mk2 golf project hasn’t quite been as long as yours, i feel the ups and downs where car stuff mojo is concerned. Sometimes I’ll have a good 2-3 weeks where I’m in the garage every evening on it, even in the dark, then I’ll have months where quite frankly I can’t be bothered. But when i am on it... I’m 110% on it and just can’t wait to drive it. Also well done on getting a pad with a garage. I love having a decent driveway and a garage where i can work on it and still make it to a toilet before any “incidents” happen. Still need to install some electric in there though. Can’t wait to see more progress. Also, I notice we’ve not seen the engine bay since its been completed. You said you put the engine cover back on? Its gotta have the cosworth badge on it! Wow, that shows commitment, lol! Speed is something everyone experiences differently. I personally found the 1750KG Granada/scorpio cosworth BOB plenty fast and silky smooth. I felt sort of bad killing the car for my project. Our 1450kg 2.0 on LPI was also considered a fast car by me, assuming correct usage of the manual box. The BOB engines have two problems. One is that the distribution chains and guides are prone to failure, the other that the engine wiring loom is one of the first generations that was made with environmentally safe insulation that in time has proven to not be able to withstand the engine bay heat. Mine has 280k on it and runs well. I still keep expecting it to blow up sometime. The autobox is pretty good. It's probably the best box ford ever offered in the Granada range. Smooth as silk. And in sports mode plenty responsive. The ups and downs in mojo for me are part of the deal. I know I'm prone to being a bit down anyway, so I've probably not even been hit with an excessive lot of bad mojo, but it just hits home a bit harder. It's also a life fase in which I didn't feel as happy as I do now. But I guess ups and downs will always be part of the equation. It's good when you can just let the car be for a while. I felt I could not do so as I was always working in other people's spaces. So I felt a pressure to complete and vacate. Even when this wasn't really experienced the same by the owners of the spaces. Haha, well the new "pad" will open up options for sure. The garage is not a real "I can work on the car inside" type of garage, but it's not too bad. And a bathroom is always close by! Also water and electrics are present, a huge up from the current storage garage the car is now occupying! The contract will be signed any day now and from then on I feel more comfortable posting a link. Thanks for your support and comments! |
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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Now that the contracts are finally signed and official, here's a link to our new home. Can't wait to get started in it. Pics make it look better than it is. Downstairs is ok (with the exception of the kitchen which is in a poor state). Upstairs walls and floor and bathroom need doing. Still we see the full potential! www.funda.nl/koop/veldhoven/huis-49187599-patrijs-61/ |
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gess
Part of things
Posts: 220 
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Congratulations on your new home!
I believe you and your family will like it there. The way it is built differs from how we in Norway build, we use a lot more wood and less bricks, it is also uncommon to use tiles on the floor in your living room in Norway. The house has got a lot of potential, and shouldn't be too difficult to make into your own home the way you want it. The back yard was lovely!
I didn't see any photos of the most important room however, the garage. Will your car fit there?
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Morning Alex - Great news and loads of potential but the pipes / plumbing running down the walls would drive me crazy (there's my OCD kicking in) looks like you will be in for a busy few years - hope all it all goes to plan - Chris
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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Congratulations on your new home! I believe you and your family will like it there. The way it is built differs from how we in Norway build, we use a lot more wood and less bricks, it is also uncommon to use tiles on the floor in your living room in Norway. The house has got a lot of potential, and shouldn't be too difficult to make into your own home the way you want it. The back yard was lovely! I didn't see any photos of the most important room however, the garage. Will your car fit there? Thanks! Yes it's mostly small and regular stuff that needs doing as expected when moving and making a house your own. Improving wall quality, painting walls, laying floors. Bathroom and kitchen remodel being the bigger ticket items. I'm sure we will be able to make it our home just like we did with our current dwelling. And we hope to live there for many happy years. One of the things we really love is the large amount of glass in the living room wall giving a great view over the (for us) large garden. We already have plans to keep the garden cosy and warm looking. Hell we even have plans for Christmas 2018 decorating the outside of the house at the level of the rain gutters as my wife always loves that look. Ah, yes, but it seems to be a common thing. Pictures of garages are almost always absent on these "house-for-sale" sites. A huge pet pieve for me by the way as of course the garage was a key piece of the desires. This was also that limited the search to only litteraly a few houses available. This house had been on our wish list for months! There was one other contender that at almost the same money had a double garage and double drive. But strangely they were fenced seperately from the garden and the house itself had small bedrooms and hardly anything that could pass for a bathroom (and a loo on the second floor this time around was a must for us). The garage is 6x3m+. So the Granada will have just about 1,5 meters to spare in front of the car. The entrance is a little narrow as it's only slightly wider than the garage door (which will be replaced for something more fancy and convenient) because of the electrical fusebox and the washer/dryer fixtures being directly behind it. But after about 1,2m the garage widens to full width and the door can easily be opened (well I calculated that so the proof will be in the pudding). The current owner has a work bench and a lot of shelving in there. He's a metal fabricator as far as I can tell. I'll probably be a little more apprehensive in filling the space with shelving. Current thinking is to use the side walls for high up shelving for standard size foldable box crates. As the one thing we have sacrificed in this new home is storage space, there is just less of it. So some Granada spares will be sold off or donated to those who've been kind to me through the years. Also a little garden space will be sacrified to a storage shed for the bikes and lounge seat cushions. But these days these come in all sorts of great shapes and we'll still have more of a garden than we have ever been accustomed to. In short, lol, yes we're sure we'll love it there and just can't hardly wait. Two exciting things need to happen though: finances need to be confirmed available (which we expect no problem with) and our house needs to be sold! Coming holidays will be filled cleaning house and dumping stuff! |
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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Morning Alex - Great news and loads of potential but the pipes / plumbing running down the walls would drive me crazy (there's my OCD kicking in) looks like you will be in for a busy few years - hope all it all goes to plan - Chris Hey Chris, Thanks! I'm sort of the same. Unfortunately it's just a standard way of doing things over here. Of all houses I have lived in or been in, even the recent builds, almost 98% has central heating pipes all over the walls. I cant really change much about that, but we did in our current house build small coves around them to hide them. Similar plans will apply here. Same goes for the visible radiators. We tend to hide them behind deep window sills and custom radiator surrounds. I hope to keep the being busy part down to the first 6 months! There's budget to do the things wee need done so we'll probably move pretty quickly on those. |
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Dec 20, 2017 10:49:43 GMT
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That's a very nice house. I agree these big windows are great. Nice and light.
Veldhoven is close to Eersel. We used to go camping near Eersel.
Anyway, I think it's all up a great score.
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Dec 20, 2017 13:37:46 GMT
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Congrats with the house. Nice house. Large living room.
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Dec 20, 2017 16:05:53 GMT
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House looks great and garage is a really good size.
Only thing I would suggest is there doesn't look much insulation in that attic room, easy enough to fix if need be though.
I didn't realise you were in Eindhoven, I regularly drive to just south of Eindhoven near Lommel for work.
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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Dec 20, 2017 16:30:23 GMT
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House looks great and garage is a really good size. Only thing I would suggest is there doesn't look much insulation in that attic room, easy enough to fix if need be though. I didn't realise you were in Eindhoven, I regularly drive to just south of Eindhoven near Lommel for work. Thanks for your kind comments. We feel so happy in having made this choice. Also the support we get helps us feel even better about the house. The attic roof is covered in those insulated/insulating styrofoam sandwich panels. You know the ones I mean, basic 4-5mm pressed wood fiber board top and bottom with 10cm or slightly more styrofoam sandwiched in between. But if need be, as we will be redoing all the woodwork up there, we could always put in some extra. We're also contemplating removing the cross bracing (the pinkish beams) but that would require a steel girder and probably beefing up the wooden beams. Sorry if the terminology is a little wonky. Oh and Lommel is not so far away indeed. Are your visits Ford related? |
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Dec 20, 2017 20:54:18 GMT
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Come on Alex there are other cars than Fords. Just like...umh....ok can't think of any right now, but there are other ones. I am sure.
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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Dec 21, 2017 10:49:27 GMT
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Come on Alex there are other cars than Fords. Just like...umh....ok can't think of any right now, but there are other ones. I am sure. I know, but Ford has a proving ground in Lommel if I'm not mistaken. I so much would want to spend a day checking out the production process, testing process etc. I'd also like to talk to some designers, lol, as in every Ford I've owned there are things one as a customer just can't understand the logic behind! |
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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Well I'll be damned!
This weekend I was going to go for a little spin in the granada, to keep the battery topped. Well, I must have been too late, as the car wouldn't start again! Same as last time: fuel pumps running, interior lights bright, radio able to work, dash lighting coming on etc. In all honesty totally not indicating that the battery might be low/dead.
This is unusual.. Over the last year the car has been able to stand for 3-4 weeks and run in one try. Now it's cold, but still, two batteries of which at least one should be in very good condition. I'm not sure when I last drove it, but either it's been longer than I remember or the car is losing power more quickly.
So either I:
- have no problem and it's just time passing too quick
- have two lousy batteries
- have a starter motor that needs more than normal power
- hava a power drain on the battery that I didn't have before
Did I miss anything?
I do know that time has moved fast the past few weeks with all the house buying, cleaning and selling activities taking priority. Still I'm beginning to fear something is amiss.
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It's been cold, but not that cold, I wouldn't have thought it would kill a battery that quickly.
Maybe it is worth putting an ammeter inline with the battery and checking what the load is like with everything turned off? Might give you a hint if there is something draining the battery whilst it is in storage.
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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I think one of those in in the dash from factory. Showing the charge. But that didn't attract my attention so probably shows pretty normal.
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jpsmit
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,274
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at least one should be in very good condition. famous last words. Get the batteries checked before you try anything else - simple things first is better than making it complicated (don't ask me hpow I know) |
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Whadda bout trying this...
Charge the battery. Drive the car. Have fun etc etc.
Then when fun is over take battery out and take home were it is nice and warm.
If the Beast starts next outing in one go you have a power drain. If it doesn't start you have a
naughty battery....
Oh and by the way....Gelukkig nieuwe jaar and het aller beste in je nieuwe huis!
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Last Edit: Jan 8, 2018 21:55:08 GMT by rblote
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Have a look here forum.retro-rides.org/thread/201788/car-batteries-testing-charging-maintaining and see if there's anything to help you. If you can ask ChasR a difficult question, that'd be good too!  |
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Last Edit: Jan 9, 2018 7:50:50 GMT by georgeb
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Damn, I should have known I opened a can of worms with that thread! Firstly, I'd check for a drain on your battery. Putting a multimeter in line with the positive lead and the ignition off will help deduce this. Any drain will not help your battery. Secondly, the alternator on the car can only charge it so much and in most cases will only give the battery a surface charge, which can give the impression of it being charged. Here's an example. I once stupidly flattened my Escort RST in a car park by leaving the fans on ; I was in a rush and very late! I came back the next morning and the volt meter didn't even go past 8V! I drove it around for 40 minutes and ensured that I never turned the car off. I stopped and started it and then drove for a further 15 minutes as I had to nip to the shops and all was fine. A week later when I came to the car it was flat as a pancake. I then whacked it onto a charger once I got the car back from my storage with no electric and the battery was fine again. I even after that left it for 1 or 2 months standing and it was fine. Whenever I sensed it was going low on voltage I'd whack it onto charge ; I didn't use the car that much. Optimas are good but again they need to become fully charged. Leaving them semi-discharged is what kills them despite their party tricks. That thread of mine covers a bit as pointed out by georgeb. Testing them would be a good idea but a decent charge may be all they need. |
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Last Edit: Jan 9, 2018 10:01:54 GMT by ChasR
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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Thanks gents. I was definitely going to check for a drain. There should in my opinion be only a very small one to keep the ecu data and the radio memory. Thing is though I don't think I really changed anything on the car that could suddenly cause a drain. But maybe it's just curse word batteries.
I'll investigate when time permits. For now life still revolves around the house(s). Our house is ready to go to market any day now!
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