Ella’s 1999 Vauxhall Corsa

Was told it is worth swapping the timing chain, so just ordered a kit a minute ago. Went for the full kit with sprockets, chain and guides etc

So think we’ve spent nearly the same on bits as we bought it for
But don’t think they’ll be a lot else to spend out on, will give the brakes a going over and it might need some new dampers, then it’s rust protection, cleaning and painting

Hopefully won’t need the pins but good to know

Thanks

Yep, meant hopefully won’t need to buy them. Cakey who has the pins also seems to have a constant stream of corsas (mostly later ones now) so hopefully if I borrow his pins, he’ll check I’ve done it right too

Well we parked Derek up at the end of July when we went on holiday and he’s been sat in the shed since....

The shed is behind the grain drier, that obviously got used in August (mostly to blow the grain through, as I don’t think they had to flirt much at all) but the result was that after 10 weeks it looked like a barn find when I moved it today! But then I washed away all that extra value

The battery was flat, but it looks like a fairly new battery so will bring it home and optimise it.

The reason for getting it out was to take it to a mate who does Dinitrol rust protection, so took it over to get him to give it a once over before we start doing stuff to it and before we book it in for Dinitrolling





The front of the sills



And the rears, this has the rust blob in the top





So, it’s all very solid... he’s booked up, and it’s not a wreck underneath...so we will start fixing stuff and get it over to him when he gets a bit quieter.

Which is good as we’ve got a boot full of bits

Dropped the Fug off and picked the Corsa up.

Came home and we had a couple of hours* so jacked it up, sorted axle stands and took the wheels off



Then dropped the front struts, changed the front dampers



The old ones were very worn out, Tom could compress them wth one hand... we cleaned up the springs and gave them a bit of a paint, mostly where they’d rubbed...

*then we found out we didn’t have a couple of hours, so quickly tidied up and are now off out more tomorrow, between rain showers I imagine

In an effort to emulate the threads I enjoy reading... I am trying to write a bit more detail.... we’ll have to see how that works out

So this weekends quest is to change the head gasket on the Corsa. The car has done just under 70k, runs lovely and doesn’t overheat... but I’ve got a niggling feeling, it’s a little greasy in the expansion tank, not enough to say there is a problem as I don’t know much of the history of the car. There is also a little bit of mayonnaise in the oil cap, again not sure if this is relevant as the car had only driven about 150 to 200 miles between mots when we picked it up, and has then only done an extra 250ish since July... it seems at the price of these cars, they are in the realms of bangernomics and so slowly they are failing and being taken off of the road.



With that in mind I have scoured the corners of this green and fertile land to track down the required parts for the work to the mighty Corsa, I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly-twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel to arrive at Euro Car Parts with a discount code, and eBay turned up other bits (it’s interesting when looking for bits that some companies have cheaper bits on their main site with inflated prices on eBay, and others the opposite is true)

So I have;
Head gasket set
Timing chain, guides and tensioner
Head bolts
Oil
Oil filter element
New sump plug
Antifreeze

I bought a £15 timing pin set from the internet too in the end, because then I can work on the drive... and make cups of tea, or go for a poo... the sort of luxuries that a shed in a farmyard lacks
This has turned up with the same part number as the one advertised, but says it’s for Opel 3 cylinders. Which is of course the downside of buying stuff cheap from the internet.... it is easily wrong and if it is, it’s a complete kerfuffle to change it. But hopefully it’s the right one, we’ll find out on Saturday



So far we’ve drained the coolant, and we are going to try and clean the expansion tank up with some rice, bleach and a dishwasher tablet (this seems to work best)
Whilst the rocker cover is off, I’m going to try and polish some of the oxidisation off as other than that the engine is quite tidy.
We’ve dropped the oil, which seems very clean and have lifted the battery out as there is a bit of rust on the battery tray visible.... but it looks ok, so we’ll give it a clean up as well.







And tonight I’ve been told Tom is being taken out for the day on Saturday, so we are going to try and strip the head off tomorrow night... we can check if it’s warped with a straight edge and a light, and assuming it looks ok I’ll bolt it back together on Saturday.
With that in mind we’ve taken the front heat shield off of the manifold and squirted the studs and nuts with penetrating oil... fingers crossed



We also got a couple of spare wheels for a fiver



Because, the last owner seems to have liked kerbs!!





The second wheel was the spare, hence it being cleaner... but that’s because the wheel that is now the spare has an even bigger bend in it!

Your locking kit should be fine, the 1.0 engine was a 3 cylinder, same design as the 1.2 but 1 cylinder less!

All the modern small engines seem to sweat inside now giving that mayonnaise gloop so don't be too disappointed if it comes back after the gasket change, I think it must be short runs and not getting the engine nice and hot that causes it?

I’ve had a couple of these in the past and like said I wouldn’t worry about the mayo normally the breathers get blocked and short runs do them no good, another place I’ve had them warp is on the timing case as it seals the water pump to the block which then if warped allows water to run straight into the sump, also that timing tool kit will be fine as said

Well after work (and school for Tom) we made a start on stripping the head off.

We started removing some bits....



Then just sort of cracked on a bit, we’ve got a Haynes manual but they are never the most helpful things in the world... so we used it a bit and worked the rest out. The upshot of this is that we forgot to take any photos!! It got dark so we carried on a bit with head torches until we got the head off



There was a bit more mayo in the top of the rocker cover



And some gloop around the gaskets, so I’ll give it a good clean up where I can tomorrow



The bores all look ok, maybe a bit shiny in places, but it was running well and not smoking so we aren’t worried



We gave the head a bit of a clean, and then a quick check with a straight edge and lamp



And it looked ok, will check a bit more properly tomorrow.... but dinner and beer were calling (the dinner was calling both of us, but unfortunately Tom isn’t allowed the beer yet )

Reading the manual, I need some sealant for the bottom of the timing cover, and we haven’t got a water pump seal in our kit.... so I’ll have to pop to a factors tomorrow when I’m out.

But we also need another gasket, but I don’t know what it’s called....
There is a water block under the coil pack plug with the temp sensor on it (I think) which has a pipe that feeds the bottom of the inlet manifold



And we haven’t got the gasket for it... it looks like this



But as I don’t know what I’m asking for, I’m just going to look a bit of an idiot.... so I may have to send Tom in instead

If I remember right that’s the egr to head gasket