Ella’s 1999 Vauxhall Corsa

Tom wanted to help put it back together, so rather than doing any spannering yesterday, I dropped the kids off with Godparents who took them to the zoo for the day, then had a couple of quotes to do, and went looking for the EGR and water pump gaskets....

Why I thought they’d be off the shelf parts for a 20 year old car I don’t know, I suspect it’s because we’ve been spoiled with beetle parts as everything seems dead easy to get (but they only do about 3 different gasket sets over the whole production run!) anyway... I drove round a few factors and then phoned a couple more... then ordered off of the internet and went and did one of the jobs I quoted in the morning instead (he’s a mate with a new workshop and needed some lights... always worth helping out people with workshops )

So today we did what we could.... we’ve cleaned up the block and head, ran one of the old head bolts through the threads to check they are ok, then fitted the head gasket and started putting it together.
You can see in the first photo how bunged up the waterways are, (we’d started giving them a clean from no 1 end but you can can see how bad they were at no 4 end)



And after a clean





We got the head back on with a bit of wriggling, because we didn’t strip the inlet side it took three of us, Tom and Ella holding up the inlet whilst I pushed the head onto it before lowering onto the head gasket



Fitted the new timing gasket with some grey sealant as advised.

Rich said the mayo was probably coming from the timing chest, and the gasket had looked quite mashed up on that area when we took it out. So I’ve attached a couple of photos to show that I think you were right





We fitted the timing chain and sprockets etc



But the old ones were like new, compared the new sprockets to the old and couldn’t see any wear...







So wonder if the old guys nephew fitted a new timing chain kit and either didn’t tell him or he’d forgotten... I’d expect to see some wear at 70k wouldn’t I?

We tried cleaning up the rocker cover, but failed really... not sure what allot it is but it’s hard to do much with, in the end we gave it a coat of black, which is a bit better



We’ve fitted pretty much everything we can, but annoyingly can’t fit the engine mount until we’ve fitted the water pump, so will have to wait for the gaskets to show up and then we can finish off.

We are going to flush the coolant side out after it’s running again too,

And I ordered a sump gasket too, so we’ll drop that and make sure that’s cleaned out of gunk before we finish too

Tune in next time

that was supremely bargainous ! and with your hardwork turning out to be a great car.

all i can add is to advise caution on pattern header tanks, ive found they don't always have the brass crush tubes inside the outlets like the GM versions, so can fracture off with tightening or some 1000s miles wibbling around

Did wonder if it was a bargain too far... especially as ones from breakers were more!!

we can fit it though and carry on trying to clean up the original one at leisure

Thanks

Heater controls generally require small hands Remove the MFD at the top, pull the heater knobs off by pressing in a small tab at the side iirc.

Then you can pull away the facia and replace the tiny bulbs, 1 for each heater knob and 1 for the slider (I think).

Luckily I have access to some small hands, and they are fairly willing most of the time (knew there’d be a positive side to having kids eventually )

Fixed the heater control lights, we fitted LEDs and if anything they are a bit white (could have done with some 3k ones, might keep looking and swap them another time)



It is a rubbish design, you have to unclip the heater vent section to get the cover back on, so need 4 hands... and though I had another pair of hands they were controlled by a different brain, so even that was tricky

Other than that I’ve been using it, I’ve got a job in the centre of Oxford at the minute, and I go down once a week most weeks. If I buy a permit it’s £80 for the month... so £20 a week, if I don’t have a permit and get caught by the traffic wardens it’s £25
But there is a falling down coachhouse at the end of the garden



And it’s not big enough for a van. And my transporter is a little van for the builders



So I’ve been using the Corsa, and squeezing it into the coachhouse



Lucy thinks it’s funny that I keep driving it, and I don’t like to just leave it sat there without using it e dry now and again, But it’s also the complete opposite of my 3t van, it’s small and nippy and I really enjoy using it. So mentioned that when Ella is using it properly I might get myself a little retro car, something that any of us could drive, that needs a bit of tinkering, but not a full on resto... and she thought that sounded ok
So started wondering what I could get

Not done much, lent Derek to my dad for a couple of weeks

Got it back just before Christmas, mainly so I didn’t need to tidy out the van. We gave the car, van and the corsa a wash on Christmas Eve, and the corsa got a polish too!

The only work that’s been done is to replace the reversing lights switch as the one on there was a bit intermittent



And used it to go to my sisters for family meet up, it’s only 40ish miles away but involved driving up the m40.
Lucy worked last night, so came home yesterday and went to work... we stayed over

Spud says he prefers the boot of the Octavia, it’s bigger and flat loading



And road trip selfie

Thanks, and Happy new year! (There has been far too much eating here too though )

When I taught my daughter I used this for insurance as it worked out very reasonable cost wise, she ended up doing her test in her Clio too.

www.veygo.com/learner-driver-insurance/