Mk1 VW LT 35 Tipper Truck 'Lucky Lloyd'

My experience is that as a general rule most petrol, non turbo, non direct injection cars are pretty reliable. (But often somewhat dull to!)

Mazda?

Firstly, sorry for the late replies. I do like to try reply to everyone that's taken the time to comment, but for some reason, this week has been so busy in all areas of life that I've only just found the time to do so.

norman , Morris63 and grizz .......thanks chaps 👍. for some reason, I struggle to use a junior hack saw in it correct state. I always end up bending, twisting or snapping the blade. Hence why this particular hack saw handle was just sitting there ready to be put to a different use.

austinpowers ....thanks mate, as for the Vauxhall, it was never going to be good news.....after all...I own it! 😭😭.
The thought of me owning a Jag is both delightful and terrifying at the same time. I would love nothing more than to waft around in one....but would be in constant fear of something very expensive going wrong with it. I know the Vauxhall is worlds apart from a Jag.....but at least I'm to fix it myself relatively cheaply........okay.....ignore the 'cheaply' bit......I'm lying!😁😁

jjeffries I was advised buy a few full time mechanic mates to do a combustion gas test. But....in my haste to find the root of the problem, I had already removed the water pump and other cooling related parts. The kits for that my mates were on about require the car to running....so that was out of the question buy that point. A lot of people, including my mechanic mates, keep coming back to the oil-to-coolant oil cooler. Thing is, I had the oil-to-coolant oil cooler go on my BMW and there was no over heating involved?? So I've been doubtful about that diagnosis. But saying that....I'm so far into the engine right now, that I'm going to replace the oil cooler as a matter of precaution 👍

kevins and thomfr Head gasket or the cam chain cover gasket was my thoughts.....although a cracked head is also a real possibility. These engines have a big gasket that seals the cam chain cover against the engine block. The water pump sits in the cam chain cover and the water and oil channels also pass through the gasket. They are well know for causing trouble apparently. When I removed the water pump, I sprayed a load of Fairy Liquid into the water pump recess and put the air line down the dip stick hole. When I let the air in, a lot of bubbles appeared at the water pump recess. Now.....this still could be either a head gasket oil to water channel issue....or the cam chain cover gasket. Because the cam chain cover gasket sits behind the cam chains ( brilliant idea Vauxhall !!! ), all of the cam chain assembly has to come off. Once you've done that, you're half way to a head gasket renewal. So.....I've decided to go the whole hog and do the head gasket and anything thing else along the way.

thomfr .....a very good friend of mine swears by the older Ford Focus. To be fair, the example he has owned for many years has never let him down...it just seems to keep going!

thomfr , kevins , joem83 and 75swb I thought I'd hit the nail on the head with the Meriva where reliability was concerned....but clearly not. The earlier Ford Focus does have a good reputation for reliability, as does a lot of Japanese motors......if they're not diesel. My dad bought a brand new Mazda E2000 van back in 1991. It was a 2ltr petrol. It never let him down once.....ever. He finally let go of it in 2019....a few years before he passed away. Even then it was still going strong. The big problem was that the body was crumbling away at a rate of knots....even worse than the my LT!!!! on the other hand....another good friend of mine had a Mazda 5 people carrier. It was a 2ltr turbo diesel. In his own words......it was the most unreliable p.o.s he's ever owned??? ( big problems with the D.P.F )

Thanks everyone 👍

Dan

Stirling work. It’s amazing how long these things take. I’ve been doing my Escort for over a year and I only wanted to weld a patch in the floor.

Fantastic work Dan, what a milestone

All that work in just two years, alongside everything else life throws at you is pretty darn impressive. 👍👍

Great achievement, one still a distant dream for me.

I have been thinking about what to write about this milestone but I think grizz has hit the nail on the head.

Fantastic job dude.

Right....for anyone that's interested....I think I've found the problem with my everyday car. Quick recap.... I was getting oil and air in the water system.....but no water in the oil. The car would over heat/ boil over once up to temperature. A lot of the symptoms pointed towards a head gasket.  so.....I just took the whole thing apart looking for the problem.....including taking the head off....











After all that.....there was still no real sign of what was causing the problem!! The head gasket looked fine.....there was no evidence of any breach between the channels or cylinders. The cam chain gasket didn't look too good.....but again, nothing obvious.
When I took the oil cooler apart, I had the first sign of something a miss. The rubber seal between the oil cooler and the oil filter housing was all chewed up and twisted. I cleaned up the oil cooler and stuck an air line in it and pressurized it.....but no leaks? So....maybe it was just a bad oil seal between the oil cooler and filter housing I thought. Turns out, this was an issue caused by something else.

Now.....when I took the turbo off, I checked it for play etc. I'll put my hands up and say, I'm not a turbo expert....so I don't know what's an acceptable amount of play. Plus, when I took the lower boost hose off, about two cups of oil poured out of it. This lead me to think that the turbo was knackered. So off to the local turbo specialist for a rebuild. but when I got there, I was told by the very helpful chap who ran the place, that my turbo was in perfect condition and that I be wasting money on a rebuild. So of I went again with concern as to what was going on here.......and then it came to me!
Once I got home, I checked to see if my theory was right......and lo and behold....I was on the the right track.
It turns out, the problem was a one-way valve in the inlet manifold. It lets oil vapour pass through from one side of the inlet manifold to the other on tick over, when the engine is relying on vacuum. Then, when the turbo creates pressure, the valve closes and recirculates the oil vapour to just in front of the turbo air intake. But......the valve on mine had broken and disappeared!! Causing the turbo to create excess crankcase pressure, which in turn blow a the rubber gaskets between the oil cooler and filter housing, and forced oil out of the turbo oil rings! It's been an absolute headache....but hopefully I'm on the right side of it now.


Anyway......enough of that.....that's not what we're here for 😁😁


In my last update, I showed how the welding had come to an end. Which meant, it was time seal it all in with epoxy. 

Now....I took a week off work to get this next bit done as it was heading toward Autumn and I wanted to get some paint on it. 

I spent 4 days cleaning, degreasing, keying up and prepping the inside and underneath of the cab ready for paint. It was with out doubt the most boringly painful part of the restoration yet. So boring....that not a single picture exists of this process.



All I can offer you is the result!........epoxy and seam sealer.....































Then on with some stone chip. My preference is Dinitrol 447 as it's rubberised and sticks like the proverbial to a blanket. It's not cheap....but it's the best I've used....and I've used a few disappointing products in the past.






















......and once all that was done....there was only one thing left to do......2k acrylic top coat.....in white...






























































































































While I was there.....I masked up the engine bay and painted satin black ( rattle can ).......




























































One thing I was really pleased about was, there is absolutely no filler used anywhere while completing this bit. There are a few small imperfections, but its all going to get covered with either sound deadening, floor matts or interior trim.

Welll, once again......we come to the end of another update.

More soon.....thanks for looking in 👍

Dan.