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Aug 17, 2014 22:21:49 GMT
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The head cleaned up with a wipe of a cloth as you might expect:  I must say I wasnt terribly impressed with the new head gasket. It had this 'head saver shim' on its top surface that appeared to be coated with a teflon-like substance. it clearly want teflon though as the hot oil from about 1 hour's total engine running had washed most of it off:   It all seemed a bit curse word. The coating had flaked off unevenly even where the fire rings are supposed to sit, which I'm sure can't help with the sealing:  I decided I would get the head pressure-tested by a machine shop and measured for flatness. I checked it myself with a straight edge and feeler gauges before doing the HG and it seemed OK to me but maybe i made a curse word job of checking. Lets get the opinion of a pro. I also decided to use a Payen single-layer gasket as i was told that these were often better for engines with lowish liner heights, of which i think this is one. I removed the cam rack & VVC actuators and took it to the engine machinist. £96 later:  They reckoned it was OK on the pressure test but needed an 0.25mm skim to give full clean up. For them, that 0.25 could have meant the difference between a seal and a non-seal on the HG so they reckoned thats probably what was causing the problems. OK BACK IN THE GAME!!!  The sealing surfaces were a bit manky so I spent ages cleaning everything up properly. (there had been some small oil leaks from the cam box so i tried to fix them)  Getting ready to fit new seals on the VVC actuators:  almost ready to put it all back together:  Used the pukka Loctite 574 flange sealant to seal the cam rack:  BOSH! head back in one piece:  By this time the damn thing had been sitting about for 4 months with the head off so I gave it all a good clean up before reassembly. I didnt take any pictures of the reassembly but after a few hours I had it all back together and torqued up. I turned the key and it fired up - I had been bricking it that I had screwed up the synchronisation of the VVC actuators but it was all good. I let it warm up gently. After about 10 minutes what I was finding was, that 1) the cooling system was sounding like a coffee percolator, 2) the hoses were rock solid and 3) no heat was coming out the heater.  |
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1974 Lancia Beta Saloon
1975 Mazda 929 Coupé
1986 Mazda 929 Wagon
1979 Mazda 929 Hardtop
1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica
1977 Toyota Carina TA14
1989 Subaru 1800 Wagon
1982 Hyundai Pony 1200TL 2-dr
1985 Hyundai Pony 1200 GL
1986 Maserati 425 Biturbo
1992 Rover 214 SEi 5-dr
2000 Rover 45 V6 Club
1994 Peugeot 205 'Junior' Diesel
1988 Volvo 760 Turbodiesel Saloon
1992 Talbot Express Autosleeper Rambler
2003 Renault Laguna SPEARS OR REAPERS
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Aug 17, 2014 22:51:20 GMT
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Now I was really mad. WT actual F was going on with it? I was sure the HG was alright now as it did run absolutely lovely and i couldnt think of anything else that could be done to make it a better job. As I had checked or replaced every single element of the cooling system apart from the heater matrix and SAAB valve down the back of the engine, I decided to have a look at those (running out of ideas man). I flushed them both out but didnt make any breakthroughs unsurprisingly. While I was on, i stuck the hose pipe on the stub pipe on the side of the thermostat housing. To my surprise no water could pass through the engine!!! Eh? I took the top hose off and blew down it towards the head and sure enough it was solid!!! Absolutley no flow through the engine block. Now I had seen into the block while doing the gasket and I knew the block wasnt silted up. Admittedly I hadnt inspected every single waterway in the head but I was sure that either I or the engine machinist would have spotted if there was a serious blockage somewhere in the head. Again for want of a better idea, I took the water pump off again to have a look inside the block where the pump sits. Obv this entailed removing the cambelt & pulleys. With the pump off I found I could blow down the top hose suggesting that the engine's waterways were not blocked after all, as the water pump is at the entry to the block and the top hose is at the exti from the head. So the engine itself seemed clear. I decided that the thermostat was sealing 'too well' i.e. while it was closed, there was absolutely no circulation so the stat would never know when to open. I decided to get it out and drill a little hole in it (well 2 actually):  While it was out I just happened to blow down the stub pipe on the side of the thermostat housing again (the black plastic thing in the middle of this photo:  To my amazement it was solid!!! How could it be, when the thermostat was out and i could see right into the housing? I took it off:  Now heres the amazing bit. The stub pipe, which forms part of a bypass circuit for the coolant to flow down when the 'stat is closed, was blocked solid by a perfectly-sized plastic grommit!!!  I have no idea how this got here at all. I popped it out with a bit of stiff wire. This little mu*haf%£ka was totally blocking the bypass circuit meaning that when the stat was closed, there was ZERO flow in the cooling system so the water must have been boiling locally round the combustion chambers but still stone cold near the stat. Hence the popping and banging and rock hard top hose!!!!! I reassembled it all (AGAIN) and turned the key.  AHA!!!! Victory!!! Now AT LAST it warmed up steadily, no funny noises and best of all a decent warm heater!!! HOLY MOLY!!! That damned grommet had caused me untold head scratching over a period of months. I couldn't help wondering if the first head gasket I fitted was perfectly OK!!! However I thought about that for about 5 seconds then used one of those memory wiping pens from 'Men in Black' to remove the whole experience from my brain. Thats about as far as i have got with this car. Its taken me so long to fix the engine that the MOT has long expired so next job is a serious clean up and a fresh ticket, which shouldnt be too taxing as the car seems in pretty good nick to me. |
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1974 Lancia Beta Saloon
1975 Mazda 929 Coupé
1986 Mazda 929 Wagon
1979 Mazda 929 Hardtop
1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica
1977 Toyota Carina TA14
1989 Subaru 1800 Wagon
1982 Hyundai Pony 1200TL 2-dr
1985 Hyundai Pony 1200 GL
1986 Maserati 425 Biturbo
1992 Rover 214 SEi 5-dr
2000 Rover 45 V6 Club
1994 Peugeot 205 'Junior' Diesel
1988 Volvo 760 Turbodiesel Saloon
1992 Talbot Express Autosleeper Rambler
2003 Renault Laguna SPEARS OR REAPERS
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Aug 17, 2014 23:11:22 GMT
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Bloody hell, good detecting skills there!
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Good to see an update on here finally!  |
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,617
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Glad to hear both those ordeals are over. Poor cars really putting themselves in your bad books.
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eternaloptimist
Posted a lot
Too many projects, not enough time or space...
Posts: 2,578
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Great update. I'm curious - what did you do with the plastic plug?
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XC70, VW split screen crew cab, Standard Ten
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I made a sort of 'cannon' from a power steering pipe and a load of devil bangers, and launched it into space!!
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1974 Lancia Beta Saloon
1975 Mazda 929 Coupé
1986 Mazda 929 Wagon
1979 Mazda 929 Hardtop
1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica
1977 Toyota Carina TA14
1989 Subaru 1800 Wagon
1982 Hyundai Pony 1200TL 2-dr
1985 Hyundai Pony 1200 GL
1986 Maserati 425 Biturbo
1992 Rover 214 SEi 5-dr
2000 Rover 45 V6 Club
1994 Peugeot 205 'Junior' Diesel
1988 Volvo 760 Turbodiesel Saloon
1992 Talbot Express Autosleeper Rambler
2003 Renault Laguna SPEARS OR REAPERS
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eternaloptimist
Posted a lot
Too many projects, not enough time or space...
Posts: 2,578
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I made a sort of 'cannon' from a power steering pipe and a load of devil bangers, and launched it into space!! Excellent. Show it who's boss. Far better than just casually binning it or it rolling under a workbench to gather dust. |
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XC70, VW split screen crew cab, Standard Ten
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Aug 18, 2014 10:07:30 GMT
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Good read up as per normal. Good to see your back!
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MK2VR6
Posted a lot
Mk2 Golf GTi 90 Spec
Posts: 3,329
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Aug 18, 2014 11:03:52 GMT
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There's patience. And then there's patience. All of that thanks to a grommet. Hats off to you for sticking with it - very entertaining read as always. Sorry to hear about the missus; I'd imagine the Maserati will provide long term entertainment when you're ready for it again, though.
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Aug 18, 2014 11:50:40 GMT
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well done Mr B - excellent result in the end..
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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Aug 18, 2014 12:55:18 GMT
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Good to see you back at it mr B good on ya
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THE_Liam
Yorkshire and The Humber
If at first you don't succeed... HAMMERS.
Posts: 1,363
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Aug 18, 2014 14:19:46 GMT
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Some excellent tat rescue in this thread!
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qwerty
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,419
Club RR Member Number: 52
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Aug 18, 2014 18:15:37 GMT
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Excellent work!
Very enjoyable read.
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Aug 18, 2014 18:28:22 GMT
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The old Doblo van is no longer part of the fleet. After a year and a bit of looking like Postman Pat I decided it was time to sort out a vehicle that was a tad more comfortable for an 80-mile daily round trip. That meant trying to smarten it up a bit. I achieved that by miraculously finding a new front wing off ebay in the right colour: Before:  After:  Next, a new timing belt; whenever you're flogging an old clunker thats the first thing that people ask innit. I bought one from Euro Car Parts which of course meant taking it back when it was inevitably found to be the wrong one. Luckily I managed to accumulate enough evidence to prove they'd given me the wrong one, from their own website. On it went:   Surprisingly painless to do that. Next i got my mate to clear all the fault codes out of its memory, changed the oil, fitted 3 new heater plugs (couldnt get at the 4th so I left it in the glovebox) and attacjed it with the polishing mop and back to black:   Looking pretty decent eh? I stuck it up for sale for £950 I think. Had one lad who came to look at it, he had a bit of trouble getting it started!!! It kept starting up in limp mode for him. Amazingly it did it once out of ten 'starts' for me, and 8 out of ten for him!!! Its all about the wrist/ankle co-ordination obv. Anyway he spent flipping hours umming and ahhing then decided he would buy it. Of course he hadn't brought any sort of deposit, the timewasting sh***hawk. I knew he would never come back so i sent him off with a flea in his ear. Next some other dude turned up who really wanted an escort van, but had come to look at this as it was fairly local. I told him Escort vans were pot noodle whereas these Doblos are steak and chips by comparison, and that he ought to set his sights higher. Anyway he took a shine to it and I sold it, 950 quid including 6 months tax which I was happy with. Bought for £650, driven 20,000 miles in a year and a bit then sold for 850 quid, now thats what I call cheap motoring. probably one of the best vehicles I've had. |
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1974 Lancia Beta Saloon
1975 Mazda 929 Coupé
1986 Mazda 929 Wagon
1979 Mazda 929 Hardtop
1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica
1977 Toyota Carina TA14
1989 Subaru 1800 Wagon
1982 Hyundai Pony 1200TL 2-dr
1985 Hyundai Pony 1200 GL
1986 Maserati 425 Biturbo
1992 Rover 214 SEi 5-dr
2000 Rover 45 V6 Club
1994 Peugeot 205 'Junior' Diesel
1988 Volvo 760 Turbodiesel Saloon
1992 Talbot Express Autosleeper Rambler
2003 Renault Laguna SPEARS OR REAPERS
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TS
Part of things
Posts: 558
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Aug 18, 2014 18:52:20 GMT
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Top bo11oxing.
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Aug 18, 2014 19:14:40 GMT
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To replace the Doblo I decided that I wanted some sort of 5-dr hatchback of about 2.0 litres, with a bit of 'Sh*te value' to keep it interesting. I really fancied a Nissan Primera or maybe a Rover 620 as you can buy half-decent examples of these for a couple of hundred quid!!! But after a fashion I ended up winning a Mk1 Seat Toledo 2.0 'SXE' off ebay for £225.  It was down in warwick so I got a train down to pick it up, what a flipping rip off, something like £37 for a walk-on ticket from Derby to Warwick. Someone really needs shooting about these train ticket prices. The seller seemed sound enough, car looked dead smart, it started up and ran beautifully, no rust, dead tidy inside, had almost a years ticket, basically I couldnt fault it for £200. I filled it up with pez and drove home.  On the way home I wound down the drivers electic window 'to see if it worked'. It did, so I wound it back up again. Except that presing 'up' on the window switch made it go down even more!!! WHAT!!! I had a fiddle with the other windows to see what was going on with them and before you knew it all four windows were stuck down and showed no inclination to go back up again. I rang the seller to see if he had any tips - no answer (Cheers for that). Now I was in a right panic. It was a freezing cold, rainy January night. I drove on for about 20 minutes absolutley freezing my knackers off until I couldnt take it any more and pulled into a pez station for a coffee and a think. I used my new 'smart telephone' to ask the internet if they had any advice, and they suggested holding the door key in the 'lock' position to try and activate the auto closure on the windows (same as a Mk3 golf apparently). SING HOSANNA!!!!! It worked a treat. I defrosted my fingers and went home to bed. Note to self: NEVER WIND THE WINDOWS DOWN  It was a really tidy looking, straight car. Seemed to have the original paint all over. No rust, very smart alloys and a half leather interior in very nice condition (until I got it, and started filling it up with pie wrappers)  I fitted a new thermostat which got the heater blasting out nice and hot and it made for a pretty nice drive, quick and easily capable of 40mpg. Unfortunatley it had a few electrical issues. I fannied about with the windows a few times, dismantling the drivers door wiring etc but could not persuade them to go up on the switch. Annoying. ONe day the alternator light came on whcih caused me to sh** myself and shell out £100 on a new alternator. I fitted it only to find the light still on!!!! Eh? Eventually I fathomed hat the alternoator was working fine and some silly fault in the clocks was making the light come on. I refitted the old alternator and took the new one back to ECP and got my £100 back on it. I did them a favour by testing it for 300 miles I reckon, it worked perfectly so they can sell it on with confidence.  ON top of that lot, the radio never worked. Eventually I found the security code which made it all light up but still no sound. I had a fiddle with the aerial and found it was jiggered. I tried to get a replacement bee-sting job off a Mk3 golf but all the cheap(ish) ones had the wrong side of the co-ax connector attached inexplicably and I didnt want to get involved in hacking and joining that due to bone-idleness. After searching for ages I gave up and chucked a bit of duct tape over the hole in the roof. Also the ABS light came on. Despite all this the thing drove perfectly and looked dead tidy, and was actually faultlessly reliable. The trouble was i was just not gelling wih it. The trivial problems were all more tricky to solve than they first looked and I just didnt have the mental energy to get embroiled in them, not when i had so many other old knackers lying about.  One day at work I started to feel really ill so went up the hospital. They diagnosed some sort of faintly embarrassing 'water infection' and gave me some anti-biotics and told me to go straight home to bed. ON the way, on the A50, the curse word just died instantly without any warning, one minute we were blezzing along, the next minute I was in a layby thinking WTF? There was no way it was gonna start again. I had no RAC cover, no tools and absolutley no energy to start walking the 15 miles home or 5 miles back to Derby. I was completely out of ideas so decided to just do nothing and have a sleep in the hope that I would have an idea of some sort. Sadly it was just TOO DAMN NOISY at the side of the A50 and after 20 mins of wriggling about in the drivers seat I had an idea. Suffice to say that I actually did have some RAC cover due to a clerical error on the part of the co-op bank!!!! Amazing. Anyway I got towed home by them, they reckoned the crank sensor or ECU was jiggered. It started up when I got it home but I had no faith in to to get any distance. I could not be ar5ed fixing it to be honest and had already lined up another motor because of not gelling with this one, so I put it up on here and the brown forum for £100 and it was bought by fellow RR'er 'Cobblers' - Here is a picture of him 'driving' it home!!!  To be fair, his RAC man managed to diagnose and fix it properly with a new coil so its still out there and running but I'm not sure what the plans are for it. Had a lovely smooth 2.0 injection engine and that so a good source of spares for anyone who's into old VW's. I did get a few thousand miles out of it but it just wasn't 'me'. |
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Last Edit: Aug 18, 2014 19:19:29 GMT by xbo11ox
1974 Lancia Beta Saloon
1975 Mazda 929 Coupé
1986 Mazda 929 Wagon
1979 Mazda 929 Hardtop
1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica
1977 Toyota Carina TA14
1989 Subaru 1800 Wagon
1982 Hyundai Pony 1200TL 2-dr
1985 Hyundai Pony 1200 GL
1986 Maserati 425 Biturbo
1992 Rover 214 SEi 5-dr
2000 Rover 45 V6 Club
1994 Peugeot 205 'Junior' Diesel
1988 Volvo 760 Turbodiesel Saloon
1992 Talbot Express Autosleeper Rambler
2003 Renault Laguna SPEARS OR REAPERS
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Rob M
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,915
Club RR Member Number: 41
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Aug 18, 2014 19:39:08 GMT
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I cant say I get a massive stiffy at some of the old chod you buy and fix, clever sod that you are, but I do love reading about your exploits.
F**k the spannering, write a book about your "lifestyle choice" something like "50 shades of Ford Slate Grey" or summat.
You write brilliantly.
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Aug 18, 2014 19:46:35 GMT
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I do like rubbish cars admittedly. I am always getting hassle in the office about 'what $hite cars have you bought this weekend' etc etc.
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1974 Lancia Beta Saloon
1975 Mazda 929 Coupé
1986 Mazda 929 Wagon
1979 Mazda 929 Hardtop
1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica
1977 Toyota Carina TA14
1989 Subaru 1800 Wagon
1982 Hyundai Pony 1200TL 2-dr
1985 Hyundai Pony 1200 GL
1986 Maserati 425 Biturbo
1992 Rover 214 SEi 5-dr
2000 Rover 45 V6 Club
1994 Peugeot 205 'Junior' Diesel
1988 Volvo 760 Turbodiesel Saloon
1992 Talbot Express Autosleeper Rambler
2003 Renault Laguna SPEARS OR REAPERS
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Aug 18, 2014 19:47:00 GMT
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Good stuff plums, I remember following your antics with the red rover over on autoshite. Could that grommet possibly have been there on purpose? and there's perhaps another cooling circuit blocked? Let's hope not eh, sorry for even suggesting that. Is it fast? Aren't they about 160bhp or something? Let me know when you decide to sell it.
Anyhoo, the Toledo drove lovely, but I didn't really gel with that either. I ended up popping it on my pals drive for a bit until I worked out what I was gonna do with it/The V5 turned up from Swansea. I pretty much forgot about it in the mean time, and then ended up flogging it to the lad who's drive it was dropped on. I think he's got eyes on the engine for his van, and the seats etc for my Golf that I'd also sold to him after storing it on his drive for a bit. His girlfriend and neighbours both think I'm great.
Oh and the V5 turned up for it yesterday.
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