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Yeah I thought about popping out the ball bearing, probably wouldnt have done any harm, but I did check the return line on the cooling system when its hot and there's a steady flow down it so the ball does seem to be doing the biz (at the moment anyway).
Its a real shame there are so few of these Ponys knocking about. My C-reg is a hoot to drive, its not very fast but its very easy to drive and the chassis feels pretty much 'viceless', you can drive it pretty much as fast as the engine will push it along at all times and it feels perfectly safe, its really fun. Great visibility from the slim pillars too. I think they are a real sharp looker as well, very well proportioned and of course who wouldnt want to drive a car called a Pony? Theres a rich seam of comedy there to be mined. 'Its Pony night tonight round my house' 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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Hey this thread has had something like 2000 views in the last couple of days. Its flipping amazing!!! Cheers all
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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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I find its mega important (for me at least) to remember its a hobby and no more. OK I need a car to get to work but you can buy hassle-free transport for a few hundred quid and keep it alive at pretty low cost if you don't mind doing some spannering yourself, which is what i do. Everyhting else I do like farting about welding up that rotten old Maserati is done just cos I like doing it. I don't tend to work on other folks cars cos as soon as there is money or deadlines involved its suddenly not a hobby and then its no fun at all. I like to be able to do it when i'm in the mood and when I'm not in the mood, be under no pressure to go up the garage and faff on. Don't take it too seriously and if you're not feeling it today, leave it till tomorrow, thats my tip for long-term success and enjoyment with shonky old motors.
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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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I'm not you know, it takes me flipping weeks to get anything done. When I read back through this thread i used to be in the garage 4 nights a week SMASHING through stuff at a hell of a rate. Now i'm lucky if I get 1 decent garage visit per week, its nonsense man.
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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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Strewth, I have never driven a car with a V12 engine and manual gearbox, I would blame myself but then maybe its becaus there simply arent any. That must be quite an experience, can I have a shot in it when its done? Got a full UK licence.
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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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Nah not hillman based, but they are RWD - the engine and gearbox are Mitsubishi, out of one of these Lancers: rear axle apparently is a Marina item, brakes are from an Escort or Cortina, styling by Giugiaro, the whole lot brought together by a bunch of (mainly british) engineers led by George Turnbull from BL!!!! The chap who did all the chassis design is John Crosthwaite, hes got a great CV, check him out here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_CrosthwaiteIts a well interesting story I find.
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Last Edit: Dec 9, 2014 12:18:32 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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I'd like to see how my colleagues reacted if I told them, while stood at the coffee machine, that my 'Pony gasser' was nearly finished
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Last Edit: Dec 9, 2014 9:51:22 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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Whats this thing like out on the road? Thats what I wanna know. It looks flippin awesome.
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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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One more update to add here which is that a new hunk of PRESTIGE SCRAP has landed in the fleet and its a BEAUT! One car I have wnated for years is a Mk1 Hyundai Pony. If you have read this thread you will know that I have a 'Mk1.5' Pony which is a facelifted version of the old RWD pony with square headlights and big placca bumpers. I love it but i doesnt have the cool sharp-edged looks of the original chrome bumper efforts. I havent seen one for years and had assumed they were completely extinct. However about 3 weeks ago one appeared on the bay only half an hour from my house!!! You can probably imagine where this story is going. I rang the lad up and offered him TEH BIG DOLL4R$ (£300). Didnt bother going to see it as it was cold out. Plus I just assumed it would need welding everywhere. He mulled it over and rang back the next day accepting the offer!!! I CAN HAZ PONY!!!!111!1!!1!112121!@!@!!!!! THe seller was an affable sort of chap and said he could drop it off at mine for £50 so thats waht we did, the tyres were completely rotten as hell so I couldnt A-frame it anyway. Here is some footage from the big night: GET A LOAD OF THIS!!! UUUUUHHHHH maaaaaan, just feast your eyes on the lines of this awesome Kimchi burner, I cant believe it myself even now Its had one owner from new nad done 15.000 miles. Sadly I think that is basically 15,000 trips across a 1-mile long mud flat as the wheelarches are thick with mud and sure enough it needs laods of welding. The flippin wings are rotten!! I only got it a fortnight ago so to be honest havent done much with it yet. Tried to start it but the carburettor is all seized up so that wasnt happening. ONly thing I have done is swap some decent tyres onto it: and A-frame it up to the workshop (with a quick stop en route to attend to a glowing red brake disc ) Basically this is a pretty serious welding project, once it goes in the garage it wont be coming out for a while so I can't do a lot with it till the Maser is out the way. So next job is to crack on with the Maser again!! I need to hurry up or this Pony will rot away before I can get my grinder near it. This is a car I have wanted for years so i made a one-off exception to my self-imposed moratorium on buying 'more work'. Cheers all, more soon no doubt
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Last Edit: Dec 9, 2014 12:13:56 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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Now it was a runner and driver!!! I had a little blezz up the lane in it and it was.... well, alright. A bit slow and underwhelming TBH. But, everything seemed to work on it more or less and the interior seemed like it could be a nice place to spend a few hours if it didnt smell like flippin Battersea dogs home. So, I had to keep on with it. Made a new safety catch loop thing for the bonnet and welded it on, plus fitted a replacement striker for the missing one: Investigated why someone would chop that off, and found that one of the three bonnet cables has seized up. A new one is £27 but I have a lead on one for my favourite price of £0! So that will get sorted soon. New timing belt: I decided that the interior was beyond cleaning in-situ. So took it out! The carpet in these is a hell of a thing, it has an integral foam rubber backing thats anything up to 1.5-2" thick!!! It weighs a bloody tonne and has been described as looking like a pile of whale blubber - quite accurate I think To clean the carpet I borrowed a carpet cleaning stand from some nearby roadworks: Basically just hosed the carpet down and scrubbed it with a stiff brush till the water stopped looking like it had run through a building site. It came up pretty well, or seemed to: ONly problem with that is, I did it nearly a fortnight ago and last time i checked (last weekend) the foam was still wet!!! Its a summer job that, not one for the winter. Well if its not dry by this weekend, tough. I'm putting it back in and will just have to put up with having steamed up windows forever. While the interior was out I welded up the wobbly handbrake compensator (Rover 75 weak spot): And found a set of genuine OEM locking wheelnuts on the bay for a tenner, the key for which fitted the two remaining nuts left on my 75!! Also sourced a replacement alloy wheel for the NSF one which is badly kerbed. Thats about where i am up to with this 75, it now starts runs and drives, mainly needs the interior putting back together, handbrake adjusted and the scratch poliched out the windscreen and then it should be just about ready to go in for a test. Oh also needs a serious sesh with the polishing mop as well to get it looking a bit more ship shape. If it looks and smells alright after all this titivating I think I will probably put it on the road for a while just cos i have never really done any miles in a 75 and would like to see what its like.
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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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So, I got the head skimmed with 0.5mm of material removed which fortunately gave full clean up, and spent a wad on a new Payen elastomer gasket (I'm not convinced of the merits of the multi layer steel gaskets), new head bolts, new inlet and exhaust manifold gaskets, new cam seals, downpipe gasket, water pump, oil, filter, and head saver shim. PLus some other bits which I cant remember, oh yes timing belt, by the time i had finished I was getting on for £250 worse off though. Finally starting to lash some new bits on, in this case a water pump: Next I had to give the block surface a good clean up. I found a few bits where the ally had corroded a bit: Nowt I could do about that though except perhaps give those bits a smear of hylomar or whatever. I put all the cams & followers back in the head and sealed the cam box thingy back on with the pukka Loctite sealant (still had loads left from previous K-series efforts). Forgot to photograph that though. Soz!!! It wasn't very interesting though. Next job was to get jiggy with this shim, never used one of these before. Its 0.5mm thinck stainless and is supposed to be glued onto the head face with this 'Stag Wellseal' gloop which looks and smells suspiciously like HP sauce but is not quite as fruity and tangy although it certainly does stop the cheese sliding off once the 24h cure time has elapsed. Basically you lash it on the head face and the top of the shim then let it cure for a bit then luzz the two together: Lovely!!!! Then out with the new gasket: chuck it on: Phwoar!!! Now we're motoring. Heres the head bolted back on!!! The bolts were a bit 'jerky' as I was tightineing them up. I think the threads were full of coffee cream which was stopping them from torquing up smoothly. I'm mildly concerned that I have thus got the bolt torque not quite right but having tightened it once I can't loosen it again of I will have to buy a new gasket!!! So I just chanced it. The torque can't be a million miles out and they felt bloody tight to me!! I carried on cobbling it back together which was fairly painless but took a while cos I don't get up the garage half as much as i would like changing the oil filter, I got a load more of Starbucks' finest out the bottom: all-important new inlet manifold gasket While i was reassembling I refitted the alternator, and somehow managed to touch the output post of the alternator with the big mounting bolt off the top. The rubber cover for the output post was dislodged and the battery was still connected resulting in a fireworks spectacular. I then crapped myself at the prospect of having knackered some ECU's or the immobiliser or something and not being able to get it started. GIVE ME A BREAK MAN Eventually I got it all together, timed up, sump filled with oil, battery on and charged and all that. I turned it over a few more times with a spanner, then on the starter with the coils disconnected, then finally plugged in the coils and turned the key. It only flippin fired up first time!!!!! Sounded bob-on as well, one tappet was a little noisy but quietened down after a couple of minutes. I couldnt believe it!!! BACK IN THE GAME!!!!! Look at Alan Hansen's reaction as the K-series burst into life.
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Last Edit: Dec 9, 2014 12:59:40 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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Incidentally at this point I would like to bad-mouth a turgid parts supplier who I tried to buy a load of gear off for this job. I ordered a new payen gasket and set of bolts off 'DMGRS' (www.dmgrs.co.uk) who took about 30 secs to tell me (by email) that I had used an incorrect discount code on their site. I then tried several times to pay them the diefference or whatever else so as to resolve the issue and get the parts on their way. However after 3 or 4 days of trying to contact them i gave up and rang my credit card company to cancel the transaction as i could not get any response out of them whatsoever. When looking at my bill I found a mobile number for them which I rang 20 times, eventually I got a reply back (by text) asking what they coud help with and they were sorry that they could not answer the phone due to some spurious technical issue. I gave them a rocket and told the to stick their stretch bolts up their rse. Basically if you are into Rovers by all means buy your bits from these goons (they are cheap) but do not expect to be able to contact them to resolve any issues.
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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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Alright I have done another days work sat at a computer wishing I was a spaceman and am now back home so lets try again. Last time I think I had just managed to finally howk the head off it. At first glance the head didnt look too great, could see what looked like a few fire ring indentations And various other crustacea on there too, presumably from using weak or non-existaent antifreeze? I stripped all the cams and that off it and gave it a proper clean up in some pez, and scrubbed the head surface with some wet & dry. The head surface was damaged for sure, but probably not beyond a skim or whatever, certainly wasnt as bad as the 25 van engine. However I guessed from looking at it that it would need more than like 0.1 for a clean up, maybe half a mm or something which would then need a shim to replace the lost metal, so now I was budtgeting for a skim, head shim etc in any repair on this engine. Next I drained the bores and the water jacket of coffee cream with my syringe and made up some liner clamps so i could turn the crank without popping it all to bits: With those holding the liners in i turned the engine over on the crank pulley a few times and it spun over nicely with no obvious stiff bits or owt. I checked for bent conrods as best i could with a pair of steel rules, but they seemed OK to me. Admittedly I should perhaps have used a dial gauge, but.... I don't have one. If one of these rods was bent it seemed to me it must be a barely perceptible bend, i.e. one I could probably ignore like a winner. No negative liner heights either fortunately. Now the engine seemed at least repairable, notwithstanding the cost of reassembling it properly of course. Now I was on a roll so I took the radiator out to clean the café latté out of it. This turned into a right flipping war, trying to get the radiator out without removing the aircon rad is horrendous. Eventually I took a large enough number of parts off the front end to get it out. The radiator has this bolted-on elbow on the inlet. One of the little bolts holding it on sheared off as i was undoing it. M0THERFUCl<A!!!! I remember swearing at these fittings on the Rover 25 radiator. A shandard M6 brass nut is held in a sort of moulded plastic jaw in the radiator end cap. You can imagine, as soon as there is a hint of corrosion on these things you're jiggered as the nut just turns in its plastic slot. Obv you can't use heat on them, cant get any sockets or spanners on them and can't even drill them without risking drilling into the radiator. They really are an absolutley shockingly cr@p design. I went to Screwfix and bought a load of small drill bits (2.5, 3.5 and 4.5mm) and spent ages drilling the b@$t4rds out as carefully as i could. I did get them out but managed to drill a 2.5mm hole right through the radiator end cap like a twit. By now my blood pressure really was in orbit. I did rinse a load of gloop out the radiator, then I araldited the hole up, fitted some new nuts and crossed my fingers. Managed to get the front end back together eventually. Finally i drained the sump - to my amazement a good 5 litres of clean water came straight out the sump plug!!!! Followed by another 3l of coffee cream, whcih was still slowly glugging out half an hour later. Had to leave it overnight with the sump plug out and a tub underneath to get rid of it all. Now then. By this stage I was at a point where I couldnt do much more without spending some money. The engine wa repairable and I preferred the idea of trying to repair it as opposed to buying another 'unknown quantity' K series engine. So I started totting up the costs of repairing this lot. £75 for a head gasket & bolts. £50 for a skim. £35 for the stainless shim. £30 for the water pump. £25 for a new timing belt. £30 for oil, filter & coolant Thats £250 just to get the engine back in one piece and it would still be a mediocre Rover 75 with no MOT, it defo seemed like one of my worst ever buys this old crate. PLus, I didnt have £250 available so i was thinking it would end up sitting about till next payday (3 weeks!) before i could do owt with it.... it all looked and felt like a bit of a massive waste of time TBH. I like the idea of fixing the knackered K series engine almost just to prove it can be done, thats all very noble etc but its also a total flipping waste of money. However, sometimes fate takes a break from making seagulls curse word on your pizza and gives you a push in the right direction instead. That same weekend I went to see the former Ms_xNuts who handed me a wodge of mail that had arrived for me at the old house. Amongst it was a totally unexpected tax rebate cheque for £1500!!!! HOLY GUACAMOLE!!! Its a lot easier to decide whether to spend £250 on a knackered old Rover if you actually have £250 which now I did!!! So I lobbed the head in the back of my car ready for a trip to the machinist, and started hitting up ebay for gaskets and whatnot.
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Last Edit: Dec 8, 2014 20:13:54 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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What is it?
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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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TURDS I just made a massive post and somehow lost it before it could be posted. More tomorrow as its too late to do it all again!!!
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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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The next war was getting the crank pulley off. I tried the old impact gun on it but that wouldnt touch it. I decided the only way I'd get it off woulf be to jam both wheels with the old 'screwdriver in the vented disc' trick, put it in gear and wind it our with a big breaker bar on it. That meant butchering the other front locking wheelnut off: This rather abusive method did allow me to get the crank pulley off (though not without bending both of the M10 screws that hold the discs to the hubs) which then allowed me to remove the cambelt and finally the head. You can imagin how much coffee gloop poured out of everywhere when i lifted the head off. Catalytic convertor full of shiz: more shiz pouring out the exhaust manifold: Just had to leave this lot to 'drain', it all pours out eventually just takes time.
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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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I decided to have a faff on with it before spending any more money on anything, see if i could stumble upon a 'right answer' as to whether to persevere with it. I wanted to get at the crankshaft pulley, which meant getting the wheel off, which meant the first job was the usual locking wheel nut palaver. When i realised I didnt have the key for them i rang up the seller to see if he still had it. "oh no, they never gave it back when i had the tyres fitted" he clearly remembered not getting the essential tool back but didnt bother doing owt about it!!! I welded a big wonky bolt into the locking nut and managed to wind it out. Got the placca arch liner out no probs. Next i took the plugs out: Interesting!!!! I put a spanner on the crank pulley and turned it a bit which began a MEGA BUKKAKE SESH with huge globs of coffee cream SQUIRTING OUT of all the spark plug HOLES!!! Obv this made a right flipping mess everywhere so i didnt do it for long. managed to find a big syringe and a rubber pipe and used them to syringe all the gloop out of the bores, or at least most of it. Amusingly I extracted 1.2 litres (its only a 1.8 litre engine)!!! The stuff was literally GUSHING out of EVERY ORIFICE! Inlet manifold: Water pipes: Exhaust manifold: Nice eh? The whole engine and cooling system was just full of this stuff everywhere!!! Bores, oil system, and water system all full of the same mixed-up fluid. Anyway after this episode I found I was at least able to turn the engine over so it wasnt completley seized up after all, it had just hydraulic locked. Maybe the engine was not automatically a total write off?!
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Last Edit: Dec 7, 2014 22:53:16 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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The next day I had a look at what I had got in exchange for my £160 and 5-year reduction in life expectancy. The answer was (perhaps unsurprisingly) a very mediocre Rover 75 with a kippered head gasket. The car had been owned by an old boy who was not in the slightest bit interested in cars, he just put in the pez and drove it, taking it to the garage once a year for a service. The car was covered in dings and scratches and had various issues beyond the obvious engine problems, such as: SKILLZ!!!! The bonnet catch had been playing up. Someone had skilfully fixed the problem by removing one of the two bonnet catches and sawing the safety catch right off!!! WTF? that meant that if anything had happened with the one remaining catch the bonnet would just whang up and smash the screen. Brilliant. Also the wiper blade had scratched a big arc into the windscren on the drivers side. flipping great man. Big scratch in the roof The interior was quite presentable, no rips in the fabric or holes booted through the dashboard, but these photos do not give you any indication of the EYE-POPPINGLY VILE SMELL in there from years of carrying round wet dogs. My god it stinks in there. The carpet was filthy and all the nooks and crannies for storing stuff were full of vile crustacea. Moving on to the engine, well there was one, and it was defo a K-series: I asked the old boy what had happened when the head gasket went. He said, he was out and about in it, and it started to get hot on the temperature gauge. So, he headed home. I'm not sure how far from home he was, but he said that when he got home, there was steam coming out the sides of the bonnet and some clattering noises from the engine. He reckoned the engine stopped as he was pulling onto his driveway and wouldnt restart, so he just coasted down the hill to the spot where i found the car. When i tried to start the engine, it just made a sort of feeble whirring noise, certainly doesnt sound like an engine cranking. So i didnt know what the crack was, no compression, seized completely or whatever. Either way I assumed the engine was most likley knackered beyond repair after that ordeal. A shame as it only had 53k on and was externally pretty clean and unmolested. At this point I had to weigh up what to do next. Sytrictly speaking this car was really not worth fixing. at £150 it was cheap, but then I'd spent almost another £100 fetching it home and now i was looking at replacing the engine (at least another £150) so then I'd have spent £400 and done a load of work, and I would still have a curse word Rover 75 with no MOT and an interior that stank to high heaven, not exactly a great buy.
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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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After the 'success' of the Rover 25 head job I thought I might roll the K-series dice again and had a cheeky bid on a Rover 75 craply advertised on eBay. I would post up the original pics, but they have disappeared off Ebay in the last few days and now I realise that I didnt save them like a TWART. 2004 Rover 75 1.8 Club SE for sale in Guildford, 53k, head gasket knackered, MOT just expired, blah blah, I bid £150 and won it for £149!!!! Reading up on them, these weigh a very lardy 1400kilos so you need something pretty hefty to A-frame one, so I drafted in my mates Tranny van. (Note: the following bit is cross-posted from the brown forum) After getting in touch with the daughter of the elderly seller I arranged to collect it. I borrowed my mate's Transit van and set off after work one night with the A-frame in the back. I had looked where it was, 'yeah its just off the M25' but as always had failed to look properly at what I was doing and in fact it was much further than I thought. Took 3.5 hours to get there including 45 mins sat on the M25 like a twit and a lot of driving in absolutely unbelievable, torrential rain FFS. Some route: Eventually I found the guy's house. It was down a little private lane off the main road, over a railway line then down a narrow gravel track to his place whcih was beside the grassy 'roundabout' at the top of this pic: When i got there, in the dark and pizzing rain, the Rover was at the bottom of his drive facing the wall. The seller was an old boy of about 70 so he couldnt give me much of a push. First off I thought 'how in gods name am I going to get this out of the grass, turned round and hooked up?' I tried to start it, but it just made a lame whirring noise from the starter. Tried to wind it out on the starter but that didnt work either, not sure why not but it didnt make even the slightest effort to move. So I tried pushing it myself. To my total amazement after a fashion I managed to shift it out the grass despite the 1400kg weight and slippy office shoes on wet grass :roll: . Eventually after a lot of heaving, and humouring the old chap who was wittering on in the background, I did manage to turn the car round enougn and get the A frame on. Turned the transit round and hooked up. All lights were working and the new LED trailerboard was 100% operational. Went in the guys house and paid up (the cash machine only had £20 notes and he didnt have any change, so he ended up £11 up on the deal) but came out again as quick as poss as his house honked unbearably of animals, he had god knows how many cats and dogs roaming the place, smelly cat food bowls on the kitchen worktops and all sorts man, horrendous. Tried to get it out. He lived at the bottom of a long narrow gravel track - To get out you drive up the track and turn a very sharp right over the hump-backed railway bridge which is tarmaced. Its so tight that I was not sure it was even possible to tow a car out of there on an A-frame, I suspected it would clobber the drivers side of the Rover on the side of the bridge as you made the turn. So, I went at it quite gingerly. curse word TYPICALLY, the waterlogged gravel track was so slippery that the van just could not pull the dead weight round the corner even if I wanted to. I got halfway round and just sat wheelspinning. Now I was going curse word mental as the stress level was going stratospheric. I backed down a bit, but you cant really reverse with the A-frame on so only a short distance, and had another go. Stuck again with the back wheels of the van spinning helplessly. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN. The old boy said 'you'll just have to come back when the weather's dry!!!' Not curse word likely chief. I asked him to sit in the rover and hold it on the brake while I unhooked it from the van. He did that, I unhooked it then got in and rolled it all the way back down the drive. Backed the van down and had one last shot. The only hope was to get some momentum up, go at it and and try to get the back wheels of the van as far as the tarmac where theyd have a chance of gripping. But I didnt actually know if it was possible to get round. There was nowt else for it though, i wasnt coming back a second time, if I smashed the rover I had already decided to tell him to keep the £160 and just weigh the curse word in (althoguh i don't know how any scrap men would get their lorry anywhere near the bottom of his drive mind you). I shifted all the flipping wheelie bins out the way and went at it as fast as i dared. When i opened my eyes I was sat on top of the hump back bridge, i looked round at the Rover and it was not all caved in on the drivers side. flipping WOW!!!! I shook the old boys hand and set off. Drove all the way home at 55ish mph. The Tranny van towed it beautifully, its a LWB high-top RWD van with a 2.4 engine. Not sure what it weighs but its getting on for 2 tonnes I reckon and has a payload of 1500kg I think. The Rover is 1400kg so the weight balance is pretty good and it was stable and towed well, although the whole rig was seriously flipping HEAVY!!!! I burned £95 worth of diesel altogether which i calculate is an average of 15.5mpg!!!! Must admit if I had serisouly thought about how far it was and what it would cost at 15mpg to get it, i would never have bid on this fupping Rover. In terms of rozzers i saw one going in the opposite direction in Guildford and two separate patrol cars overtook me on the M1 but didnt take any interest at all. Got to bed at 2am, utterly exhausted and with a banging head. Why do I do it to myself?
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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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Right first up is the old Rover 25GTi. Not a lot to report on that. Last time I had managed to sort out the overheating after almost driving myself mental taking the head on and off. Well I let it sit for a while then when I had some money chucked it in for an MOT. To my amazement it passed without needing any further fannying about!!! I hit it up with the polishing mop: Then to be honest did nowt else with it. Its just sat about doing nowt ever since!!! I'm sure its only worth like £400 so hardly seems worth the bother of selling for buttons after all that grief, specially when its such a nice, rare little car. Current status is 'maybe going off on long term loan' but thats about it for that one.
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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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