41 replies to this topic

[whiskymac]

Long time no update!

 

Just got the car started for the first time in a while and noticed I had this build thread, figured I should probably do a brief update, so....

 

The car had plenty of delays getting it finished, I had a few deadlines, but the most important was our wedding in summer 2012, in the end I got the car finished an hour before the MOT was booked in for (2 days before the wedding). Luckily it passed first time and we used it as our wedding car :)

 

It did a total of about 70 miles and then went back in to my garage - there were plenty of bits that I wanted to finish off properly but having just bought a house it took a back seat.

 

Almost another 4 years on and I'm just prepping it for MOT so I can start using it again, booked in to L2B this year so looking forward to that.

 

I'll take some photos once its MOT'd and out of the garage.

[whiskymac]

As usual, I'm terrible at updating things on here! So, for now, here is my quick summary...

 

We had our ticket booked for the L2B but the MOT expired on the 17th. I stripped out the ignition system last summer as I was going to fit my Megajolt kit but I got distracted with fitting a kitchen, decorating other rooms in the house and fixing our daily cars!

 

I got everything running, then this happened:

 

 

Shortly, thankfully, followed by this:

 

 

Then we camped in Crystal Palace:

 

 

Saw these:

 

 

and had this (or similar!) in Brighton (when we eventually got onto Madeira drive, that traffic never improves!)

 

 

[whiskymac]

Another quick update, still so much to do until I'm happy with this car (will that ever happen?!).

 

I knew the engine was leaking oil (more than usual) before London to Brighton, but it passed an MOT and was ok as long I kept an eye on things. I must have lost well over a litre as the level dropped to under the minimum line by the time we got home - one of the next jobs will be engine out, just seems a shame whilst the weather is nice!

 

Before London to Brighton, my main aim was to get my Megajolt kit in, I've had the EDIS module sat around for about 10 years! The actual Megajolt unit and trigger wheel came from Trigger Wheels - I had to modify the sensor bracket slightly to push the sensor nearer the radiator, but all seems to have worked well.

 

Megajolt is sat here (wiring behind the dash is another big job!)

 

 

I've mounted the coil pack up on the bulkhead on some stainless standoff hex bolts which look quite neat :)

 

 

I ended up cutting the insulation out from behind it as I was worried it could overheat.

 

Sensor mounts nicely on the bottom of the timing cover, I'll try and get a proper spacer, or an additional nut at some point rather than the plethora of washers!

 

 

All looks relatively neat though...

 

 

Once I had the car running, I needed to fit some of the bits of trim I bought from Optimise Automotive. I'm not going to take this up as a day job, I think I'll pay for fitting next time! The seats need to come out at some point and tidying up as the covers are loose - but I ran out of patience and time as I need everything fitted back in ready for the MOT.

 

Rusty (! ran out of time) frame with foam wrapped and glued around

 

 

Looked quite neat at this point!

 

 

Seat cover being pulled over and clipped

 

 

Will look great with some tidying up!

 

 

 

Until next time :)

Edited by whiskymac, 02 June 2018 - 05:09 PM.

[whiskymac]

I was leakign a lot of oil after the London to Brighton, finally got around to getting the engine out a couple of weekends ago.

 

After all that I think* my main problem was that one of the pot joints wasn't fully seated - I suspect it moved outwards from the gearbox as it got driven around. I knocked it back in properly and things look ok, I'll test it with new oil before dropping the engine back in!

 

I've also had a small amount of oil dropping out of the hole in the bottom of the clutch housing, so last night I used my new flywheel locking tool and removed the clutch/flywheel assembly

 

20180822_191729 by Matthew Leigh, on Flickr

 

20180822_193648 by Matthew Leigh, on Flickr

 

It all went rather well!

 

I was met by the below:

 

20180822_193928 by Matthew Leigh, on Flickr

 

Now the seal looks ok, but I'm assuming the loose but must be from the centre of the seal and has somehow been damaged (possibly when fitted not that long ago) and come away - something doesn't look right, but it must have come from somewhere! Any thoughts?

 

Either way I'll replace it, can it be done without the special tool?

 

 

 

[johnR]

Definitely needs a new seal!

[whiskymac]

Yeah, I'm definitely replacing it, I just wondering how on earth it failed like that!

 

Bit more progress tonight, got the crank pulley and timing cover off ready to sort camshaft timing. Also removed speedo gears as these need changing.

[whiskymac]

A quick update from me, trying to keep this up to date in some form!

 

I've mostly been busy tidying up the garage, that's freed up lots of shelf space for various bits of engine that were laying around.

 

I had a couple of days off work, so managed to lift the block off the gearbox and start tidying things up a little bit. Its as stripped down as it needs to be, and I degreased the block and head and got some paint on them to tidy things up - looking much nicer now.

 

 

I got a new half moon seal (well my dad got it for me whilst I was at work!) they have supplied the rigid one, is this a problem or is either fine? Block and gearbox are separated so I can fit either type - I had the flexible one fitted before...

[whiskymac]

Quick update from the last few days, I think the engine is ready to go back in, hope I've not forgotten anything...

 

Timing chain on and set:

 

 

Head on:

 

 

Flywheel assembly fitted - bought the crankshaft seal fitting tool, made fitting the seal so much easier!

 

 

 

All done on this end, will have to finish cleaning it up during the winter - I want to use the car a bit whilst we still have some nice weather though.

 

 

Trigger wheel and sensor on and set:

 

 

Edited by whiskymac, 29 September 2018 - 09:05 PM.

[whiskymac]

Head torqued up, valve clearances adjusted and ready to drop back in.

 

 

[johnR]

You're in about the same place as I am with my replacement engine build - engine hoist booked!

[whiskymac]

You're in about the same place as I am with my replacement engine build - engine hoist booked!

 

Luckily a friend at work had an engine hoist I could borrow which made things much easier - its now taking up room in my quite small garage!

 

We've been out for a Sunday drive in the car for the first time in a while today. I'm terrible at updating this post, but I did get the engine back in:

 

20181014_131028 by Matthew Leigh, on Flickr

 

A couple of questions for anyone reading...

 

I now have a bit of a hybrid cooling system - a result of a 1275 head with no bypass on a 998 block. It wasn't getting up to temp so I figured the fact that some coolant was bypassing the stat (a few holes drilled around the edge) and travelling through the radiator wasn't helping. I'm now using a sandwich plate from (I think) an SPi and coolant comes out of the sandwich plate, through the heater matrix (no heater valve at the moment), then back into the bottom hose to the pump. I don't think there are any problems with this?

 

I'm still apparently not getting up to temp, according to the mechanical temp gauge I'm sitting at around 74C does this sound right? The thermostat must be opening as the top of the radiator is hot.

 

I also got my fuel gauge working again (well, it started working anyway) although it doesn't read correctly as its an SPi gauge and a 1980s sender - that's a project for this week hopefully.

 

Thanks for reading!

[whiskymac]

Looks like as usual I'm awful at keeping this anything like up to date!

 

With lockdown, I've had the chance to get on with a few bits I wanted to do, thankfully the weather has been nice too. Unfortunately, I seem to have a pretty big oil leak which is annoying - that will have to wait for now though.

 

My car is a random mix of parts, and the wiring loom has been bothering me for a while (MPI one, so lots of unused wires getting in the way) and I wanted to tidy it up. I was going to run the whole front loom under the wings and hide it so the engine bay was tidy, but for now I've just removed anything unnecessary and rewrapped in decent loom tape.

 

I've added lots of extra bits such as a megajolt, central lockign, elecric windows and an alarm so finding space for all these was a pain - I've ended up making some infills for the bottom of the dash to mount everything on. I did forget that the air vent piping went through that area, so stripped it all out in order to drill some holes for those!

 

Drivers side ready to go back together:

 

and with relays in place:

 

And a before and after where the central locking and alarm modules etc sit. The Megajolt is fitted to the bottom of the panel:

 

 

 

Next I needed to get on with fitting some decent sound deadening to the bulkhead. I bought a sheet of Silent Coat and this to cover up:

 

 

This would have been so much easier without the master cylinders in the way, but I wasn't going to take them out...

 

Drivers side, with aux fuse box in place (this now supplies central locking, electric windows, DRLs and the ignition system):

 

 

and the middle - still need to take the wiper motor out and finish...

 

 

I ended up with a messy join I'm not happy about, but is anyone really looking?

 

Still lots to do but progress is being made - hopefully it'll be running again in a couple of weeks and we can enjoy some summer drives!