The weather has been a bit mixed this side. Rainy days and sunny days with a bit of cloud cover and wind. Saturday and Sunday were the latter, so a friend and I decided to take a drive out to Franschhoek and drive the pass up and down.
This was good fun apart from the crazy pinging and (possibly related) overheating that my little Clubman was suffering when tackling the hills. This is obviously less fun on a mountain pass. We retarded the timing after the run and on the drive back home it seemed to play ball with little to no pinging. What's strange is I've never touched the timing and it was set last when the engine was out for the gearbox rebuild so it was odd that it had somehow advanced itself. (I've never messed with the timing on the car as I don't have a timing light nor the expertise to do the job).
Worryingly, my friend spotted an oil leak (tiny drip) on the clutch side which is apparently likely the main seal. Also frustrating since the engine came out for the gearbox rebuild and that seal was replaced then. Perhaps a consequence of the car sitting for a year with not a lot of driving. There also seems to be a little bit of smoke but the car doesn't seem to be burning oil. We'll do a compression test to see if the rings are worn but my friend suggested it might be the stem seals in the head or the car is burning a bit of oil from the breathers. I'm still not sure about the overheating problems. I think I'll replace the top radiator hose as it had a small tear in it very close to the edge by the thermostat, and the expansion bottle hose seems a bit tired too. Hopefully that resolves that issue.
Anyway, here are some cool photos from the drive to make the British envious of our glorious summers :)