hubba hubba. Weather was perfect, I mean perfect. Scorching hot weather for 3 solid days, clear blue skies ( hehe ) and bone dry roads. T-bars out first thing in the morning and only back in when we parked up for the night. Stunning stunning stunning. So anyways, on with the story.
Left Friday am and drove to Portree via Tyndrum and Cluanie Inn, where we had to stop for a lager shandy, it really was that hot. Stopped in Portree for the night, had a chippy by the harbour. Bloody brilliant. A couple more beers then off to bed.
Some photos of the friday
THE pint at Cluanie complete with condensation on the glass. Ahhh
Up early for breaky then over to the Applecross. Stunning stunning, first time I've done it in clear brilliant sunshine and it's awesome. Worthy of a special trip in anyones holiday.
then onwards to Ullapool via Gairloch
All in all, just fabby. Burnt me scalp as I didn't wear the cap I took with me. 2 days of sunshine, realised I was burnt then wore the cap on the 3rd day. Now as I type this I have flaking skin from my head, nice mmmm you like? No I didn't think so :(
sigh, the front calipers are giving me some grief. Front passenger one is sticking which is er not so handy. Both fronts getting stripped down and rebuilt this bank holiday monday so hopefully solve the issue for a while. Plans are in motion for er upgrades........... Should be interesting to see how the ABS works that lot out lol
indeed a temporary fix until I can source a newer coil ignitor. Original one was well dead as below. Cheers for giving up your Friday evening Calum, as ever a star.
was meeting a friend for dinner and was driving there, nice evening for it so was happy enough. Was stuck behind some slower moving traffic so first chance I got to power past I took it, er then it all went a bit funny..........
Down into 3rd, pull out and nail it 17psi. Got past the first car then a huge POP / BANG then the dash lights up.......... then nothing. So I dip the clutch and the revs just drop to zero. Clutch back up and the car just kinda farts and not a lot else. Clutch down turn over starter, nada nothing zip neit. So with that, I look over my shoulder at the car I just overtook and thought right I'm clear so I pulled over and flicked on the hazard lights while trying the get the darned thing to fire up again. Nope, it was dead :( Kinda embarrassing and the guy I overtook didn't look too happy either. Not like I planned it pal! Lucky I had enough momentum to get some distance and going by the pops and bangs from the exhaust he'd have known all was not well.
Single carriageway back road no laybys but at least it was on a straight section. So I get out and check under the car - no leaks, no oil and no shiny broken metal bits either. Try to start the car, just spinning over so I know the batteries fine. So after a bit I realise it's electrical but something serious. All fuses check out then I smell burning - then I see smoke
So I phone my dinner companion and explain the situation, phoned a friend for advice / options and then AA. AA man turned up in about 40 minutes and yeah the ignitor has gone = no spark no go fooked. So car gets towed back home, the shame of it all. Hopefully it's just the ignitor that's died in a very smoky fashion and not something else that's caused it to check out. Hopefully get it sorted this week but yet another expense just when I'm looking at new toys...........
and that fecking passenger front caliper is still sticking.
then went for a wee drive. No banging from the rear of the car, front brakes felt nice and strong though a tad juddery. Front discs still looking a bit marked but hey ho. 17psi is bloody strong lol, cars feels really good and peppy. Need to get the front fogs in and then undertrays on. Also need to keep checking the rear tyres, they are wearing down fast but then it can't be helped with the power going through them.
turns out it wasn't the exhaust banging on the subframe. It was the passenger rear caliper moving around on the top pivot. As it happens the bottom bolt that locates the caliper onto the pads and carrier was er missing. The clunking was the caliper moving about on the carrier. Ho hum. It's now sorted and no more banging.
indeed pressing the middle pedal seems to make the car slow down, a lot easier and quicker than before. I still really need to clean up the discs as they are not fully polished like they should be. A wee back road trash should sort that out nicely. Need to give the car a good run to clear both it's and my cobwebs out.
Must also fix the banging exhaust! It's hitting the subframe, bloody thing
inside passenger pad and outside drivers side pad jammed solid in carrier. So with a file I removed some metal from the pad edges and now they move freely inside the carriers. Once the retaining springs are in place they are snug, but still movable. Nothing left over after putting it all back together again, I'll test the brakes tomorrow - was too hungry to do it straight away.
Looks like the S02 plan all round for replacement tyres is no go on the fronts, they just won't fit. The rears still should but what the heck do I put up front?
er that's it lol. Lots of miles on the car but it still scrubs up nicely.
Been looking into tyre choices as I'm not really happy with the F1's. Goodyear just aren't making them like they used to and I'm not the only one to feel this. The new Asymmetric or however you spell are not lighting many fires either and the old GD3's just well aren't cutting it. So the current thinking leads me to Uniroyal Rainsports 2 which have an excellent set of reviews for dry and especially wet road holding / Hankook RS2's a track based tyre but is pretty good in the dry or the daddy of road tyres Bridgestones very own S02. With a little massaging of sizes I could get these puppies on the car again and motoring heaven should be returned.
When I talk about S02's I mean these beauties, the Porsche OEM N3 KZ I had a set of these on the mr2 when I bought it, previous owner fitted them and dear god did they grip. Wore down pretty quick too and even today they are not the cheapest of tyres but they grip like sh1t in the dry and aren't shabby in the wet either. But they stopped making them for the std 15inch wheel size so I eventually went to Goodyear F1's. See 1st paragraph for circular discussion lol.
It's not an issue at the mo because the current fronts are really not looking used (clearly I'm a straight line junkie with no corner speed ) but the rears, well they could be finished by end of summer. Straight line boosting does wear them down lol. So who knows, might even buy new wheels for them heha
er weather's been pish, roads are slimy and the brakes are squealing now. Might actually need new pads! Decided on a 2nd gear pull to see what boost it was after turning down the Gain on the EBC - got a bit squirrely but bugger me it was feeling quick . Nothing like modern cars though, old and clunky
so I had a new passenger sill fitted and painted to replace the bubbling old one. Turned out the underseal on the car had trapped some water against the sill and we all know what happens given enough time after that. Pah
Also had a wee play with the boost controller as it didn't seem to be spooling as quickly as I'd like it.
Pre change: Gain : 18 Ratio : 35 => ish 13psi Ratio : 58 => ish 17psi
The above settings held a steady boost and all was good but watching the boost gauge you could read the boost as it came in like 10, 12, 14, 17 psi. Which is fine but loses out that instant hit not to mention midrange acceleration. After some playing I now have
Post change: Gain : 40 Ratio : 35 => ish unknown - never tested it Ratio : 58 => ish 18psi certainly hold high 17's
I think I may have to turn the Ratio down but bugger me does it hit that boost level real quick. 10, 17, 18 lol I think 16 or 17 should be enough for a 115k mile motor. Besides, now it's snowing lol. First week of spring too
wow, today I managed to hit a whole 17psi. It felt good, real good. Been over 6 weeks since I tried that. Sadly with the weather being what it is I didn't hold it for very long. However a few points were clear
* the clutch held at moderate revs - still need to test 4krpm + * the BOV pipe held and isn't too loud on lift off, which is nice * the intake kit is more vocal than std - expected and it's fine * the er farting habit of the std BOV is louder - tubby owners know of this habit lol
Got a quote to repair the bubbling passenger sill so I'll have that sorted in March. Even saw some nice wheels the other day.................
not due to diameter issues. That was perfect. I just cut it a bit er neat. Darn near had to cut another length but it's fine. Unless I blow the fecker off of course lol
and it's the wrong size :( Turns out the pipe I used as a guide wasn't a pipe at all. It was a coupler meaning it's bigger than the big that bears the mark. Ho hum. Builders merchant at weekend.
I did hit boost even with the crapo VTA setup, felt good. Very good.
OK, I've updated Day 1 with pics and some video, Day 2 as below.
Now I have to confess, I was veggin in front of the tv all morning while Calum and Larry were working on the car. I got picked up around 130pm as there was nothing I could do before then. My spannering skills are well known, ie I hold the spanners cause when I use them I break stuff. Anyhow on with the story.
Day 2
All torque mounts nicely tightened up so that part is ok.
Induction kit nicely fitted but er at the mo it's Vent to Air as the existing Recirc pipework is too short. One wee trip to B&Q coming up in near future.
Oil Pan No 2 changed and new non rusting unit in place. New oil filter in place too. A point of note here, even after draining the oil there was still about 0.5Litres of oil sitting in the sump. Turns out to remove it all you'd have to jack the front of the car and just the right rear corner up to clear out the oil pan. Of course, no one ever does.
Gearbox very nearly had to come off again as there was an issue with a plate that sits between the box and engine block. Fortunately this was dealt with by just slackening some bolts and then the problem bolts went in ok.
Once front bumper was removed I then set about removing the old chargecooler pre rad. Broke the horns as well so another job in the near future. All chargecooler pipes removed, pain in the butt that was. Will re visit the chargecooler theme in the future but not this year.
Sheared bolts from the old front fog lights removed from the bumper bar. Sadly I don't have video of Larry getting all personal with the angle grinder. Sparky 2....
Clutch slave cylinder refitted and removed then refitted. There was a bolt that was missed on the gearbox so er remove and try again.
Starter motor refitted - question is would the blighter work!
There were some issues with the gear linkage bushes, basically one was gubbed the other had a fair old slack in it. One was awkward to fit one was okish. Something for future replacement but ok and connected at the mo.
Drive shafts refitted after some cleaning of the suspension struts.
Both rear brake pads and carriers cleaned up, sliders copper greased as they were both er solid. That explains why the handbrake was so crap.
All under trays fitted after the removal of the chargecooler pipes. Yup that took ages as more bolts had seized and snapped. Ho hum.
This was quite late on in the afternoon so it was time to start refilling the coolant system and the gearbox and the oil. Much gnashing of teeth and bruised knuckles it's all ready to fire up.
First start, check for leaks, gearbox, engine and coolant. Once we were happy nothing was leaking we then topped up what we could and Calum went out with the car to ensure everything worked as expected. Of course, we left the exhaust off as it would get removed should any problems have been found. Must admit, it didn't sound bad at all. Oh, the starter worked as well :-))
No leaks were found so exhaust refitted. Should point out here much cleaning was done of the mating surfaces and yeah I ain't looking forward to that being removed in the future.
The coolant system was then properly bled and that took forever, as it always does. That and a huge 13Litres of coolant to fill the blighter.
Exhaust ready for intermediate pipe
Larry checking nothing is amiss. Can't fault his attention to detail
The clutch is quite low to the floor and the aforementioned shifter bushes have made the gearchange a bit notchy. However, Kenny had dropped by and suggested a slight adjustment on the clutch pedal as it had some slack. Hey presto clutch has slightly more travel and no slack thus gearchanges are really smooth now. The clutch feel itself is very light so no doubt I'll stall it a few times til I'm used to it again.
All in all I'm very happy with the job and I can't thank Calum and Larry for the time and effort they put into it. Cheers guys, I'll get a round in this year at some wee drive ;)
car re-assembled but I'm too tired to type it all up tonight. Calum and Larry are stars however, fantastic amount of work done to get this all finished. Mention also to Kenny who provided a tip on clutch pedal height, now much better thanks!
Will hopefully the complete Sunday write up done tomorrow and post some pics
Day 1 in the workshop: Taking the exhaust system off proved unexpectedly complex and tiresome. The intermediary pipe decided it wasn't going to come off.
Nicey nicey
1hr lost persuading it to split resulted in much swearing and WD40 brute force and some praying. After that Calum got really hacked off and got out the angle grinder. The pipe was mere moments from hitting the ground, or so we thought...
Prepare to be ground!
Calum getting his favourite garage toy out, the angle grinder. The exhaust bolts did not fair well out of this at all.
The exhaust however still held on with only paste. Good stuff that.
Eventually we got the darned thing off but it held on well which didn't bod well for the rest of the day.
Airbox and gubbins removed in prep for access to gearbox bolts
Look at the space in there! An MR2 engine bay with space? Some mistake officer?
Larry had joined us at this point which meant Calum had some real help with the heavy stuff about to start. Good timing sir!
The driveshafts, they came out ok, some issues with suspension bolts but nothing major. Suspension struts were changed just over 4.5years ago so it was expected they would come off easy enough. Mind you, the exhaust has been on less than 2......
Starter motor would not budge for love nor money nor the hammer nor even the pry bars. This resulted in having to remove a water pipe from the main coolant system to free up the gearbox. So now a coolant change is being carried out too. Eventually the gearbox came out. This is now 6 hrs after work started. Ho hum
Clutch removed from flywheel. Some meat left on the friction plate but also some heat marks on the flywheel indicating possible pressure plate failure as opposed to the clutch failing. Either way, new clutch required. Hopefully the new clutch will bed in nicely, flywheel face smooth, no roughness nor visible scoring. Just the heat marks.
Old clutch, not bad for 114k miles on a turbo'd motor. I clearly drive slower than Miss Daisy :(
Pressure plate, mm some heat markings on there
The flywheel showing heat scoring. It will be fine..............
Starter motor removed from gearbox. Mating face given a good talking too and sanded for good measure. Next time the blighter will fall out when the bolts are removed.
Gearbox input shaft and general area tidied up, however will give a nice light clutch and fit all back together again.
New Exedy std clutch as below complete with release bearing and clutch cover plate. Nice and meaty but not too heavy on the leg
New clutch fitted, gearbox bolted up and mount attached. Clutch cylinder installed and gearbox linkages attached.
End of Day 1.
Still to do.
Torque mounts still to be attached and er torqued.......... Gearbox oil to be refilled <- note: this is not optional on an empty gearbox. Reverse switch and speedo drive to be re-attached. Re-attach all boost piping removed to facilitate gearbox removal. Remove leaking flexing Oil Pan No2 and replace with no leaking / flexing unit. Change Oil Filter and then refill sump with oil. Install induction kit in place of standard airbox and resonator chamber. Re-fill engine coolant <- note: this is not optional on an empty cooling system Try clutch and gear selection, not sure of placement in order of this. Remove front bumper and then remove chargecooler pre rad. Fix horns while there - meep meep just doesn't cut it. Never has, never will. Possibly re-attach front foglights. Start car and go through nightmare bleeding of coolant process. This is dependant on the starter motor not in a huff after the pounding it got being removed Re-attach exhaust and do road test.
Will update after tomorrow's work. This being dependant on success and pub visit.
cause I'm really really bad at it! Spent some time messing around with a web page I have that gives you tyre sizes / profiles and what size rim it will fit. Usual stuff found on many pages except I wrote mine so it returns all valves between whatever limits you set. Saves a lot of typing, select max width and wheel diameter you want, fill in your std wheel data and then hit the button and hey presto, results including speedo error are returned.
So I thought I'd modify this so you can get both axles done at the same time. Except I wanted it to use the same function to do both results. Well that requires a wee bit of savvy and I'm found lacking again. Ho ho, though I think I've solved it now it's not as neat as I'd prefer. Pah, not like anybody reads the sh1t anyway!
I hope your hangover is no worse than mine! Was a great night so I have no complaints. Not gonna be driving for a while either lol.
There's been some loud talk about the drivibility of V6 mr2's v turbo units so when my new clutch is fitted I decided to give it some testing. Usual in gear increments and might even do some through the gear punches.
Right now, got some dave pearce on and chillin - if that makes sense lol
fitting in early January. I ended up buying a stock replacement item from Exedy as I'm unlikely to be exceeding the torque limits of the std style unit.
Still to fit induction kit, replacement oil pan, fix the bumper strips maybe even do the undertrays. Who knows lol
so two films I wanted to see this week that were listed in the TV guide turned out not to be on. Was something else. I was a bit hacked off and shouted at the crappy tv guide. Then I read the date - 12th December. Turns out last Saturday I bought next weeks TV guide. What a dumbass
a very pleasant Saturday afternoon drive. Took me 30 minutes to check the wheel nuts and blow up the tyres <- really need to do that more often :(
4th gear + 17psi + WOT = wheel spin. Er yes it's a bit lacking in grip out there but hey ho it was a nice slow drive after that. Either that or it was clutch slip :((( I tried again in 2nd and defo wheel spin that time.
Washed the car, only a shampoo and rinse but at least most of the grime is off of it.
passed!! woo hoo Mucho happiness. Suppose I'd better wash it this weekend again. Bought some polish to get it cleaned when I was at the caravan, never stayed dry enough to even think about doing it.
indeedy I decided a trip oop North to the parents caravan was in order just to clean the cobwebs out of me hair. It rained pretty much non stop but I just chilled and had a very relaxing time. I've included some pics below, don't be fooled it was cold and wet lol. Click on any of the pics to be taken to the main pic page.
tightened previously and now I'm getting 15psi a whole 1krpm sooner. Car feels a wee bitty quicker lol. Shame I never thought of checking that before. Weather is the usual rubbish so no real driving fun to be had. More's the pity.
I am however very happy the car is behaving as it should. Roll on next summer....
I have tightened up a couple that tbh were not tight enough but it's always a worry when tightening around an ali pipe. Too much pressure and er cracko! Can't be bothered to drive the car today but will check it weekend. Back to back testing with another car being done then too.
most of Monday spent at the garage trying to discover what's up with the car. No joy, tried a few things but nothing really made any changes. No error codes, ignition timing and cam timing spot on. Next stop, compression check (though no mayo on recent oil change) and check the plugs <- could it be that simple?
Also noticed the boost is taking a bit to come on song so going to check all pipework tomorrow if the weather stays good.
Some thieving pikey tried to steal the car last week, lucky they didn't damage too much but it does make me wonder whether I'd be happy if it got nicked. I guess only if I get to kill the fecker that tries it, yeah that would do it.
Sump pan, well specifically the No2 Oil Pan Assembly is leaking quite bad, it's also er flexing so that's needing changed ASAP. That and oil stains under the car look bad. Hopefully be sourcing a 2ndhand one from the MR2 site as Toyota want silly money for it.
car got serviced yesterday and most things are ok. Porus sump which is a pain but a common fault. Seized alternator adjustment bolt, nice one. A few other minor things but nothing serious.
Did a rolling road after it, er pish! Really bad power figures but they do back up what I was feeling on the road. Things to do, check the compression on the engine, check cam timing then check ignition timing. Then pray :(
sad news - I'm getting fussy about the jet wash I use - I now recommend the BP on Maryhill Road just at Canniesburn Roundabout........ Where's me coat....
sadder - er Just washed the windows of the flat and the car with some Vinegar and Water mix - so clean you'd swear there wasn't a window there
Rossi - what can you say about the man that hasn't been already said - 6 times Motogp World Champion, 1 x two stroke WC, 5 x 4 stroke WC's on 2 different makes, 2 different engine capacities. Stunning. Now imagine if we'd have 16 Laguna Seca's or 16 Assens from last year or 16 Malaysia's from a few years back. That's what we all want to watch. Rossi win, that's nice but we want a battle for it - actually I'm not really bothered who wins just the battle and plenty of tyre smoking
awesome awesome fun. Left Glasgow at 7am - taking the longest / slowest route out, dunno why I did that and headed up to Aviemore via Tarbet, Tyndrum, Fort William then Spean Bridge -> Newtonmore, Aviemore. Hop up to Inverness then along to Drumnadrochit for lunch. Head to Skye via Invermoriston then into Portree for camping.
Weather up on the Friday was stunning, utterly sublime I took my t-bars out at 10am ish at Spean Bridge and only put them in for lunch briefly then back on at 6pm in Skye after a days driving. Some pics of the run up
Tarbet at sunrise
The run across Rannoch Moor
Loch Laggan on route to Newtonmore
A terrible day in Skye..............
A well earned drink by my fellow camper, was soo warm on Skye that we were sweating putting up each of the tents! Unheard of and most unexpected by very welcome, as was the beer. Torvaig Camp Site, stunning views
The road to the pub from the campsite
The view from Cafe Arriba that was our breakfast stop Saturday and Sunday, well recommended
Atmospheric hills on route to Uig
All in all a great weekend, I haven't got many pics of other days simply because they were mostly crap! Bad use of camera lol
yup drivers door scratched on lower panel like someone has dragged a sharp edge bag between my car and the one next to it. I swear if I ever catch someone damaging my car they'd better be bigger than me or have plenty of friends with them.
Have a wee run this weekend coming so hopefully the weather will be good enough to get some driving done, I have me doubts though :(
since i updated this here place or did something that could be put up here lol. So, some car news and some pc news.
Car Did a wee away run but yet again it rained, drizzled for most of it. It was still fun but would have been better if we had been able to push the cars a bit. It was still a great time away though a coach decided to overtake where he couldn't see and nearly killed myself and Lee. I kinda decided there and then, brake upgrade time over the winter. Likely change Master Cylinder too. Might go 4 pot calipers and 300+ mm discs. Need somewhere to make up caliper brackets for me. Watch this space
Also going to get another tent, this single skin business in Scotland just does not make sense. I'm going to get a double skinned jobbie but torn between getting a 2 - ie one man, tent or just going nuts and getting a 4 - ie 2, man tent. In some cases the same price or near enough. Just depends on the space they afford, certainly they don't alter much in overall packed size.
PC yup, killed it with some hooky software. Tried Hijack This, Adware and something else but it was no use. PC was well infected and nothing was going to sort it short of rebuild. So I have pretty much spent the weekend rebuilding the pc and it's now up and running but with a whole lot less software. Will add as required.
First problem, XP pre SP1 only recognises 130MB drives, not the 250GB puppy I have internally the now. How I got round this first build I just don't remember however I managed to sort it with a great wee freebie from Easeus called Partition Magic and er yup it's magic lol. Sorted it out great so now XP see's the full 250GB drive.
SP3 requires Zone Alarm 7+ something to work, real pain in the butt but hey ho. Typical errors are limited Network Connection or just plain none. Certainly no Internet connections which has been reported by others.
Files and Settings Wizard is soo not perfect but lucky I kinda didn't trust it and had copied my entire My Documents folder to my spare machine before the wipe process.
So now I'm just building the software back as I need it
AV wise, using Avast! on recommendation from a mate so we'll see how it goes. I would have used the new Nod32 but the last 'upgrade' I did caused machine reboot faults which were a tad annoying. This is also reported on the net so hopefully Esnet will fix it cause Nod32 is a great program when it's working fine.
and it looks good. I mean I checked it before I left the body shop but the guy had done a good enough job for me not to look too closely. Well I looked more closely today between rain showers and yup it's looking good.
Funny thing I noticed was the inner brake light coming on instead of the indicator on the drivers side. Took the rear cluster out looked at the wiring and thought that aint right? The indicator holder was in the inner brake position so a quick change round and the lights all work fine. I will need to check all 4 brake / tail lights as I have me doubts.
Found another ding in the passenger side rear wing. Ho hum
yup it's back. First inspection, in the rain was very good. Looks the same as the passenger side. Sweet. Paintwork looks very nice and overall I'm pleased. I will however need to check it out properly in the dry and see how it looks. Will need to jet wash the car as there is sanding residue on the wheels / hub. Guess he had to use filler after all then :-(
Also collected the trim for the front wings / bonnet and er they look the right colour. Of course they didn't come with the mounting nuts required to hold them in place but lo a std metric nut I had lying around fits perfectly. First time for everything.
Going to organise a wee trip soon and get some good time miles on the car. Likely bin it on route.........
will be a strange moment to get it back. Will the paintwork match, will the dent still be there so many questions so many possibilities. Find out 28th.
indeed the parts are on back order so should be here next friday BUT it's been confirmed they are the UK style trim parts so no stupid indicator lens in the middle. no idea on the mounting nuts - hopefully be std and I can buy them anywhere
indeed I have a quote for 170GBPounds to fix the damage which is a fair old bit different. The garage is recommended by a mate in work so that's always a nice place to start from. I just need to buy the corner lens for the rear but that's a clip in part so no problems there.
I've also purchased some new front wing trim tabs using the licence plate details instead of giving the parts guys the numbers. Yup, I'm nervous as I know it's going to go pete tong. On the bright side, these trims should be fully painted so just bolt on. Providing their the right colour and come with the mounting nuts. You just know it's going to go wrong somewhere.
indeed some arsehole of a driver has stoved in the rear bodywork just at the bumper / rear wheel. No note left of course so I'll have to pick up the tab myself. What pisses me off the most is that it was either a local, ie neighbour or it was someone visiting a local. They've just reversed out of the space and smacked my car on the other side of the road. That's what mirrors are for you fcukhead. Next time leave a note / contact the police with your details. Just when I thought I was going to have some money to get stuff for the flat I've got to spend money fixing someone else's mistake.
indeed the sun was splitting the heavens today so I went out for a wee drive with the t-bars out. Drove to Loch Lomond, Rowendennan and it was fab. Shades on windows down no stereo. Sadly the usual Sunday drivers were out in force so I never had the opportunity to blast the car through the gears but it was still an immense day out. The exhaust seems louder but then I guess it would be with the t-bars off. A grand day out though no pics as the car is manky. I'll wash it later in the week.
nice and smooth through the revs though I'll need to change the EBC slightly. It slightly overboosts then settles at a level. Shame that level on max is 1psi lower than I want to run. Must..have..that...extra...1psi lol But hey for all the difference it makes to my driving.
Was good driving the car with the window down and shades on. Was a bit cold hence I left the t-bars on but I had fun.
so I decide the distributor cap and rotor arm need inspecting as they are at least 60k miles old and in need of an overhaul - i know i know ancient technology but it does work. The units I have are Copper modified in a group buy from IMOC by the previous owner but they still need checking and cleaned up regularly.
So first issue is a flat ridge across the cap right beside the lower bolt but eventually I find a socket combination to fit it. However, some spanner monkey decided this dizzy cap needed a torque more suited to the Queen Mary not a service item and lo the bolt sheared after 2 clicks on the ratchet. Great, so now the whole distributor has to come out and get the bolt drilled.
I remove the two bolts holding the distributor but because they hadn't been moved in well a lifetime I managed to break the Oil Pressure sensor when the nut finally cracked from the dizzy cap. That trebled the service cost lol. Clearly the timing had never been altered on my car cause the dizzy was stuck fast so after smacking it with a rubber headed mallet via a block of wood I managed to get the dizzy off.
Couldn't get the sheared bolt off so eventually I had to drill it out. Luckily I managed to keep most of the thread intact so I save the distributor. I cleaned up the copper points and once the new bolts had arrived I went back to the car with all the bits and some copper slip.
Everything re-assembled real nice and was torqued with a more appropriate level. Changed the spark plugs at the same time since they are copper units having done 10k miles. The old ones didn't look too bad but they have run their course so replacements please.
Timing was set by a mate with the ole timing gun so I'm just waiting on the weather being nice before I go for a wee drive. Hopefully the judder / miss under acceleration should be gone....
Thanks as ever to the crowd on IMOC for their invaluable help and advice in getting my car up and running again. CHeers Paul for your help in removing connections and setting the timing for me.
15GBPounds in parts required for dizzy overhaul and spark plug replacement 22GBPounds in parts for replacing the oil sensor I broke trying to do the above.
ah bliss. Indeed the car has clocked now over 111,000 miles and tonight I took the roof out for the 20 minute to my parents. Bloody amazing, reminds me why I bother with the leaks (now fixed), the wind noise (still to do) and the rattles (adds character ;-) )
The exhaust was also making some nice barking noises with the occasional pop on changes and over run. Sweet
so hopefully no more tyre rubbing from there. I haven't had a chance yet to push the car and get it tested but going from some of the potholes I've hit it would appear everything is fine.
I've also tidied up the wiring for the bullet cam setup and now it's a fixed setup into the car electrics. The mic has been relocated into the space behind the centre bin sandwiched between bulkhead and carpet. With the engine running it should drown out cabin noise without overwhelming the mic. A short test this Tuesday on route to badminton should confirm or trash that theory. Just the proper connector for the DVR and we're rocking.
yup the tyres rub sob! The rear drivers is currently trying to destroy itself against the wheel arch, the passenger side is not rubbing at all. likely due to sagging springs - they have done some miles lol. Fronts scrub on the arch liners but that's no biggy. No marks on the tyres so no hassles. So the rear arches are getting rolled and pulled to create as much clearance as possible. 255's will fit if I still have the car of course ;-)
Handling wise, well the weather was not the greatest but aye the car handles nicely. New springs and poly bush kit are defo on the cards next. Still have a hankering for brakes too....
. Nothing like modern cars though, old and clunky
