83C

Alternator from the Arnage. BFO Delco 140A job. Feels like the bearings are a bit rough, a few thou of play fore/aft on the shaft too. Also: The fan is breaking up. Again, not the end of the world but certainly won’t help it. Do like the ease of removal - 10 minutes. A few pipes in the way but nothing that can’t just be slid to one side for access. Hopefully off tomorrow to have it tested and repaired.

I've looked a few times at those plate surrounds, may have to get a set.

Collection achieved. Thank you very much to @dollywobbler

Getting close. The Dyfi Estuary.

The car itself - probably ok. The advert however… ‘2995 off a forecourt’. But its not on a forecourt, so pointless statement. ’you can only MoT a car with 28days mot left’ - bullshit. I can present a car for test any day I like, even the day after a successful test. However, to preserve the original expiry date it can only be within 28 days. MoT with no advisories - actually yes: Apart from the failure a few days previously: In the world of used cars it’s not the worst by any means, but the advert bullshit puts me right off. I don’t give a fuck how much it might be on a forecourt, it’s irrelevant. It’s also been hawked around the various Facebook pages locally, the starting price was £2250 on one ad. If you’re that certain it’ll pass a ‘clean mot’ just fucking get on with it. Unless you know it won’t…

As a distraction from the RAC's continuing fuckwitticism, I'm off for a bit of retail therapy. Stage one of the collection mission: Any guesses?

Brass and copper - both materials to be painted wherever possible!

…but it pours. After the shenanigans with the RAC being utterly incompetent last week with Mrs. 83C’s Mini (it’s still in Cornwall, supposed to be landing here in Shropshire tomorrow), the L322 decided to join the party with worn out rear brake pads. The first indication of this was the grinding noise as I slowed down off the M5 North into Gloucester Services. I would have expected the wear sensor to trigger but for whatever reason it hasn’t. It’s the n/s that’s down to the metal and I think the sensor is on the o/s. That suggests some uneven pad wear, but not long after I bought it the car needed the rear prop replacing and while it was at the garage that dealt with that one of the rear calipers seized. Both were replaced but it appears the old pads were reused which is probably why one set were lower than the other. On the upside the ZT had its first proper usage this evening and apart from a numberplate light bulb showing it seems to be going well. Tuesday a new machine gets added to the fleet. There may be a short term addition too if the Mini is going to be out of action for a while.

The dry weather has been great for working on cars but it’s been crap for bodywork, and the ZT hasn’t been cleaned since it landed nearly four weeks ago. Its not that easy to see in this photo but it’s absolutely covered in a layer of dust and the odd bird turd. A quick go around with the hose, a bucket and a wash pad gave the following results: Much shinier. Tyres to sort next week, then it’s on the road. Not finished of course, but one step closer.

This afternoon after the boost solenoid was replumbed I went for another test drive. On the first one the car felt flat and lifeless until 4.5k where it started to come alive, and then hit a wall at 5k where it felt like either fuel or ignition was being cut. Turns out the wastegate and pressure lines into the boost solenoid were the wrong way around, so the ECU wasn’t seeing any pressure from the MAP sensor until the BOV lifted way too early and suddenly it saw way too much and reacted accordingly. The second test drive also had a boost gauge rigged up to see exactly what was happening: Yes, that is clamped under the wiper, but it worked well enough for what I needed. This run went better, boost worked correctly but the car was experiencing a major misfire between 3-6k revs. Maximum boost peaked at 0.9 bar, so definitely a bit more than stock. Some further research and advice from a Facebook ZT group suggested the spark plugs might be the next port of call: These Denso plugs were ok but the gap was too big. Spec is 1.0mm but that’s the same for the N/A 1.8, which explains why on the first run there was no misfire until it died at 5k rpm. It was running almost like an N/A with the BOV venting everything to atmosphere early and the wastegate on spring/diaphragm pressure only, but on turbo 1.8s the accepted wisdom is to reduce the gap to 0.6-0.75 so that they don’t suffer from spark blow out. Luckily @RichardK had already acquired a set of OEM iridium plugs, so these were all gapped to 0.6mm and fitted. This completely solved the misfire - the car now runs really nicely and pending a longer test drive I’d say is almost ready for the road. It needs two tyres and the rear arch damage sorting, but I’m well happy with progress.

All plumbed up. Colour coded-ish vac lines, 3mm in orange and 5mm in blue. Took it for a test drive and a few things of note: there is loads of oil in the exhaust to burn off as evidenced by the blue/black smoke I was leaving behind me. It doesn’t smoke at all at idle, hot or cold, but under acceleration it’s like a WWII destroyer laying down its own personal fog bank. A second test drive saw a bit of a reduction in smoke, hopefully a few miles of thrash up the dual carriageway late one night will burn the rest of it out. It also cuts the ignition at 5k rpm, which suggests to me that it is overboosting and hitting the limits of its fuelling. I’ve got a boost gauge to rig up and see exactly what it is doing. Right now the car is running with an aftermarket boost solenoid, so once the boost gauge is rigged up I’ll do a run with it still fitted, and then swapped for the stock boost solenoid. What I’d really like to see is the injector duty cycles but I don’t think my diagnostics machine can do that. Its good to get it mobile again though, hopefully it’s not far now from being fit to use daily again.

Nantwich is about 50 mins from me, I’m in Shropshire. West Lance AE just came up as a Google search for alternator reconditioning. Will give AM a go. Need to get the alternator off to get a part number first, hoping to swap the ZT and the Arnage around on the drive tomorrow once all the clips and clamps are in place on the ZT properly.

Yes, it’s the L410T 6.75 turbo V8. HGF is something I’m very wary of with it, it’s looking like the issue is the alternator failing which apparently causes gauge fluctuations such as what I’m having. Trying to find a new one is a pain, Flying Spares do them as a recon for £354 plus core charge. Usually something else uses the same thing and will be cheaper but so far nothing else seems to use the Delco Remy 140A alternator. West Lancs Auto Electrics will recon the existing one, but it’s waiting for the ZT to vacate the work area at the back of the driveway before I take anything to bits. Can’t find anyone local to me who would recon the alternator, there’s a local mobile service advertised but I’ve had no response from him.

Substantial ZT progress: Turbo fitted and all bolted up with oil feed/drain also done. Alternator bracket also refitted. Next up is a coolant flush and refill, and fill the engine with fresh oil.

Whilst waiting for the studs, nuts and gaskets I thought I'd preassemble the hoses. The car came with most of a set of silicone hoses (so switching to blue glycol will also be in the plan), an alloy joining pipe to replace the plastic one where the water feed for the turbo is taken off and a few other bits. Some of the spring clips that hold the hoses on are a bit grim. they'd probably go in the ultrasonic bath and come up ok with some cold zinc spray but why take the easy/cheap option when all you have to do is spend a bloody fortune on shiny new Mikalor clamps? Fuck it, it's only money. Speaking of which, some more needs to be spent. During the time-lapse I was filming of the hoses being sorted this is around the moment I realised the thermostat was buggered: And this is why: That black rubber seal should be inside the housing, fitted to one of the valves. It was already in pieces, I've just fished it out with a couple of picks. It's not 100% complete either so there is a couple of tiny bits of rubber floating around the coolant circuit somewhere. Hopefully they'll get flushed out when I clear the rest of the OAT from the engine and heater. Oh well.

Today a few parcels & packages arrived so I began to assemble the turbo: Turbo mid-assembly. I'd really hoped to get the turbo back on the car today and possibly even started to check for oil leaks. However... I took another look at the miscellany of studs and bolts holding the manifold on, and decided that given how far into the disassembly I was it would be daft to not unhinge the alternator, undo the studs/bolts and swap them out for a new set of proper fixings, and swap the exhaust gasket for a nice new MLS version. It'd also give me chance to remove and renew the studs from the manifold/turbo mounting, and clean all the oil off the turbo exhaust mounting. 20 mins later: Just as well, as out of the 5 fixings for the manifold to the head, No. 1 was a stud & nut that had come loose, No.2 was also a stud & nut - actually tight and correct, No.3 was an M10 bolt that was too long and had a nut wound down it to tighten up to the manifold, No.4 was completely missing and No.5 was another M10 bolt, this time near-ish the correct length but not exactly tight. New studs and nuts ordered, as well as new gaskets.

ZT Progress: The Garrett GT2052LS turbo is only small and disassembly took just a few minutes. The core, dump valve and wastegate are all for the bin, given the car is supposed to have been remapped it made sense to replace both the dump valve and wastegate to cope with the increased demand for boost. The bits being kept all went in the ultrasonic bath a couple of times to remove all the gunk. Really this amounted to a few bolts, the water fittings and hard pipe, and the snail shell. I've been accumulating bits for the rebuild and I don't like putting dirty parts back on. I very nearly went down the route of sending bits off for powder coating but that would have held up progress. I'd really like to get the car back together and check the issues have gone away before taking anything else apart, so I dug out the masking take, the cans of VHT paint and went with black and silver. I was just going to get a standard d/v but then I was browsing the Forge website for something else and found a nice polished billet alloy one. It's very hard to say no to polished alloy bits, especially when they're on offer... I did draw the line at spending £130-odd on a Forge wastegate though, a new stock one should be perfectly good enough. The shiny parts pile is building nicely. The new turbo core has also arrived, I'm just waiting for a replacement vacuum line nipple (old one snapped off), 3 M6 15mm cap head bolts for the D/V (old ones are scabby and slightly chewed) and I should be good for reassembly. The new wastegate is slightly different to the old one in that rather than being riveted on, its bolt on and they're in a slightly different place to the rivet holes on the snail shell. No major problem, I'll just clock the wastegate ever so slightly and redrill to suit. I also need to order a decent amount of 3mm vacuum hose to replace all the old stuff on the car. The bag full of silicone coolant hoses that came with the car have also been treated to a thorough wash and blast through to remove any crud from storage, next job is to build them up into subassemblies (the stock coolant hoses have come off in the same way) to replicate what was on there before and to give me chance to clean the joiners and fittings before reassembly. Tomorrow's job.

The best of the 1980’s: South African Railway’s sole Class 26, 3450. Modified from a 25NC 4-8-4 by David Wardale in the SAR workshops. His work on modern steam is well worth a look, especially the ACE3000 concept.

I’m very much with @SiC on the A4s being the better machine overall, the 3 05s were an experiment for high speed steam locos whilst the 35 A4s were a regular production class based on an existing and highly successful design, and undoubtedly with more favourable conditions could have run faster. Certainly regular 100mph+ running was achieved, and SNG holds the postwar record at an authenticated 112.5mph. It would have been great to see what an A4 in ex-works condition with the K.J. Cooke improvements to the valve gear, fully streamlined and with track in good condition would have been capable of. That said, it shouldn’t detract from the 05s being a very good attempt at the record, and 124.5mph is nothing to be sniffed at. I’ve not heard of any evidence of the figures being massaged to please the Führer, though it isn’t impossible. There is a group in America building a replica of a Pennsylvania Railroad T1, and one of their aims is to beat Mallard’s record. Be interesting to see if they can do it.

There is actually a pissabolity that I'll be able to attend for at least one day, hopefully will be able to confirm soon.

It's a couple of hours away but its very tempting. Why the need to get it gone though? I smell trouble...

@RichardK no problem - it’s a good little project to be cracking on with. I’m largely settled with the idea of really tidying/tarting the engine bay up because in doing so it’ll also sort the myriad hose issues, give me chance to put the boost controller back to stock and get it running well. I’ve bought a 15litre ultrasonic cleaner (not just for this project but it’ll certainly help) so all the fixings, clips, bolts and pipes will get thoroughly cleaned. I’ll also switch to either blue glycol or Evans Waterless coolant ready for the silicone hoses. Also got an order going in to Forge Motorsport for a decent BOV and possibly a wastegate actuator once they confirm to me whether the one they list for Disco TD5s will also fit the ZT (both use a variant of the GT2052 turbo). New core ordered, it’s from Melett so should be decent quality. 3 x the cost of a Chinese one off eBay but their listing reckoned the water fitting was M12x1.5 rather than M14x1.5, and I’ve no intention of restricting the water flow with smaller fittings.

Yup. A6 GLL, a 90 with the 2.3 10v lump. Sounded great, drank fuel.