83C

Another one picked up this week, an early Omega V6 with just 68k on the clock.

One for @83C, seen parked down an alley in Alnwick.

Much the same for me. Left the suspension in auto all the time, but did occasionally put the gearbox in sport mode. 
It’s done well for oil changes, it had one 7-8 months ago with me. Absolute doddle to do.

Today the VXR8 went for proper 4w alignment.

This all went well until the nearside leading lower arm on the rear axle (which is adjustable on the HSV variants of the VE Commodore) sheared. The garage had tried penetrating oil, heat, and then sheer force to get the outer adjusting nut to free off (having already successfully managed the inner), and the arm gave way instead 🤦🏻‍♂️
Got a lift back home, then had the fun* of extracting the spare arm off the spare subframe (lucky I bought that…) which put up a fair old fight. Fortunately it came around to my way of thinking before I went full fat gorilla on it. Back to the garage, dropped the replacement arm off and let them get on with it. Collected the car a few hours later and it drives so much better, but still isn’t exactly perfect. There was an adjustment bolt on one of the rear arms that they were understandably reticent about messing with, having already had the experience with the leading arm, so it’s good enough for now. With the spare rear subframe available to refurbish and fit later this year it’s something I’ll live with, once that is all on everything will be new and easy to adjust.
Back home and it got treated to a bit of an engine bay wash and brush up:

A close up of the vital details:

I have to be honest and say I’m pretty satisfied with how this has turned out, it was a proper wreck when I bought it and now it’s a damn good car. The cosmetics still need attention and the clutch can judder a bit away from standstill, but they can wait for now.

Today the VXR8 went for proper 4w alignment.

This all went well until the nearside leading lower arm on the rear axle (which is adjustable on the HSV variants of the VE Commodore) sheared. The garage had tried penetrating oil, heat, and then sheer force to get the outer adjusting nut to free off (having already successfully managed the inner), and the arm gave way instead 🤦🏻‍♂️
Got a lift back home, then had the fun* of extracting the spare arm off the spare subframe (lucky I bought that…) which put up a fair old fight. Fortunately it came around to my way of thinking before I went full fat gorilla on it. Back to the garage, dropped the replacement arm off and let them get on with it. Collected the car a few hours later and it drives so much better, but still isn’t exactly perfect. There was an adjustment bolt on one of the rear arms that they were understandably reticent about messing with, having already had the experience with the leading arm, so it’s good enough for now. With the spare rear subframe available to refurbish and fit later this year it’s something I’ll live with, once that is all on everything will be new and easy to adjust.
Back home and it got treated to a bit of an engine bay wash and brush up:

A close up of the vital details:

I have to be honest and say I’m pretty satisfied with how this has turned out, it was a proper wreck when I bought it and now it’s a damn good car. The cosmetics still need attention and the clutch can judder a bit away from standstill, but they can wait for now.

Well, the block is on hold until I get the new tooling and spares, so may as well crack on with the head. I've moved my leave at work one day later to Tuesday and Wednesday to work on the block - hopefully everything arrives before then 🤠
Starting with lapping the valves.

This was actually one of the most relaxing jobs I've done on this car. Nice and steady, and taking my time.
Results are promising too.




Should help keep the head a bit more gastight!
After a lot of tweezer action, fangs, and the air gun, I got the majority of the swarf out of the head chambers, I installed the valve stem seals - piece of cake with the insertion tool that came with the removal pliers.

Finally, it was time to re-introduce this haggard lash-up to reassemble the valves!

I was unsure if this was going to work this time around, but thankfully it did!

With the stems lubed and the collets greased, everything came together nicely and all 8 valves were fitted.

After that, the tappets and shims were greased/lubed and fitted, and the camshaft studs fitted. Going to check torque them again with the advice from @red5 (Thanks mate!).
But first, it's breakfast time.

Ah Christ. One of those days.
Started off promising, with me submitting two days work next week for the sole purpose of building and not installing the engine.
Thought I'd get a head start on it by dragging the block out to clean it of all the swarf from the machining. Covered in neat degreaser, brushed on and pressure washed off.

Popped it in front of the UV lamp to fully dry it off.

Then, I loaded the piston rings onto the first piston.

Then, the fuckery came in waves. Firstly the two piston ring compressors I had wouldn't tighten the rings enough to get in the liner.
Then, big problem. 

The liner was found to have a crack in it. Granted, I'm not sure if this occurred when it fell off the bench earlier or wether it was always there, but it put me in a proper foul mood, so I stopped for the evening before I did something I regretted, fired up eBay to get a new one, and went inside for lots of booze.
This is going to be tight to make the NL trip.
 

XC first class is alright to be fair, take advantage of the free drinks and snacks.

Growing up there was one of these down my street. a 1.3 GL 4 door. Aged 10 you could keep your ferraris etc, what i really wanted was one of these. I absolutely loved them.
Back then they were cheap first cars (around 1990) couple of hundred quid and scrap it when the mot was up. That is assuming it hadnt dissolved already, or been crashed.
Then a strange thing happened. They vanished overnight and then slowly they started getting expensive. By the time i started driving they were not mega expensive, but just hard to find.
My route to a mk2 escort was avoid 2 door (££££££) avoid uk RHD (££££££ plus most heavily welded or rotten)
So here we have a solid LHD import 1.3GL which is being delivered next week…

 



 

 

 

 

Today the VXR8 went for proper 4w alignment.

This all went well until the nearside leading lower arm on the rear axle (which is adjustable on the HSV variants of the VE Commodore) sheared. The garage had tried penetrating oil, heat, and then sheer force to get the outer adjusting nut to free off (having already successfully managed the inner), and the arm gave way instead 🤦🏻‍♂️
Got a lift back home, then had the fun* of extracting the spare arm off the spare subframe (lucky I bought that…) which put up a fair old fight. Fortunately it came around to my way of thinking before I went full fat gorilla on it. Back to the garage, dropped the replacement arm off and let them get on with it. Collected the car a few hours later and it drives so much better, but still isn’t exactly perfect. There was an adjustment bolt on one of the rear arms that they were understandably reticent about messing with, having already had the experience with the leading arm, so it’s good enough for now. With the spare rear subframe available to refurbish and fit later this year it’s something I’ll live with, once that is all on everything will be new and easy to adjust.
Back home and it got treated to a bit of an engine bay wash and brush up:

A close up of the vital details:

I have to be honest and say I’m pretty satisfied with how this has turned out, it was a proper wreck when I bought it and now it’s a damn good car. The cosmetics still need attention and the clutch can judder a bit away from standstill, but they can wait for now.

Today the VXR8 went for proper 4w alignment.

This all went well until the nearside leading lower arm on the rear axle (which is adjustable on the HSV variants of the VE Commodore) sheared. The garage had tried penetrating oil, heat, and then sheer force to get the outer adjusting nut to free off (having already successfully managed the inner), and the arm gave way instead 🤦🏻‍♂️
Got a lift back home, then had the fun* of extracting the spare arm off the spare subframe (lucky I bought that…) which put up a fair old fight. Fortunately it came around to my way of thinking before I went full fat gorilla on it. Back to the garage, dropped the replacement arm off and let them get on with it. Collected the car a few hours later and it drives so much better, but still isn’t exactly perfect. There was an adjustment bolt on one of the rear arms that they were understandably reticent about messing with, having already had the experience with the leading arm, so it’s good enough for now. With the spare rear subframe available to refurbish and fit later this year it’s something I’ll live with, once that is all on everything will be new and easy to adjust.
Back home and it got treated to a bit of an engine bay wash and brush up:

A close up of the vital details:

I have to be honest and say I’m pretty satisfied with how this has turned out, it was a proper wreck when I bought it and now it’s a damn good car. The cosmetics still need attention and the clutch can judder a bit away from standstill, but they can wait for now.

Today the VXR8 went for proper 4w alignment.

This all went well until the nearside leading lower arm on the rear axle (which is adjustable on the HSV variants of the VE Commodore) sheared. The garage had tried penetrating oil, heat, and then sheer force to get the outer adjusting nut to free off (having already successfully managed the inner), and the arm gave way instead 🤦🏻‍♂️
Got a lift back home, then had the fun* of extracting the spare arm off the spare subframe (lucky I bought that…) which put up a fair old fight. Fortunately it came around to my way of thinking before I went full fat gorilla on it. Back to the garage, dropped the replacement arm off and let them get on with it. Collected the car a few hours later and it drives so much better, but still isn’t exactly perfect. There was an adjustment bolt on one of the rear arms that they were understandably reticent about messing with, having already had the experience with the leading arm, so it’s good enough for now. With the spare rear subframe available to refurbish and fit later this year it’s something I’ll live with, once that is all on everything will be new and easy to adjust.
Back home and it got treated to a bit of an engine bay wash and brush up:

A close up of the vital details:

I have to be honest and say I’m pretty satisfied with how this has turned out, it was a proper wreck when I bought it and now it’s a damn good car. The cosmetics still need attention and the clutch can judder a bit away from standstill, but they can wait for now.

Each carriage is powered, Cummins QSK-19 with 750bhp per coach. They go ok but they’re not the most refined of things to be a passenger on.
Vents - no idea.

XC first class is alright to be fair, take advantage of the free drinks and snacks.

Whilst the VXR8 is technically roadworthy, it handles like a greased bag of particularly oily spanners. 
When the car was MoT’d the garage did the front tracking and everything was fine. 60 miles later and it’s an appalling mess. What I suspect is that all the new suspension has settled in a bit and in doing so, caused the geometry to be all out of alignment again. There’s also an alarming ‘hop’ that the back end does every half mile or so, like the wheels suddenly change direction by a few degrees and then return. Having watched the wheels via the mirrors they’re certainly not changing position or angle relative to the bodywork, so I’m beginning to wonder if the LSD needs fresh oil - theory being that the back end wobble is being caused by the diff locking very slightly on at least one side. Of course it’s a specialist oil, not widely available but apparently Land Rover also use it on certain diffs and most dealers should stock it. 
I’m also going to have a full four wheel alignment done to try and set the car up properly.
Still, at least it looks good:

No point pussyfooting around it, I had to do one of the most unpleasant jobs on a BX today.
The steering rack boot - usually a fairly simple swap. Not so with a BX.
The power steering hydraulic ram is external to the steering rack, so ram eye-end attaches to the nearside rack arm via a protruding lug (shown after I installed the boot)

First things first, the old one was whipped off. The track rod end was left connected to the hub on each side, and simply unscrewed from the steering rack, to roughly retain the tracking settings.

The old rack boot had been fouling a bent handbrake cable bracket, and had also dislodged it at one end.

 
The new boot was thrown into a boiling kettle for a while, in an attempt to soften the boot and give a bit more elasticity. The kitchen drawers were raided for spare spoons, in an attempt to allow the boot to safely stretch over the lug without tearing it. 
This was a total arseache, compounded by the fact the BX is on the lowest point of the axle stands at the moment. Crawling underneath it every few minutes was a pain, especially with the pigtail hydraulic pipes running through the middle of the engine bay.
Through divine intervention, I eventually got it on after much swearing. The aftermarket boot was much bigger at one end than the 44mm either side, so a jubilee clip was utilised to evenly take the slack up.

The other side was a breeze by comparison, and within half an hour, the offside boot was replaced and the track rod ends reconnected. The nearside boot does touch the hydraulic ram, but it shouldn't cause any issues.
Pretty sure this concludes the jobs around the engine bay. I'm planning to take two days off work next week so I can try and put some graft in to get back on schedule for the target date.
Oh yeah, here are a few random spots I forgot to post from last week:



The Xantia was very bouncy on the road, suggesting the spheres are not having a good time.
Cheers!

Whilst the VXR8 is technically roadworthy, it handles like a greased bag of particularly oily spanners. 
When the car was MoT’d the garage did the front tracking and everything was fine. 60 miles later and it’s an appalling mess. What I suspect is that all the new suspension has settled in a bit and in doing so, caused the geometry to be all out of alignment again. There’s also an alarming ‘hop’ that the back end does every half mile or so, like the wheels suddenly change direction by a few degrees and then return. Having watched the wheels via the mirrors they’re certainly not changing position or angle relative to the bodywork, so I’m beginning to wonder if the LSD needs fresh oil - theory being that the back end wobble is being caused by the diff locking very slightly on at least one side. Of course it’s a specialist oil, not widely available but apparently Land Rover also use it on certain diffs and most dealers should stock it. 
I’m also going to have a full four wheel alignment done to try and set the car up properly.
Still, at least it looks good:

Just out of interest the work so far has cost:
Walkinshaw cat-back stainless steel exhaust (secondhand): £1000
Superpro springs, dampers and front topmounts: £949
Pair of front droplinks: £70
Pair of rear droplinks: £75
New suspension arms all round, new track rods and ends, and new GM alternator from the States - £1050 including shipping and import duty.
Both rear hubs and driveshafts (secondhand): £300
Rear discs (secondhand): £150
HEL braided brake lines: £108
Rear ABS sensor: £10
Front ARB Superpro polybushes: £45
Steering rack Superpro polybush: £45
MoT + fitment of new exhaust, braided brake lines, fresh brake fluid, set up tracking: £407
Total: £4209.
Plus the parts that aren’t fitted yet:
Pair of good condition headlamps: £300
Set of alloys for refurbishment: £300
Rear subframe for refurbishment: £150
Total so far: £4959.
Still to spend:
Clutch (LS7 upgrade, fitted): £1700
Tyres: circa £600 for something decent.
Wheel refurbishment: ?
Rear subframe refurbishment (strip, blast and powdercoat), plus fitting: ?
So after all that I’ll have spent £7259 + whatever the wheels and subframe cost to refinish.
That’s a huge amount to have spent on a car, and the vast majority of that is with no labour charges. I don’t know the ‘book times’ for the work I’ve done but I’d be surprised if a pro garage didn’t book at least 2 solid days for the work I did, so that’s probably 15+ hrs at £50-£75 per hour adding another £750-£1000 at least. I’ll not count the money I spent on extra tools as they’ll get used on other things. 
So how does it compare to buying a properly nice VXR8? MWPerformance in Chester are well known for retailing good quality VXR8s, they have a red 6.0 VXR8 in at the moment for £16,995 but it is an auto. It’s somewhere close to what I will have spent including purchase, but on the upside I have a car I know is solid underneath because everything is new. That’s not to say the MWP car (or any tidy VXR8) is worn out, it’s just that those cars might need suspension work long before mine ever should. So it’s swings and roundabouts - buy the good one for an instant hit of fun and nothing to worry about immediately, or buy a rough one, spend the money putting it right and then enjoy. I could have saved money by not buying the Walkinshaw exhaust and just cocooning the crap joints on the old system in gun gum and exhaust bandage, I could just leave the subframe refresh, the spare alloys, spare headlamps and not bother changing the tyres, and the springs and dampers would have passed an MoT as they’re not cracked or leaking. But I certainly wouldn’t have been happy doing half a job, and I really dislike having to come back to something a few months later because of a job that could have been done when everything else was apart got missed for the sake of saving a few quid. 
Horses for courses, you takes your pick etc.
Hopefully I’ll pull a few quid back by selling the old exhaust backboxes, the stock springs and dampers, the old headlamps, what will become the spare set of wheels and tyres etc, and maybe someone might even want the old subframe for their own refurb/swap project. 
All of the above is probably applicable to any performance car, it’s the old triangle of choice; you can have something that is a combination of fast, reliable, cheap. Pick any two…

And it’s good news!

The good folk at Halfway House Garage fitted the replacement exhaust, braided brake lines, sorted out the tracking and gave it an MoT. 

It now drives nicely, and the exhaust is mega - a proper howl at higher revs. Not the quietest though…
Need to polish these a bit.

Glad to reach the end of this stage of works on it to be honest, it’s been a bit of a mission and there’s been a few occasions when I’ve questioned my sanity for taking it on.

Whilst the VXR8 is technically roadworthy, it handles like a greased bag of particularly oily spanners. 
When the car was MoT’d the garage did the front tracking and everything was fine. 60 miles later and it’s an appalling mess. What I suspect is that all the new suspension has settled in a bit and in doing so, caused the geometry to be all out of alignment again. There’s also an alarming ‘hop’ that the back end does every half mile or so, like the wheels suddenly change direction by a few degrees and then return. Having watched the wheels via the mirrors they’re certainly not changing position or angle relative to the bodywork, so I’m beginning to wonder if the LSD needs fresh oil - theory being that the back end wobble is being caused by the diff locking very slightly on at least one side. Of course it’s a specialist oil, not widely available but apparently Land Rover also use it on certain diffs and most dealers should stock it. 
I’m also going to have a full four wheel alignment done to try and set the car up properly.
Still, at least it looks good:

A couple of weeks ago I bought a spare set of wheels with the intention of stripping the old tyres off and then having them powdercoated and new tyres fitted. The wheels that were on the car have a mix of budget brands thoroughly unsuited to the car.
These wheels that I fitted today are neither the originals or the spare set:

They’re a set that came up for sale locally in excellent condition with almost new Pirelli P-Zeros fitted, so now I have three sets of wheels. Anyone want a set of VXR8 19’s? 
Speaking of wheels I also managed to get the hubcaps kindly sent by @AnnoyingPentium onto the Skoda:

Note the quality* repair to the hole in the rear bumper.

Just out of interest the work so far has cost:
Walkinshaw cat-back stainless steel exhaust (secondhand): £1000
Superpro springs, dampers and front topmounts: £949
Pair of front droplinks: £70
Pair of rear droplinks: £75
New suspension arms all round, new track rods and ends, and new GM alternator from the States - £1050 including shipping and import duty.
Both rear hubs and driveshafts (secondhand): £300
Rear discs (secondhand): £150
HEL braided brake lines: £108
Rear ABS sensor: £10
Front ARB Superpro polybushes: £45
Steering rack Superpro polybush: £45
MoT + fitment of new exhaust, braided brake lines, fresh brake fluid, set up tracking: £407
Total: £4209.
Plus the parts that aren’t fitted yet:
Pair of good condition headlamps: £300
Set of alloys for refurbishment: £300
Rear subframe for refurbishment: £150
Total so far: £4959.
Still to spend:
Clutch (LS7 upgrade, fitted): £1700
Tyres: circa £600 for something decent.
Wheel refurbishment: ?
Rear subframe refurbishment (strip, blast and powdercoat), plus fitting: ?
So after all that I’ll have spent £7259 + whatever the wheels and subframe cost to refinish.
That’s a huge amount to have spent on a car, and the vast majority of that is with no labour charges. I don’t know the ‘book times’ for the work I’ve done but I’d be surprised if a pro garage didn’t book at least 2 solid days for the work I did, so that’s probably 15+ hrs at £50-£75 per hour adding another £750-£1000 at least. I’ll not count the money I spent on extra tools as they’ll get used on other things. 
So how does it compare to buying a properly nice VXR8? MWPerformance in Chester are well known for retailing good quality VXR8s, they have a red 6.0 VXR8 in at the moment for £16,995 but it is an auto. It’s somewhere close to what I will have spent including purchase, but on the upside I have a car I know is solid underneath because everything is new. That’s not to say the MWP car (or any tidy VXR8) is worn out, it’s just that those cars might need suspension work long before mine ever should. So it’s swings and roundabouts - buy the good one for an instant hit of fun and nothing to worry about immediately, or buy a rough one, spend the money putting it right and then enjoy. I could have saved money by not buying the Walkinshaw exhaust and just cocooning the crap joints on the old system in gun gum and exhaust bandage, I could just leave the subframe refresh, the spare alloys, spare headlamps and not bother changing the tyres, and the springs and dampers would have passed an MoT as they’re not cracked or leaking. But I certainly wouldn’t have been happy doing half a job, and I really dislike having to come back to something a few months later because of a job that could have been done when everything else was apart got missed for the sake of saving a few quid. 
Horses for courses, you takes your pick etc.
Hopefully I’ll pull a few quid back by selling the old exhaust backboxes, the stock springs and dampers, the old headlamps, what will become the spare set of wheels and tyres etc, and maybe someone might even want the old subframe for their own refurb/swap project. 
All of the above is probably applicable to any performance car, it’s the old triangle of choice; you can have something that is a combination of fast, reliable, cheap. Pick any two…

Whilst the VXR8 is technically roadworthy, it handles like a greased bag of particularly oily spanners. 
When the car was MoT’d the garage did the front tracking and everything was fine. 60 miles later and it’s an appalling mess. What I suspect is that all the new suspension has settled in a bit and in doing so, caused the geometry to be all out of alignment again. There’s also an alarming ‘hop’ that the back end does every half mile or so, like the wheels suddenly change direction by a few degrees and then return. Having watched the wheels via the mirrors they’re certainly not changing position or angle relative to the bodywork, so I’m beginning to wonder if the LSD needs fresh oil - theory being that the back end wobble is being caused by the diff locking very slightly on at least one side. Of course it’s a specialist oil, not widely available but apparently Land Rover also use it on certain diffs and most dealers should stock it. 
I’m also going to have a full four wheel alignment done to try and set the car up properly.
Still, at least it looks good:

Whilst the VXR8 is technically roadworthy, it handles like a greased bag of particularly oily spanners. 
When the car was MoT’d the garage did the front tracking and everything was fine. 60 miles later and it’s an appalling mess. What I suspect is that all the new suspension has settled in a bit and in doing so, caused the geometry to be all out of alignment again. There’s also an alarming ‘hop’ that the back end does every half mile or so, like the wheels suddenly change direction by a few degrees and then return. Having watched the wheels via the mirrors they’re certainly not changing position or angle relative to the bodywork, so I’m beginning to wonder if the LSD needs fresh oil - theory being that the back end wobble is being caused by the diff locking very slightly on at least one side. Of course it’s a specialist oil, not widely available but apparently Land Rover also use it on certain diffs and most dealers should stock it. 
I’m also going to have a full four wheel alignment done to try and set the car up properly.
Still, at least it looks good: