Project Korean Cortina - MOT day

[loserone]

Top work. That screen looks like new, and the tyres look very meaty.

 

Am I right in recalling this doesn't get out in the salt?

[mat_the_cat]

Yes, I don't have it on the road in the winter (although annoyingly they are still gritting now!) but I've been impressed by the tyre's grip and wear rate in year-round use, so figured they'd be a sensible choice. The old tyres (BF Goodrichs) badly needed balancing, so having a fresh set of boots is bliss!

[LightBulbFun]

very cool stuff with the EL backlight replacement

 

 

how are you measuring the output voltage? it may be a case of under no load it reads 220V but under the load of the EL panel it drops?

 

(nice on the tyres too )

[mat_the_cat]

I was measuring the voltage under load, for that reason - although I didn't check it with a new panel. So it's possible that with an aging panel the impedance increases, and if the supply inverter is trying to keep a constant current, the voltage may well be lower with a new panel.

[mat_the_cat]

Hopefully next weekend I'll be heading over to Sheffield in it. One of my friends from school has his 40th birthday then, and although we lost touch around 20 years ago his wife tracked our group of friends down and invited us all to a surprise party. I wonder if they remember the car - I often used to be the designated driver and take people into town for drinks in it!

 

350 trouble free miles (and rather a lot of fuel) later, I'm back home. Actually, mpg wasn't too bad - 22mpg on the tankful at the start of the trip, which included a few mountain roads, and 25mpg sitting at 65-70mph on the motorway.

 

The party was in the function room above a pub and was great to meet up with several friends from school. Conversation drifted to cars, and I was asked:

"Do you remember that really old car you used to have, what was it, really square, like 3 boxes?"

[points out of window] "That one there?"

"NO! Is that really the same car?"

 

Ended up giving my mate a lift back home in it - he was taken right back by the smell, and the look of it inside!

[mat_the_cat]

As I mentioned a while back, I've been meaning to replace the headlining for a while. The roll of material arrived a couple of weeks back, so I've made a start on the job. First thing was to RTFM - one of the few jobs which is still relevant to the original factory manual!

 

 

But what's this? I don't own a special tool 09853-31000!

 

 

So I had to make do with a gasket scraper, which worked pretty well. Old headlining was removed, in all its glory...

The stains around the centre are from when I attempted to re-glue the original material which was hanging down. It was previously owned by a smoker, as you can probably tell!

 

 

I then had to tackle the areas of rust, which although light had extended over quite a wide area. Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 was the potion of choice.

 

 

Once this has dried I will stick some soundproofing sheet on there, to reduce any drumming. In the meantime I've glued the new material onto the headliner - looks about a million times better!

 

[danthecapriman]

New headliner looks great. Amazing how much shit and grime manages to build up on the old ones, my Capri’s old one didn’t look too bad, but compared to the new one it was actually minging! It had also been a smokers car and had that nicotine yellow hue!

[The Moog]

That's a good job ... How hard was it to do?

[mat_the_cat]

It was actually really easy - just peel off the old material (barely even adhering), spray on contact adhesive and roll out the new. Fiddliest part was removing the headliner from the car, but with this being a saloon it was fairly manageable. I did our Discovery a long time ago, and that was a huge, unwieldy sheet to remove.

[catsinthewelder]

Did you need to take a screen out to remove it though?  At least the Disco has a big back door.

[mat_the_cat]

That was my worry, but it fitted diagonally through one of the front door apertures. Would have been a major bind to take a screen out!

[mat_the_cat]

Job is now done, and really pleased with it Those of you who've seen Dollywobbler's video will know how it looked before...

https://youtu.be/ifKoJkWObIY?t=67

 

And here is the 'after' photo:

 

So surely that is enough of a reason (together with the carb upgrade) for a repeat road test?

 

One thing I was reminded of during the job was obtaining the little cover plates over the grab handle screws:

 

When I got the car half of these were missing, and it took me ages even back then to find replacements in scrapyards. I remember one yard had three Stellars! Those were the days...

[mat_the_cat]

I went out this weekend, and in the space of 10 miles had two flashes of recognition from people who knew the car! Fame...

I've managed to tick off another minor job from the list - the gear lever gaitor. The original was some kind of plastic imitation leather, which as well as looking cheap had started to deteriorate.

Problem was, nowhere listed a replacement leather one for a Stellar, which is surely a massive oversight? I'd wondered about getting one made up, but  before I did so, on the off chance sent off an email to an eBay seller:

http://www.ebaystores.co.uk/thetuningshop

They couldn't have been more helpful, and looked though their designs to find the best match for me!

So, off with the old, using a home-made pin spanner to loosen the gear knob locknut:

And on with the new!

Not quite identical to the original, but looks quite nice I reckon - kind of OE plus.

Less good news is that I seem to have a bit of clutch slip. I think it is improving after I've sorted out an oil leak from the oil pump, so hopefully is just contamination. Previously it was doing it in 3rd gear upwards, now just 4th under hard acceleration as you can see in this dashcam clip.

It feels faster than the video looks BTW!

[LightBulbFun]

that makes a truly epic noise I totally did not* re watch the video several times... (nice work on the gaiter repair too )

[mat_the_cat]

This weekend I took a trip to Santa Pod (to spectate, not compete!), and I thought the Stellar would fit in well there given its powerplant. I last took it there in 2001 or so, and I remember being envious of all the lovely sounding engines. On the way I hit usual Bank Holiday traffic, and the temperature gauge headed north  Didn't get any higher, but it's a concern how quickly it does rise from normal as soon as I slow down.

I think the cause is twofold - firstly the fans are marginal  for cooling it anyway, and with them being mounted on the front, when they are not spinning they are effectively shielding the radiator from some of the cooling airflow. I reckon I can get one larger fan on the rear, and one smaller than current, but without knowing the cfm of the current fans I won't know if this will be an overall improvement...

We got to the venue and set up our tents as the sun was setting:

My mate was in the Kangoo (used to be mine) behind me coming in, and overheard one of the blokes on the gate as I was sat idling. "That doesn't sound like a Hyundai", and as I pulled away "No fucking way!" Made me chuckle!

On the way back I spotted to take another photo of the dashboard; this time for happier reasons!

22 years of ownership and it's made the second milestone - unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the first 100k, but would have been within the first year I had it as I was doing 20k miles a year at the time.

[Noel Tidybeard]

i would think the "normal" section is ALL of the grey shaded bit and hot isnt till after small white line and into actual red bit

renner say normal is area between the two small highlighted arrows ?

[mat_the_cat]

It probably isn't a massive cause for concern, but it rises much more quickly than the original engine did - and with the Hyundai sender on the V8 I know it is running warmer when moving slowly. Plus, to fit AC I probably need to improve the cooling system as I'll be sticking a condenser in front of it!

[Noel Tidybeard]

possibly not as the fan(s) will be moar active with a/c

[mat_the_cat]

True, but will that be offset by the warm(er) air leaving the rear of the condenser? I dunno, it all just feels a bit marginal at the moment, but that's a gut feeling rather than measured.

[LightBulbFun]

is it possible to stick a proper thermocouple into the coolant loop hooked up to a digital read out to get an accurate reading of coolant temp to check if everything is alright?

its one of the things I like about my computer, I can keep an eye on ALL THE THINGS!

[mat_the_cat]

Yeah, probably. I used to work in temperature calibration, so there's no excuse! I did measure it with an infra-red thermometer, but without knowing the emissivity of what I was pointing it out, couldn't rely on it.

[Noel Tidybeard]

as a rough idea with torque running on the spaceship temp a/c off = 88/90*c, a/c on 78ish*c

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

13 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

spaceship

Hold the phone………….a fucking SPACESHIP!!!!  Where the fuck is THAT thread!

[mat_the_cat]

As the owner's manual says, always use genuine Hyundai parts!

In an idle moment I started thinking that an OE filter would be a better bet than the aftermarket ones I've been using. Having seen the internal differences I always use them on the rest of the fleet, but no chance of an original Rover item for this. So I had the silly idea that maybe a Hyundai one would be suitable, and with a bit of Googling I managed to match up the specs. (I could have just fitted a genuine Land Rover filter, but where's the fun in that?!)

I'll have to book it in for a main dealer service at some point, for a laugh!

[RayMK]

You'll be getting specially cast rocker covers fitted next with 'HYUNDAI' on them.  Just think of the car show conversations that that would cause amongst the know-it-alls ?. 

[mat_the_cat]

The thought has crossed my mind! But the cost puts me off, however the Buick and Leyland P76 versions of this engine have pressed steel rocker covers, which don't give away the engine's origins...

I'm keeping an eye out for bargains, put it that way!

[MorrisItalSLX]

What you need is a whole P76 motor.

How could you go wrong with 4.4 Litres of Rover V8?

[mat_the_cat]

Not sure if this has been shared on this thread, but Dollywobbler has reviewed 2 Stellars back to back!

It was interesting to hear the comments about the bushes, and also for me to drive Andy's Stellar back to back. 

It's always felt a bit 'looser' since the engine swap, despite me replacing every single bush and ball joint on the car, and stiffening the shell with seam welding and hidden tubing - so it *should* feel tight, at least for an 80s car! I'd just put it down to a rose-tinted memory, and being spoilt by modern cars!

But now it's just struck me - the upper front wishbone bushes are rather close to the exhaust manifolds, so could well be softening with the heat and causing vagueness. The clock from the rear is just the exhaust knocking, which I really must sort!

[RayMK]

1 hour ago, mat_the_cat said:

Not sure if this has been shared on this thread, but Dollywobbler has reviewed 2 Stellars back to back!

It was interesting to hear the comments about the bushes, and also for me to drive Andy's Stellar back to back. 

It's always felt a bit 'looser' since the engine swap, despite me replacing every single bush and ball joint on the car, and stiffening the shell with seam welding and hidden tubing - so it *should* feel tight, at least for an 80s car! I'd just put it down to a rose-tinted memory, and being spoilt by modern cars!

But now it's just struck me - the upper front wishbone bushes are rather close to the exhaust manifolds, so could well be softening with the heat and causing vagueness. The clock from the rear is just the exhaust knocking, which I really must sort!

Yours sounded fabulous, as always, and Mr DW could feel the extra shove since you've changed the carb.

It was strange and a little sad seeing the ex-RayMK Stellar being owned and driven by someone else but I'm pleased that, despite oil worries and a noisy exhaust manifold, it was more or less behaving.  It was over a year ago that I parted company with it.  Must be due for an MOT again.  Good luck to Mr CMS206 with that. I hope it does not give too much hassle or expense.

[mat_the_cat]

On to the cooling system improvements, and this is why I think the low speed cooling is impeded, at least until the fans kick in. The (static) blades and motors cover a significant proportion of the radiator:

I was aware of this when I fitted them, but I didn't know how significant an effect it would be, plus these were already in my possession (borrowed from the blue Disco).

I've now removed them both, and replaced them with this.

This may seem like a backward step (and it may be), but there is logic behind my thinking. Firstly it removes the shielding effect, so the fan will be required less when actually moving slowly. And if the fan is predominantly required only when stationary i.e. idling, there will be less heat being generated, therefore less airflow actually needed. Thirdly, the new fan covers the whole height of the radiator - the previous ones had a gap, so some of the tubes would allow uncooled water straight back into the engine. And lastly, using a fan as a pusher means you get a lot of turbulence and back pressure as you are trying to 'fire' the air at a restriction. For this reason, pulling the air through is more efficient.

Early signs are that the duty cycle of the fan at idle is less, so it would seem to be having a positive effect. Proof of the pudding will be when I see hot temperatures next!

Of course, the other benefit is that I can put the fans back on the Disco, and have the luxury of air con on the log collector...