No gameshow Bin or buy anymore. more tinker time with added renault teaser

[Dave_Q]

Yes you're right, pressure is the word I was looking for. I've got the same kit, gunson easybleed.

Didn't quite get all the air out on the first attempt so had to try again with a combination of pressure and pumping the pedal.

[garbaldy]

santa has been early this year and left me some goodys so I popped the red peril back in the air and set to it again.

First job find the timing marks and after a quick google suggested the car gets timed with all pistons at half stroke I cut four pieces of wire the exact same length and dropped them down through the injector holes,

I then rotated the engine so all sat at the same height and then I used an allen key to lock the bottom end through the appropriate hole at the bottom of the gearbox.

Then I locked the cams in place through the caps either side of the head and removed the sprockets,

this was the alarming bit as the sprockets don't have any form of keyway to lock the sprockets in place  Mr fiat must have left that bit for the yts guy to design.

four new rockers fitted with gasket ready to re fit the cams and rocker box setup,

oh I love shiny new bitts, after tightening the camshaft as tight as I could manage I refitted the whole cam chain kit ready to pull the plug on the tensioner

now one and a half hours later here is the engine fully rebuilt and ready for oil.

the last thing I had to do before regrounding the car was to tighten the crank bolt, Mr internet says left hand thread and 210nm so I set torque wrench and sat in front of car one foot on sub frame behind driveshaft and other on inner wheel arch and grabbed torque wrench in both hands and damn near pulled every muscle in my body but no click

second try and my face must have been redder than a red thing and ready to burst I was straining that much, still no damn click,

last try and just as my face was heating to surface of the sun temp there was an almighty bang and I flew backwards fookin torque wrench broken and yet still no click, 

I resorted to the trusty old breaker bar and a bit of pipe and just did it up till the breaker bar started to bend like a banana, if that's not tight enough then stuff you Mr fiat. 

 

 

 

 

[garbaldy]

I then let the car down filled engine with oil and turned ignition to let the fuel pump run for a bit to prime the system,   after a bit of cranking and intermittent firing it bled itself and burst into life, the engine runs quite smooth and sounds as quiet as a diesel can be and once up to temp I took it for a hurl round the block,

I've never liked corsas but I have to say it drives pretty well and accelerates straight up to 80 without issue, the engine starts first turn of the key and I was happy for about the next four hours when I decided to move it  again, this is when my cheesy grin turned into a frown    I turned the ignition on and when glow plug light went out I fully expected the engine to burst into life and purr as well as any diesel can but nope she cranked over intermittently firing until it started, once started it ran perfectly and would stop and start with ease,

 

one hour later and bollocks wouldn't start again, after checking all pipework for air leaks all I could find was a wet drip from this high pressure pump,

  

 

I have just gambled on a seal kit from   http://www.diydieselshop.com/113109965 so I shall rebuild that next and hope that is what is causing the starting issue.

[Jon]

It's threads like this that make me wish I could just stop bloody worrying about the 'what ifs' involved with car maintenance any more advanced than bleeding brakes and unbolting and replacing parts etc. and just get stuck in like you do. Much admiration! 

[alf892]

They like their heater plugs those........get it good and hot before trying to undo them though a they don't have much actual metal

[garbaldy]

Not sure where to stick this without starting another thread so here will have to do.

 

Instead of being sensible with my time and spending it sorting the blingo brakes I decided as it was a nice day to go and collect my metal glue gun,

More shitty ford metal requiring attention,

I put my hand under here and the whole side panel is flapping about

I had feared that the inner sill would also be goosed so lets see,

yes it is totally shot and wafer thin.

And what's more its much farther forward than expected, just look at that seat mount how the fook does that rust? its inside for fook sake.

I bought some new sheet and shaped it full length of the inner sill,

folded a 3/4in along the full length and shaved bits of left right and centre until I got a snug fit.

drilled a few holes and spot welded it all in place then full welded it along the top seem,

all that's left to do now is weld on outer sill and cut down the front arch to weld in place.

 

I have come to the conclusion that ford in all there wisdom must have used paint with added salt to speed up drying time,  this is the fourth transit I've taken on to weld and I fear it will be the last as they have all been that rotten once you dig about them,

this one is a 56 plate with only 60k miles on it and it is from down south so shouldn't have even seen road salt that much, I know you wont believe it but even the drivers seat mount is badly rotted,

[garbaldy]

Well back to this corsa this evening and more new bitts,  another £20 gamble that this is the problem fingers crossed, its a tad cold so its taken me half an hour to get motivated.

here are the new ones laid out awaiting fitting

this is all new to me as I've never pulled apart a high pressure system before now so here it is removed yet again for repair,

I decided to only do one of the three caps at a time as I had no idea what would spring out.

this is what is inside the pump and under the middle centre valve thingy is the smallest spring I've ever seen, 

and this little sealing washer is a tapered alloy and also thin enough to loose,

its hard to believe that under the cap is seven various seals, I fitted them with a small amount of grease to hold them all in place to ease fitting, bunged the cap back on and torqued it down as specified then moved onto the next one.

once I had done the first one the other two where a piece of pish and took half the time,  two cold hours later the car was back together and after bleeding it back up again I started it up and took it for a run round the block to warm it through,

it starts and stops as would be expected and since its frosty baws out side I guess I will wait until tomorrow to see if it starts again as I am not going back out this night.

 

I also tested the heater plugs as per alf892 above post and one appears to be down so best skulk of tomorrow and purchase a new one. 

More excitement tomorrow evening as I am back at work if I can be arsed or if anyone is even interested in corsa woes   

 

 

[r.welfare]

Keep going, I for one am finding this fascinating; I'm envious of your skills!

[garbaldy]

suppose I better update this corsa shite since there's a wee bit of a Vaux love in at the moment,

 

This looks like it will snap so plenty wd40 over a couple of days and woopie it screwed straight out.

very small so I recon the rumors of them snapping are not rumors   

I just fitted the one new heater plug as I wasn't sure this was the cause of the starting trouble and the damn thing still wouldn't start without cranking it over for ages,

I couldn't understand it and after much head scratching I found it to be the battery    how can that be I hear you ask, well I can only assume that while it was cranking the engine there was no reserve amps to fire the injectors,

 

I tested the battery with one of these and it showed as good but week.

so I charged the battery for 48 hours and I was very sure that it still wouldn't start,  guess what it burst straight into life first turn of the engine   for the next week it started with no fuss then totally out of the blue started to play up again,

 

I took the battery into the motor factors for a second opinion and there tester said it was goosed, I stuck another battery on it and for the last 5 weeks the car  has been moved from pillar to post with no issues,

 

three things I've learnt

1 my battery tested is fookin useless   

2 the green battery indicator is a liar 

3 I have two many motors

 

 

So anyone tell me what an 04 corsa is worth as its going up for sale due to another stoopid blind purchase over the phone ooops

 

[Twiggy]

Thanks for posting all this - it`s been a fascinating read - just wish I was able to do all this...

[Parky]

I have enjoyed this. So surprised the engine survived the broken chain, I would have thought bits of shredded rocker would have nicely sandblasted the innards. Top bombing and gr8 skillz!

[vulgalour]

Excellent read, first time I've dropped in on this thread and clearly I'd been missing some fine shite fettling.  These Corsas are pretty popular in our neck of the woods and are fetching £600 for fairly tatty examples and as much as £1200 for minty fresh ones with lots of MoT on.  Not seen any road legal examples under £500 locally.

[lisbon_road]

Likewise, impressed with the speed you've sorted out that Corsa.

 

Mechanic friend told me that there's nothing wrong with them except (and a big except) the service interval was 20K miles and it is far too long.  Especially when they get older, they get back street serviced with cheapo oil.  He told me to put anything I like in one and change it every 5K.

 

I got a 55 plate one about two-three years ago for £175 with chain slip and bent valves, plus loads of dents and a swimming pool inside (they really know how to leak).  It had not been serviced for 25K miles and given cheap oil before that.  Not only was the chain slipped but the camshaft bearing faces in the ally head were all eaten away, which he told me was due to the oil becoming acidic and eating the metal away.  I got a replacement head - though I did sell the old head on ebay for £100 - with an accurate and honest description of its faults!

 

Corsa C wins on handling, but doesn't have Corsa B durability.

[garbaldy]

I am now going to hopefully pass this car on to a new owner,  does anyone fancy it?

its not in the same league as the vulgalour  corsavior and now bubs corsa,s  but to me it drives pretty well,

 

I never expected these words to ever enter my head but I quite like it  and the last Vaux I liked was the viva.  if my daughter was a couple of years older I would keep it for her. 

 

 

now as for price, you all know what I paid for it and what I've spent on it so I am going to price it at £850 ish which I think is a reasonably fair price,   or am I missing the bigger picture.

[Cavcraft]

That's good VFM.

[Station]

Good thread, a lot of horrible jobs you are doing!

Why do they use Fiat parts in anything other than Fiats?

 

The new MX5 is a Fiat isn't it? It's rancid looking, looks like one of Leepu's creations!

 

[Split_Pin]

Good thread this, I would have said there was a grand on top of the purchase price there. Your price is VALU.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

That's good VFM.

 

Too cheap IMO. That's got to be worth a bag in anyone's book. Low miles, OMFGFSH, diesel and resale red.

[brickwall]

The interior cleanliness is almost sureal.

[Cavcraft]

Someone buy this, please.

[bub2006]

To rid temptation Billy?

[Cavcraft]

Messaged you Garbaldy.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Great work Baldy!!!!! Excellent skills

[garbaldy]

I think I will just add this here if no objections.

 

the scrote is coming along nicely and is now road legal but not drivable yet.

I noticed this hole on the sill so decided to cut it out and replace with new metal,

it was full of this old expanding foam so I had to scrape it all out as I suspect this is the cause of the rust,

I cleaned it up with a wire brush on the grinder and gave it two coats of some proper old red oxide.

cut up a full sill and used the back bit instead of removing good metal and welding for weldings sake.

this hole in the sill was all that was stopping the bit of paper required from mr mot.

it now had its mot and all paperwork was sent to the doovla to register the old gall.

 

to be continued

 

 

[garbaldy]

now that it was moted and paperwork in the post it was time to gut it and I drilled out the spot welds for the battery tray as it is on the wrong side,

wiring loom marked up and removed, I couldn't find a right hand dash so time to set to it with the grinder.

then I had to knock up a template to swap the holes from left to right and drill out the spot welds for the pedal box mount,

ford luckily placed the shaped indentations in the same place both sides to make life easier for me. then I stuck the template on back to front to mirror the holes.

that left these holes so I simply plated over them and seem sealed round them.

on the new drivers side I spot welded the pedal box mount into its new position.

[garbaldy]

the old hole for the wiring loom was the exact same size as this spray tin lid which was lucky so I drew round it and chopped it out.

welded in and seem sealed up

the fuse box had to be swapped from right to left as well.

then before paint the battery tray was spot welded into the now passenger side.

after some filler work I masked of the engine bay and readied for the rattle cans.

 

remember old smokey.

well so far its donated the front struts steering rack and columb along with the clocks to save some sourcing time.

 

next update will be when I can be arsed.

 

 

[Timewaster]

Brilliant work. I seem to have missed a page though?

It's obviously a mk£ Escort which you are swapping sides but is there another thread that tells the story?

[garbaldy]

I wasn't sure really where to stick this so just tagged it onto this thread,

 

Here's collection http://autoshite.com/topic/19244-is-it-usually-hard-to-buy-from-leboncion-germany-is-easy-though/page-3

[garbaldy]

The dashboard was a bit of a challenge as panels are not available, what I did was cut out the clock binnacle then cut out the same shape from the other side, unfortunately the heater controls are not central so I also had to cut out the centre section and flip it over,

with much tinkering and spot welding this was the end result, then a light skim of filler and some satin black I was quite pleased with the end result.

the wiring loom was then fed back under the dashboard by simply flipping it over so it was basically upside down and back to front.

then it was onto the heater matrix so it was stuck in and the heater controls and the rest of the steering column, once the dash top and the fascia was fitted and all the switches I think it looks pretty damn good.

 

I then moved onto the engine fitting.

 

[garbaldy]

The engine of choice is the 2.0 pinto so a short motor was sourced through the bay of E then a complete engine surfaced so this was also collected along with a pair of heads, a gearbox due to starter motor being on the wrong side and also a tank for the audi.(will have to get back to that next)

I fitted the brake servo and then the engine bay was ready for the trial fit, thank god for hydraulics as these engines are a lot heavier than I remembered 24 years ago, the block was in and out half a dozen times to see exactly where the sump was fowling,

you can just see in the pics the dents in the sump after much hammer wielding,  (this is the sacrificial sump) 

I left the engine in its hole then got on with making the brake pipes up while waiting for the correct sump to arrive.

The complete engine is a runner so I stuck it on the stand to check it over and fit the cambelt and new sump.

I tried absolutely everything to undo the crank pulley bolt and even the clark electric impact gun wouldn't look at it right then we had visitors pull into the drive so knocked it on the head.

While supping coffee and discussing the crank problem he pulled this out the boot and saved the day

after an hour or so I was free to get back to the job in hand and guess what I never had the right spline key to loosen the tensioner  Bollocks had to resort to the Subaru method,  Stanley knife right round the length of the belt then removed the outer half and slipped new belt half on, removed the last bit of the old belt and then pushed the new belt home, funnily enough the new belt is tighter than the old one so this should do to get it up and running before I get the right splined bit to check it.

 

later updates to come.