Six Cylinders Motoring Notes

[Six-cylinder]

I got my MX5 back yesterday with a fresh MOT and serviced.

Last year in storage had killed the battery and after a 20 mile drive it was still flat so I had to ask for a new one to be fitted. Unfortunately a bit of welding was necessary at the back of the nearside sill. They also welded the exhaust but tell me I really needs a new one. Changing the oil has not cured the tick from the engine on cold start up. My favourite garage tell me the old oil looked like new anyway and while it has been in there 2 years has only done 1,000 miles.

I took it shopping yesterday and as ever is great fun to drive even if I am a whim and did not lower the roof.

[SiC]

8 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Changing the oil has not cured the tick from the engine on cold start up

The Wynns Valve Lift Treatment did wonders on mine to quieten them. 

[wuvvum]

Yep, that stuff is one of the few "snake oil" cures (along with the Lucas power steering stuff) that actually seems to do what it says on the tin.  Worked wonders for the tappet noise on my first Stagea.

[Six-cylinder]

Carlton parts came in today, just the oil filter to go.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

Carlton parts came in today, just the oil filter to go.

Have I missed a head gasket failure in the thread?

[Six-cylinder]

2 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Have I missed a head gasket failure in the thread?

Page 293 Sunday 10:07 pm

[beko1987]

3 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Have I missed a head gasket failure in the thread?

Their probably in double digits now...

[richardmorris]

6 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Page 293 Sunday 10:07 pm

Ah yes, i was dealing with a panda infestation,

[Six-cylinder]

I am looking for a front wiper motor for our Citroen XM?

My garage says it is getting power but all functions only work when they feel like it and they have asked me to find a replacement motor.

1997 XM 2.0 16v auto RHD.

Has anybody got one they can sell me?

[Floatylight]

25 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

I am looking for a front wiper motor for our Citroen XM?

My garage says it is getting power but all functions only work when they feel like it and they have asked me to find a replacement motor.

1997 XM 2.0 16v auto RHD.

Has anybody got one they can sell me?

Has @chaseracer still got access to a pile of bits?

[chaseracer]

No, but I believe I do still have the wiper motor!

[dean36014]

11 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

I am looking for a front wiper motor for our Citroen XM?

My garage says it is getting power but all functions only work when they feel like it and they have asked me to find a replacement motor.

1997 XM 2.0 16v auto RHD.

Has anybody got one they can sell me?

Warranty expired? 

[Six-cylinder]

16 minutes ago, dean36014 said:

Warranty expired? 

You knew I was thinking about making a claim, only 2 years and it has broken already. 

[Six-cylinder]

10 hours ago, chaseracer said:

No, but I believe I do still have the wiper motor!

Have you found it?

[dean36014]

8 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

You knew I was thinking about making a claim, only 2 years and it has broken already. 

Bloody terrible seller you bought it off, definitely not to be trusted😁

[Six-cylinder]

A plan is coming together to take the head off the Carlton tomorrow (Sunday) morning with @Talbot.

If anybody wants to come along to the FoD and help/witness the event then please pm me.

[chaseracer]

11 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Have you found it?

Been on/in/under the race car all day, but I'll pull the Dyane out of the garage in the morning and track it down.

[Six-cylinder]

1 minute ago, chaseracer said:

Been on/in/under the race car all day, but I'll pull the Dyane out of the garage in the morning and track it down.

Thanks

[hairnet]

On 4/9/2021 at 9:20 PM, richardmorris said:

Ah yes, i was dealing with a panda infestation,

thats one way to avoid a speed camera :D

chris i was thinking about it but sunday trains with no notice although found a super off peak 28 quid return from crewe (the normal ones from here are 76) - it means

riding to crewe

train wouldnt get to mk till 1200

pheh

[Six-cylinder]

8 hours ago, hairnet said:

thats one way to avoid a speed camera

chris i was thinking about it but sunday trains with no notice although found a super off peak 28 quid return from crewe (the normal ones from here are 76) - it means

riding to crewe

train wouldnt get to mk till 1200

pheh

pheh?

[Heidel_Kakao]

3 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

pheh?

It's probably the Hairnut equivalent of a meh.

[Six-cylinder]

53 minutes ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

It's probably the Hairnut equivalent of a meh.

As long as it did not mean collect me from the station!

[Six-cylinder]

Looking though the Carlton paperwork today I found the original service book stamped up July 2003, 76,000 miles.

[DSdriver]

I was going to get the angle grinder out because I thought you were doing a Carlton decapotable

[richardmorris]

How did it go? Very cold and snowing in Surrey!

[Six-cylinder]

Today was the beheading of the Carlton, Talbot took his axe and sliced it clean off.

Turns out it was pretty straight forward and nothing was really stuck. In fact some bolts seemed quite loose. There is just a bit of corrosion on the head, but it should be fine again with a skim.

Talbot has stripped the head and the next stage is for me to get it skimmed.

 

[Talbot]

Definitely a bit of an odd one this.  Several items that I expected to fight me all the way were actually incredibly easy and required zero effort to remove.   As stuff was being disconnected, I was expecting to find the head gasket had been chaned within the last 3 years or so.  However, the HG itself was/is completely knackered and falling to bits, so either it's older than I think, or it's been run with seawater in the cooling system for the past few years and rotted everything out, gasket included.

Still, it came off without much issue, leaving a trail of brown mayonnaise everywhere.  Other than the failed HG, everything else looked in fine fettle.  The only slightly concerning point is the head corrosion shown in the last photo above.  The photo makes it look worse than it is, and I think a decent engineering workshop will be able to recover that head back quite well.  There's a fair bit of internal corrosion in the water channels (hence my comment above about it being run on seawater) but the head face isn't bad at all.

What's quite odd is working on an engine that was designed for transverse FWD applicaitons, and that I only know from transverse FWD applictions that has been shoved sideways under the bulkhead.  The distributor is completely and utterly inacessable on this installation, and the additional bits and bobs that have been bolted onto this engine to make it  work in a RWD application are quite amusing.  The best one is the "fake" water pump, which is about 100mm from the real water pump.  It's just a casting with a bearing in the end that the radiator cooling fan can run on, which then necessitates the massively long duct from the radiator to the fan.

You'd think Vaux would have just shoved an electric cooling fan on the rad and be done with it.  That said, the gap between the radiator and the cambelt end of the engine is absolutely comical, so I think they needed something to fill the space!

One thing that is really quite knackered on this engine is the belt covers.  The captive studs in the back cover have almost all ripped out, and the front cover is broken in many places.  I was wondering about asking on Mk2Cav.com to see if anyone has a spare set of covers.  Is there any other Vaux-based forum that might have someone who can help?

[Six-cylinder]

Has anybody got the cylinder head bolt  torques for a 1993 Vauxhall Carlton 2.0i cat?

A bonus would be the torque setting for the cam carrier and torqueing down sequence diagram for the head.

[Talbot]

2 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

torque setting for the cam carrier

The cam carrier is held down by the head bolts, hence the reason the cam carrier came off after the head was removed, so there isn't a separate bolt set or torque setting.

We'll definitely need the torque/angle information for the bolts.  The order of tightening I can work out/have an educated guess at.  It's not generally absolutely critical, just as long as the gasket is tightened from the centre of the block outwards, it's fine.

If anyone has a haynes for a MK2/3 Cavalier, or MK3 Astra the information will be in there too.

[Talbot]

Never mind.  Found it: