dave21478 Posted March 20, 2015 Posted March 20, 2015 I posted in the grin thread the other night about a mkV Escort Estate I had spied for sale cheaply. Having sold the C2 I was in need of a runnabout and since nothing exciting caught my eye, I decided to go with the mediocre if I could buy it cheaply enough and save my pennies for an interesting car later. Anyway, I called the seller last night and he seemed coherent so I arranged to go and see/buy the car today. He said it starts and runs, but eats its coolant within a few miles - suspected HGF - so I took the trailer. Ready for action this morning..... Took to the roads and encountered loads of farmer types clogging up the highways. I was stuck behind this twat for ages. I go past this place pretty often. Dead DS and BX outside. Blurry dashcam tourism shot of a medieval fortified town on the hilltop. This place is rammed in summer. It was a couple of hours event-free drive to the place where the seller lived. He had told me to ring him when I got to the village as his house was hard to find. His girlfriend or wife or whatever dropped him off in this mildly pineappled Golf and went elsewhere, while he came with me back to his house.Here the seller and I compare receding hairlines. (I am the fat skinhead). His house turned out to be a run-down farm. This dog barely touched the ground the whole time I was there, going mental on the end of its chain trying to tear my throat out. Proper nasty bugger.Bonus Fester van and Ren11. continued..... mat_the_cat, EssDeeWon, laser wheels and 9 others 12
dave21478 Posted March 20, 2015 Author Posted March 20, 2015 The car was fine - Nothing outstanding, but not completely fucked either. We shook on €200 which is mega-cheap for France. Inside his house, which turned out to be his parents farm it was like a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, including the nearly-dead grandpa propped up at the dining table. paperwork signed I made like a tree and got out of there. On the road home, this tidy 5-door 5 made a last-minute lane change at the lights which almost ended badly for him. SVM continental division coming through the same junction... Louvre'd up CX.... A what now?"Iveco Massif" according to google. Like a fool, I blindly followed the sat-nav which took me home a different way to how I had arrived. Got stuck behind this truck for ages as the roads got smaller and smaller. It was a proper tight squeeze through this gap. Oh fantastic, Hairpin mountain passes that need taken in first gear - Ideal for fuel economy while towing 2 tons. Continued... Skizzer, laser wheels, UltraWomble and 2 others 5
dave21478 Posted March 20, 2015 Author Posted March 20, 2015 At the pez station I was too busy checking out this wee ginger piece to notice that the lanes were about two inches narrower than my trailer. Twat. I managed to fill up but had to reverse out again. Since I arrived about 30 other people arrived after me, so trying to back out of the lanes earned me some new friends*.It was too busy to get a preoper petrol station shot, sorry. Still there.... In lieu of the moneyshot, have a "stopped in a layby for a slash" shot. Back home.... Having a closer look at it, it seems ok.Could do with a couple more 16v badges though. Badly oversprayed rear door shut and grot breaking back through the arch. Continued.... pshome, laser wheels, oldcars and 7 others 10
Skizzer Posted March 20, 2015 Posted March 20, 2015 I can't believe you've been home for at least 10 minutes and haven't yet rearranged the badge on the back to spell SCROTE. laser wheels, HH-R, dave21478 and 2 others 5
dave21478 Posted March 20, 2015 Author Posted March 20, 2015 The mill. Seems tidy enough if a little grubby.... Full* service history - ie tippex on the cam cover. With no paperwork to back this up, I am skeptical. It all has to come off anyway to change the HG. Comes with a proper Frencghh Haynes manual, which are proper old-skool with pin-outs for the electronics and how the strip and rebuild the gearbox etc unlike modern Haynes books which just refer you to the dealer for anything more complicated than changing a shock absorber. It also comes with three more wheels. Its running two good winter tyres on the front and two good normals on the rear. Dunno what the spare is, I never checked that closely. The three extras are two more winter tyres and a semi-slick.Its got air-con (dunno if it work, unlikely, I would say) leccy front windows and central locking, but is missing the main remote key, so I have to use the key in the lock like a pleb. I will hopefully get started on the mechanicals over the weekend, but overall I am like the rail enthusiast who got crushed by a steam train.........chuffed to bits. UltraWomble, mat_the_cat, worldofceri and 6 others 9
Split_Pin Posted March 20, 2015 Posted March 20, 2015 I always enjoy photographic updates from France. Looks like a nice bit of the country. Hopefully you'll get this Escort earning its keep for you ASAP. Looks like a proper useful steed. Shep Shepherd and dave21478 2
hairnet Posted March 20, 2015 Posted March 20, 2015 crazy frog for 200 yo dont look bad even if it needs a small fixing dave21478 1
dave21478 Posted March 21, 2015 Author Posted March 21, 2015 I took the plugs out and they are totally normal, as are the piston crowns - just the usual soot- no sign of HGF. The last one of these I did a HG on had no1 cylinder buffed clean by the water passing through. I want to run it for a while to confirm diagnosis before stripping it, but the serpentine belt is gubbed. I started stripping today to find the auto tensioner has failed and the wheel was just flapping about, having lost all its ball bearings. What a pain in the chuffer to remove that. Its mounted on a massive alloy bracket bolted to the front of the block which also holds the power steering pump, alternator and air-con pump. These all have to be removed to get this bracket off, then get the tensioner out.Obviously once it was all in bits I saw there is an access hole on the far side to get at the tensioner mounting bolt, but even then I dont think it would fit past the inner wing so maybe just as well I took it all to bits.New one ordered this evening. I took the timing cover off while I was there and it looks like the belt was changed recently after all - the belt is very clean and the waterpump looks brand new....result. Just as well I had a look as there are remains of the serpentine belt wrapped round the water pump shaft. I pulled them all out. They were half-way into the timing belt housing. If that sort of debris gets in there is usually game over for the timing belt. outlaw118, UltraWomble, DS20 and 2 others 5
wuvvum Posted March 21, 2015 Posted March 21, 2015 dave21478, on 20 Mar 2015 - 5:35 PM, said:I can't believe you've been home for 10 minutes and someone's already nicked the engine out of the Freelander. brickwall, oldcars and KruJoe 3
HH-R Posted March 21, 2015 Posted March 21, 2015 How many valves does the Scrote have? TRW and oldcars 2
dave21478 Posted March 22, 2015 Author Posted March 22, 2015 I can't believe you've been home for 10 minutes and someone's already nicked the engine out of the Freelander. Yah, the trailer noseweight was waaay too high. I loaded up in the guys farmyard which was bumpy as hell. It looked even at the time and I couldnt be harrissed to shift the car back a bit once I realised out on the roads.
stuboy Posted March 22, 2015 Posted March 22, 2015 How many valves does the Scrote have? 16v...but couldnt see anywere says on it though HH-R 1
steve_earwig Posted March 22, 2015 Posted March 22, 2015 I thought PSA had the patent on using bits of aux belt to take out the timing belt... Rusty_Rocket 1
TRW Posted March 22, 2015 Posted March 22, 2015 How many valves does the Scrote have? 32 valve, 4 cyl lump in these IIRC HH-R 1
steve_earwig Posted March 22, 2015 Posted March 22, 2015 32/4=8 valves per cylinder? Do they have oval pistons?
worldofceri Posted March 22, 2015 Posted March 22, 2015 2×16v = 32v It says so on the bootlid, man. DS20, rml2345, TRW and 1 other 4
Cheggers Posted March 22, 2015 Posted March 22, 2015 16 valve - 8 in the engine, 4 in the tyres and 4 in the radio cobblers, stuboy and steve_earwig 3
DS20 Posted March 22, 2015 Posted March 22, 2015 Yah, the trailer noseweight was waaay too high. I loaded up in the guys farmyard which was bumpy as hell. It looked even at the time and I couldnt be harrissed to shift the car back a bit once I realised out on the roads. One of the reasons that I like my air-sprung Range Rover for towing - the self-levelling flatters the lazy and inept, like me
Chas4545 Posted March 22, 2015 Posted March 22, 2015 Years ago my Mrs had an escort (it was badged Mexico weirdly) and on arriving to pick it up at stealers announced herself as "Hi, Mrs Brown, Escort service". Service bloke said it made his day and she still blushes when I remind her of it. True story. alf892, HillmanImp, chaseracer and 2 others 5
dave21478 Posted March 27, 2015 Author Posted March 27, 2015 So I have now replaced the serpentine belt and tensioner and got it running. It purrs away quite nicely but HGF is a possibility.It warms up ok, heater works well etc but there seems to be a hell of a lot of pressure in the coolant system - pipes are pretty hard. I have wanged a bottle of k-seal in and am running it up and down to see what happens. Despite the high pressure, the coolant level seems stable and there is no mayo or other signs of mixing. On the down side the exhaust seems a little steamy and the inside fo the tailpipe is quite greasy.....I will take it for a longer run once my insurance kicks in. To my massive surprise, the air con works well!
dave21478 Posted March 28, 2015 Author Posted March 28, 2015 Well, I pulled the head and the engine appears kippered. cylinder 3 has a couple of deep-ish vertical scores in the bore and the top of no4 piston is pretty beat up. Looking down no 4 there are a lot of deep scores easily felt with a fingernail. The head isnt too pretty either. Obviously something has been sucked through the engine. So - break it for parts? Well, that leaves me back to looking for another car. I have the Landrover so its not urgent. Option 2 - there is an escort for sale for parts....couple of hours drive away but the guy reckons the engine is good. €150, plus that would give me a cars worth of other spare parts if I need them. - However its a horrible-looking boy racer wank-mobile complete with Monster Energy stickers and poundshop wheel trims. Probably thrashed. Option 3 - a guy not too far away is selling a 1.8 engine, complete. Mine is the 1.6. If I just wang in the 1.8 will it work, using the original 1.6 inlet, injectors, ECU etc? - However, its just an engine lying in the floor - no way to test or see running before buying. What would Jesus do?
worldofceri Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 Never mind what Jesus would do. What would Mr_Bo11ox do?
320touring Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 Never mind what Jesus would do. What would Mr_Bo11ox do?1.8 auto 75 is the answer Dave_Q 1
vulgalour Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 I believe Mr Bollox would purchase another R8 Rover. Harsh news with the bricked engine, not what you want at all. If you can't find a good engine in Franceland, is it economical to use this here forum to locate and importa good engine from the UK?
cort16 Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 Gaffa tape and cornflake box head gasket on it and run it until blows up? Vince70 and EssDeeWon 2
fordperv Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 Buy the other break it for the engine and be happy in the fact you took a gopping one off the road and fixed yours in the process Vince70 and chaseracer 2
Cavcraft Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 200 Euros for an escort with HGF seems completely mad in Britain. I doff my proverbial hat in your general direction.
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