Sold Dollywobbler's Bluebird - Buy an award winner! £SOLD

[twosmoke300]

Just wait til you try a modern chain driven engine with vvc and variable valve lift with a one shot chain tensioner ( ie pull the pin and its fucked so if you balls up the timing you have to get a new one - I believe some of the ford dohc chain engines had them too ).

Thats a stressful first turn of the key I can tell you !

[twosmoke300]

Or a transverse quad cam v6 !

[dollywobbler]

Funnily enough, I was thinking that there's plenty of room for a V6 in here...

[PhilA]

Nice thing is there of you are turning it by hand then you can feel the resistance of piston meeting valve and stop turning, then reassess the position of the cam. (Single person method)

 

Phil

[dollywobbler]

I'm limping slowly towards the finish line!

 

I'm feeling better for deciding to replace the water pump.

 

With that done, I then re-attached the exhaust manifold and downpipe, but that's about it until the new tensioner and timing belt arrive - hopefully tomorrow. I'm leaving the inlet manifold off for now because, ridiculously, it's a lot easier to fit the spark plugs before that's bolted in place. I'm leaving the plugs out to make it easier to turn the engine by hand until I feel reasonably confident that the engine isn't going to eat itself.

 

So, I started considering other matters, like the 'bodge from hell' seatbelt.

 

I'm going to try and pull it apart, seeing as it's knackered anyway. A bit of springy stuff has already fallen out of it. A replacement is on the way, but is the wrong colour, so if I ruin this one, it's no great loss. On the other hand, if I can pull the plastic off without destroying it, then perhaps I can swap it to the replacement.

[danthecapriman]

Great work so far DW. I love that seatbelt bodge! It wants mounting on a wood plinth and displaying proudly on the mantlepiece! Who in their right mind would do make something like that and consider it ok?!

[dollywobbler]

Great work so far DW. I love that seatbelt bodge! It wants mounting on a wood plinth and displaying proudly on the mantlepiece! Who in their right mind would do make something like that and consider it ok?!

 

Who in their right mind would pass it for an MOT several times?!

[twosmoke300]

No way it was presented for mot like that !

[dollywobbler]

No way it was presented for mot like that !

 

Several times! This failure in 2012:

 

 

Offside Front Seat belt locking mechanism does not secure or release (5.2.5a)

 

Terrifying.

[danthecapriman]

Who in their right mind would pass it for an MOT several times?!

Really!? How the hell did they pass that!

Do you know the garage that passed it? I've got a few cars I need MOTing.

[trigger]

We need to keep that belt buckle as a winners trophy if we a have Autoshite quiz at the next Shitefest.

[Ben_O]

many moons ago, an old schoolfriend of mines parents had one of these.

 

I remember that overheating one day and after waiting for it to cool down, he poured in 2 litres of lemonade from the shopping in the boot and off we went.

 

good luck with finishing the head. Almost there!

 

Ben

[JayW]

Is this the one I saw on the back of a truck last Thursday? Somewhere M11, M25, M3 direction, I forget...

[dollywobbler]

Is this the one I saw on the back of a truck last Thursday? Somewhere M11, M25, M3 direction, I forget...

 

No. It was sitting broken on my driveway last Thursday. And the Thursday before that... It was on the back of a truck on the 18th May. I think. 

[dollywobbler]

I hate working on cars.

 

Got the belt on, having had to dash into town to get a replacement tensioner bolt. Not quite the right type, but seems to work. Then I manage to slice a knuckle, and then it started raining too. Have I got the timing right? We'll have to wait for an answer. I've got a school run to do this afternoon, and I'm away all day tomorrow. Home Thursday, then away all weekend. This keeps dragging on...

[richardthestag]

blimmin heck man this is turning into a lock wheel nut thread

[dollywobbler]

Back together. Not running on all cylinders. Makes a horrible shrieking noise (inlet leak is my guess, vanishes under throttle). Have run out of time until next week. UGH. Not a good day for car progress. Fail all round.

[Ben_O]

[stuboy]

My mates car had a bungee holding seat belt in.

[dollywobbler]

Like a wounded buffalo, that's missing a leg, this thread keeps hobbling along without much progress.

 

Having utterly lost one of the Nippa's hub nuts, I thought I might as well have a quick play with the Bluebird. Cam cover off, admire all the beige still in there (though the oil is now slipper beige rather than the previous sticky beige) and reset the tappets. On cylinders 1 and 2, they seemed fine, three's inlet was too tight, as was four's. Reset them, cam cover back on, exactly the same. Two cylinders I reckon, as the exhaust manifold for three and four gets very hot, very quickly - no coolant in it, so I'm only running it for ten or so seconds. One and two seem to be the culprits. I'm going to have to pull the inlet manifold off again and have a gander. Any sealant recommendations? I'm surprised a leak would stop cylinders firing altogether though. I'm remembering the Dyane, which drove home with one inlet manifold bolt missing entirely...

[jonathan_dyane]

When you turn it over by hand do the compressions seem even?

 

At the risk of condescension; you do have the leads on the correct plugs don't you?

[dollywobbler]

Yes, it does feel even. Pretty sure on the firing order. I have tried swapping one and two, and that actually managed to make it even worse. Which is odd if neither seems to be firing now... It helps that the four HT leads are generally very different lengths, so three and four definitely correct (the ones that work now). Maybe I'll double-check at the dizzy end. When I get chance.

 

I could really do with a few hours to chuck at this thing, but it isn't happening at the moment! It's too hot, there's too much other stuff to do (work AND a spell of community bus this afternoon), then there's a very narrow window where it's not too hot, but before the midges descend...

[spartacus]

Did you turn the engine over with the head off at all?

[dollywobbler]

No. Could the engine have turned before I got the cam timed up? Definitely. I am starting to wonder if I'm a tooth out.

[barefoot]

My 944 was once set up for me by the garage with the cam belt a tooth out.

It was astonishingly smooth to drive, but woefully slow & wouldn't go up hills.

[320touring]

It'd be odd if 1/2 were affected by belt being a tooth out, as it controls timing for all cyls.

 

I'd suspect either a lack of compression on affected cyls (valves/springs not working?) Or a lack of spark tbh.

[richardthestag]

Cav 1.6 pez slipped a tooth.

 

Smooth at idle but utterly gutless and sounded horrible

[dollywobbler]

Not that then. Double-checked and it is timed correctly. So I pulled the inlet manifold off and sure enough, I'd done an utterly shit job of removing the old gasket. I'd completely missed it on the corner of cylinder 1 inlet. Cleaned it all up, refitted, spotted a missing vacuum pipe (source of the whistle?), plugs back in, not a sausage. Sounds bloody horrible in a scrapey, catchy sort of a way. Plugs back out, spin it on the starter, smooth as you like. Suspect ignition settings are all to cock. Start removing distributor. One of the screws shears off. FFS. Walk away. F*ck it.

[richardthestag]

bollox I have had a few of those. muttering "let some other fucker have it" or something about barnfinds on ebay

[The Moog]

At least you walked away rather than attack it with a hammer