Zel's Motoring Adventures...Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - 09/06 - (Finally) unburying TPA...

[Zelandeth]

Busy day.  I now hurt in places I didn't know I had.

Starting point.  Well... actually a few days ago, but I forgot to get a photo before I started.

Got the heads built up with the new valves.

Briefly interrupted...well actually interrupted for the best part of half an hour, when I couldn't find one of the valve keepers.  Which I had carefully bagged up with each valve's hardware.  Of course it turned out to be sitting right in front of me didn't it?

Sneaky little bastard.

Checked the torque values in the manual before starting to put anything in the car.

Head number 1 fitted to the engine and torqued down.

Head number 2 fitted and torqued down.

Rocker shafts refitted.

Exhaust manifolds reconnected with new gaskets.  Yes, the rearmost bolt on the right hand bank was precisely as much of a pain in the tail to put back in as it was to get out.

Nearside was actually a bit of a faff as the exhaust had sagged a bit while it had been disconnected and holding its own weight for the last couple of weeks, so I had to use a jack to help lift it up to get the first bolts in.  If I had a helper I could have probably got them to help lift it, but working by myself I had to improvise a bit.

Then got out the old oil gun and gave all of the cam followers and camshaft itself a thorough dousing in fresh oil as it's all been open to the elements for the last couple of weeks.

Then the valley cover/intake manifold gasket was refitted and the inlet manifold went back on.

...At which point, after I'd refitted most of the coolant lines, I realised I'd forgotten something kind of important.  These clamps which hold down the ends of the valley cover, which are meant to go on before the manifold.

You *can* get them in with the manifold already in place, but really shouldn't.  It's really awkward, especially the front one which is wedged right under one of the coolant lines.

Oil can came out again to give all the valves and rocker shafts etc a good oiling.

A lot of swearing ensued reassembling the Rube Goldberg nonsense of a throttle linkage/kickdown cable nonsense.

Then started throwing the last few bits on.  It's starting to look like an engine again.

Things to follow tomorrow:

[] Fathom out exactly how the spring clip that holds the throttle linkage together is meant to go back together.

[] Change engine oil & filter.

[] Refill coolant.

[] Change spark plugs.

[] Refit HT leads.

[] Retrieve the dipstick support bracket from where I dropped it under the car just before wrapping up this afternoon and refit it.

Then cross my fingers that it will actually run again after all of this...ideally on all eight cylinders!

Feels like a reasonable amount of work to get done in an afternoon though.  

Definitely will be adding an electric ratchet to my toolbox soon though, that would have saved me a fair amount of time and definitely arm pain.  Especially for things like the exhaust manifolds which were slightly too tight to spin up by hand but have quite long threads on this engine.  Just a time saver it would be nice to have.

Hopefully we'll be up and running tomorrow.  Hopefully!

[SiC]

That fuel filter 🤣 

Don't forget a first run video, we're all looking forward to it just as much as you!

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

That fuel filter 🤣 

Don't forget a first run video, we're all looking forward to it just as much as you!

For all it's badly yellowed there is no actual gunk in it.  I do need to change it though.  Keep meaning to order some the correct size to allow that but keep forgetting.

[Zelandeth]

Step 1.  Finish putting things back together.

Then the oil & filter got changed.  Which was timed well as I got it done right as a rain shower started.

Reconnected this little linkage which attaches the throttle linkage to the carbs.  Getting the little spring clip back on was fiddly.  Glad I didn't persist in trying to do that while I was tired yesterday.  I'd probably have pinged it off into oblivion never to be seen again.

Coolant was refilled.  Using OAT coolant as that's what came out.  I'd rather see this using old school glycol coolant, and will probably switch back to that when I change the coolant properly.  It's quite murky so definitely wants flushed out at some point soon, this job had only drained about half the radiator, so I was just refilling like for like for now.

Changing the spark plugs didn't happen.  Simply because the ones I'd picked up were the wrong size.  So I just cleaned up the ones I'd got.

Then reconnected the HT leads, having had the forethought to mark number 1 before I took things apart.  Rotor rotation is clockwise.

Before I actually connected the coil I did crank the engine over just to make sure we didn't have any noises coming from anywhere and actually had even sounding compression - which we did.  No big obvious skip when it was turning over.

Fast forward a couple of minutes...

This isn't actually the first start - there's a couple of minutes run time already on there.  I didn't have anywhere where you'd have been able to see anything I could have wedged my phone, and I didn't want to miss something important because I was concentrating on recording video.

We did have a couple of coolant leaks initially, one from the lower heater hose and one from the top radiator hose.  These are quite old hoses so I needed to ensure the hose clamps were lined up where they used to be.  A new set of hoses is on the to do list.  

What we also had was a hell of a lot of smoke from the exhaust manifolds.  I knew I'd spilled some oil, coolant etc on there while the heads were being removed and the block cleaned etc.  However I was quite surprised by the sheer volume of smoke that was generated while it burned off.

Proof the car has moved under its own power again!

Which allowed me to retrieve the things I'd dropped while working on the car.  One washer from a carb base, a thousand old exhaust manifold gaskets, and the bolt from the dipstick support.  Not bad.

We did a quick bumble round the block.  So, so much smoother as you'd expect.  Though seemed very hesitant on a light throttle after a minute or two.

Ah.

Initially I figured this was my leak from the top coolant hose having returned, but quickly realised this was actually petrol pouring out of the bowl vent from the offside carb.  Yep, that would explain the lumpy running.  This is why it's really important to ensure the drain tubes on those ports are properly fitted as it meant this harmlessly drained down onto the ground rather than dumping it over the top of the engine.   

Gently tapping the fuel inlet to the carb in a highly technical manner with a screwdriver handle has restored it's continence for now, but I figure they're both probably going to really want a proper inspection and clean.  In fairness that carb has been sitting upside down in the boot for the last couple of weeks so it's well within its rights to be a bit grumpy.

Idle speed is quite high, but running a lot smoother now.

 

I'll be doing a little more testing etc over the next couple of days.

After a few heat cycles we will go back and recheck the head bolt torque as things settle.

First trip to an actual destination more than a mile away will be to get the tracking sorted.  Currently there is a ridiculous amount of toe out, and that needs seen to!

[High Jetter]

54 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Reconnected this little linkage which attaches the throttle linkage to the carbs.  Getting the little spring clip back on was fiddly.  Glad I didn't persist in trying to do that while I was tired yesterday.  I'd probably have pinged it off into oblivion never to be seen again.

They're little plastic* ball joints, IIRC. Regularly failed, we stocked loads.

[PhilA]

That sounds good. Should be many miles ahead of it.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

Started straight up today...and promptly started pouring fuel out of the *other* carb.

Service kit for both has been ordered.  Probably just need some slime cleaned out of the float needles, but I'll at the very least need bowl gaskets if I open them up, and it would be maddening to realise I needed something else 90% of the way through putting things back together.  I really need carb to manifold gaskets anyway as the head gasket kit didn't come with them.

I'll swap the fuel filter at the weekend as well in case it's breaking up internally and shedding stuff into the system.

Yesterday was the first time I'd been aware of this issue, but if it's been ongoing for a while this could go a long way to explain the ridiculous amount of fuel contamination we had in the oil when the car arrived here.

Oil and coolant levels were exactly where they were left yesterday at least which was good to see.  

[SiC]

Perhaps intermittent failure too. Which is even more likely to flood the engine. 

The P4 had a float valve leak initially so slight that it just ran rich on occasion. Then it progressed worse till it was pumping fuel through the jet assembly into the manifold.

[vulgalour]

If you've got the black tipped needle valves like this:

They can get stuck when the car has been sat a while.  A bit of regular use usually gets them to behave again.  You sometimes get the same problem with the shiny metal tipped ones if they've got excessive wear.

[Zelandeth]

35 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

If you've got the black tipped needle valves like this:

They can get stuck when the car has been sat a while.  A bit of regular use usually gets them to behave again.  You sometimes get the same problem with the shiny metal tipped ones if they've got excessive wear.

Being a 1975 car it *should* have the Viton tipped needles like that.  Though we've already ascertained that this power unit is a definite Heinz 57, so who knows what I'll find!

It will be most likely towards the end of the week before the kits arrive so we'll do a bit of perseverance between now and then, see if a bit of use, a fresh filter and potentially a bit of a blow through with some compressed air to try to shift any crud helps.

Worst case...I need to change the bits which will be on the way.  Nothing lost but a bit of my time.

Edited October 6, 2023 by Zelandeth
Corrected autocorrect...

[Zelandeth]

Yep...will definitely be making bloody sure the wheel alignment is properly sorted before we put fresh tyres on there.  No two ways about it, this is going to sting.

[Surface Rust]

12 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Yep...will definitely be making bloody sure the wheel alignment is properly sorted before we put fresh tyres on there.  No two ways about it, this is going to sting.

Ovation and Hi Fly both do lower cost 185 80R15 car tyres if you don't mind Chinese deathrings. I put some HiFly HF201s on my P4 and they don't look out of place.

[SiC]

7 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Yep...will definitely be making bloody sure the wheel alignment is properly sorted before we put fresh tyres on there.  No two ways about it, this is going to sting.

 

7 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

Ovation and Hi Fly both do lower cost 185 80R15 car tyres if you don't mind Chinese deathrings. I put some HiFly HF201s on my P4 and they don't look out of place.

I think that's the exact tyre size on Zels P4 in HiFlys. So should be a ready idea of how they work on a classic.

I usually hate cheap tyres but I was reassured that this chap uses them on his big block V8 converted P4 and recommended them. Running sub 10s at its peak at Santa Pod.

https://www.facebook.com/Mk1Kieran/videos/1255688985294563/

I think I paid £45 a tyre when on an eBay promo code. Only issue is that I don't think there is many sellers with stock of them at the moment.

[Zelandeth]

14 hours ago, SiC said:

 

I think that's the exact tyre size on Zels P4 in HiFlys. So should be a ready idea of how they work on a classic.

I usually hate cheap tyres but I was reassured that this chap uses them on his big block V8 converted P4 and recommended them. Running sub 10s at its peak at Santa Pod.

https://www.facebook.com/Mk1Kieran/videos/1255688985294563/

I think I paid £45 a tyre when on an eBay promo code. Only issue is that I don't think there is many sellers with stock of them at the moment.

I need to ponder this I think.  On the P4 I'm slightly less worried about tyre choice as it's not exactly a car where handling is something you're going to worry about.  It's a fairly sedate car.  Something a bit more meaty like the P6, which reputedly handles pretty well needs a bit more careful consideration I think.  It's worryingly easy to lock the brakes up on the P4 on a wet road, and don't fancy going around roundabouts sideways in MK every time it rains!

These will definitely need to be swapped though.

That's 1992 if I'm reading it right.

Aside from one which is from 2018 - but has very visible divots in the sidewalls in several spots.

Yesterday I swapped out the old fuel filter as I'm not entirely convinced it wasn't starting to break down internally.

Don't have one the same side as the original one in stock so had to improvise a bit.

When I get some larger diameter filters in I'll return that to it's correct location.  Also rerouted the hose from the fuel pump a little as it was curved backwards before and was virtually touching the exhaust manifold.

Also noticed that the fuel hose connection to the distribution connection to the carbs had the hose clip actually too far up so it wasn't gripping the barb...I was easily able to just pull the hose off.  So fixed that.

That could have got exciting.

Found a vacuum leak...the zip tie on the brake booster vacuum hose might not have exactly helped.

Replaced with an actual hose clip.

No more leak there - though that hose really wants changing as it's too short and has an unused T halfway along it which has been blocked with a screw.  Not ideal.

While trying to tighten that hose clip I totally lost a screwdriver and spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out what I'd done with it.  This isn't out of character as I have a true talent for misplacing tools.  It turned up later in the day...

Note to self: Check down there next time you lose something before dismantling the entire work area looking for it.

Reason I wound up down there though is that we've developed an oil leak.

Looks to be seeping out between the oil pump and filter housing, so I imagine that gasket needs replacing.  Couple of the bolts look great fun to get to.

[Zelandeth]

Something I had completely missed is that apparently this car has had different wheels fitted at some point.  Correct spec for this is actually 185SR14s, not 15s.

So the 15s currently on there were added at some point later.  Originally from a P5 I'm guessing?

The plastic surround for the gear selector has at some point been broken, so got glued back together today so it no longer falls to pieces every time you put the car into park.

Not perfect, you can clearly still see the crack, but at least it's one piece now.  This is the sort of random thing I'll keep my eyes open for down the road.

Similarly on the "completely pointless but visually annoying" list was the rusty end covers on the dash.

These have been rubbed down and given a coat of hammered black.

Still very slightly tacky so I'll refit them tomorrow.  Not perfect, but shouldn't draw the eye any more at least.

Something which had been drawing *my* attention lately had been the idle sitting at 1500rpm, and what felt slightly lacklustre throttle response.

Needing to take about 1/4" of slack out of the linkage between the carbs to make them actually start opening at the same time made a huge, huge difference to throttle response.  It's now far more snappy.  While I was there I also backed the throttle stop screws off a bit which brought the idle down to a more sane level.

I had noticed the engine was sometimes reluctant to turn over when hot, and audibly pinked while starting so took a look at the timing.  Yeah, it being set to 26° BTDC won't have been helping anything.  I suspect someone has read this on the data plate and interpreted that as the timing setting rather than the dwell.

That would at least explain why the engine was trying to spin itself backwards during hot starting.

Funnily enough, that's actually the one bit of data which isn't printed under the bonnet anywhere I could see.

Went back out just now and dialled in 3° - aimed for midway between those values. 

I'll tweak it a bit by ear if needed at a later date.  In the dark while being eaten alive by half the midges on the planet is not the ideal time to be messing with stuff like this.  It's definitely by a country mile the easiest car I've ever had with regards to timing adjustment.  The hardest bit was finding a +12V source for the timing light.

The idle sounds way better now though - I think at idle before we were pretty much exclusively running on the left carb - they still want to be properly balanced most likely, but they are both contributing now and are synchronised properly at least.  It sounds much more like a V8 now if that makes any sense.

Think I need to try foil wrapping the fuel line from the pump.  This is what happens when the engine bay is fully up to temp and the engine has been idling for a while.

 

This isn't air being drawn into the line - the fuel is actively boiling off.  It continues bubbling for ages after the engine stops.  The fuel outlet on the tank on this is from the bottom - so any holes in the fuel supply result in all your fuel exiting the vehicle rather than air being drawn in. 

I discovered that the hard way when I initially went to rebuild the fuel pump before deciding to do that when there's less than 9/10th of a tank of fuel in the car - it came out with a lot of enthusiasm as soon as I loosened the inlet connection.  This is also why I haven't investigated the non functional fuel gauge any further yet.

The oil leak noted yesterday has been vastly, vadtly reduced by nipping the bolts up a bit - at least three were noticeably loose.  It is still weeping very slightly, but we're talking a drop every minute or two with the engine held at 1500rpm when fully warm rather than a drip or two every second we had yesterday.  Gasket has been ordered though and it will be replaced as time allows.

Pretty sure that this is the adjustment point for the steering toe angle.

So I have started to liberally dose that in PlusGas with a view to getting that adjusted properly sooner than later.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

 

Y tho? 

14" sounds right, can check a parts cat if you need.

[Zelandeth]

Going to do a few (a lot) more runs round the block to test things first, but if they can fit me in to look at the wheel alignment, this might be the P6's first very careful, very nerve wracking run tomorrow all being well.

3.3 miles.  We've already done more than that going round in circles.  However never being more than 500 yards from home!  Going somewhere actually out of our neighborhood seems a lot more scary!

They're good guys over there though, and I'm sure they'll give me a chance to have a good look underneath it on the ramp which will be really useful.

[Zelandeth]

Sadly they couldn't fit me in today, but it's booked in now for Thursday morning.  I have checked and the toe angle adjuster cracked free no bother at all so at least that's one fight they won't have to deal with.  They were helpfully able to fit in sorting the slow puncture on the offside rear wheel on the Peugeot though - a nail was found well hidden in the tread so that was sorted.  Having that wheel balanced has got rid of the slight vibration at speed too which is a nice bonus, that must have been the wheel that was out.

Dash has now gone back together post paint.

Much better than patchy rust I think.

It was originally a satin finish (I'm assuming some sort of powder coating rather than painted based on how it flaked off) but I don't think the hammered glossy finish looks at all out of place.  I may at some point need to see if I can do anything to convince the top of the dash to return to something closer to its original shape - the whole dash top has lifted when the board backing has got damp - thinking doing that deliberately and putting something heavy on top of it might be worth a try...but equally I don't want to make it worse...I think just taking some black paint to the underside of it so you can't so clearly see that you're looking at the underside of fibreboard is probably the more sensible option.

Done some further testing this afternoon as I've also been trying to dial in the kickdown cable adjustment - which I think I've pretty much got there now.  It's fair to say that with the carbs being synced and the timing adjusted we do have rather more low end torque now.  To the point that when I pulled away after backing out of the drive for the first time the few things which had been sitting on top of the dash and in the open glove box were launched into the passenger seat/my lap with quite some force.  Previously you needed to noticeably press the accelerator to get power, now bumbling around on residential side streets just requires the tiniest of inputs as you'd kind of expect for an engine and gearbox combination like this. 

There is definitely something not quite right with the rear suspension.  Turning right at a roundabout with any speed will make the nearside rear tyre rub on the arch as that corner is sitting far too low.  Hoping we can get it up on the ramp when I have the tracking done to get a proper look at what's going on.  I can't see evidence of a broken spring poking my head under the car, but you can't really get a clear look at it.

While we were out doing the testing I made the mistake of opening one of the fresh air vents.

I really should have thought that through better, as about 30 years worth of dessicated spiders, pine needles, atomised leaves and large amounts of dust were thrown straight into my face.  Counting myself lucky I had sunglasses on.  I really should have known better!

[Zelandeth]

Getting rid of the small mountain of random parts and suchlike in the boot of the P6 was something I'd been wanting to do since it arrived. 

So I now just have yet another pile to work around in the garage of course!  That wheel is absurdly heavy.

Need to try to track down a battery cover at some point. 

A couple of things I'd been looking for did appear while rummaging through the boxes.  First being this.

A simple but quite important bit of hardware - the heat shield which should sit between the brake master cylinder and the exhaust manifold to help prevent it from getting cooked quite as badly.  This has now been reinstated.

The other was a whole bunch of screws which belonged in the tail lights - the vast majority of these were originally missing, though both of them now have all seven screws correctly fitted.

Only missing one now, the bottom one for the nearside front indicator.  Annoyingly despite having gone through all of my boxes of fasteners I can't find one with the right thread pitch which is long enough.

I had that apart today as well to resolve the issue with the non functional sidelight - which just needed a new bulb.  Though the lenses were both filthy and the whole light unit was full of dead spiders and general grime so I took the lenses inside and gave them a thorough wash.  This predictably made the other one look visibly worse so that got taken apart too and given the same treatment.

Also finally got around to removing the plethora of stickers on the windows.

That was somewhat precipitated by the desire to *clean* the windows so I could actually see through them properly as the windscreen in particular was absolutely filthy.  The rear windscreen still is - sadly it's been quite noticeably pitted on the inside by grinding/welder spatter so is never going to be 100%, though it would be far worse if that was the windscreen.  Rear one being a bit pitted isn't the end of the world.

[Crackers]

On 10/5/2023 at 10:44 PM, Zelandeth said:

Fast forward a couple of minutes...

Gosh she sounds good. I do miss that noise! 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

.

I nominate that pic for an award.

[CaptainBoom]

9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I nominate that pic for an award.

Calendar pic for October mebbe?

[LightBulbFun]

12 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I nominate that pic for an award.

3 hours ago, CaptainBoom said:

Calendar pic for October mebbe?

I quite like this picture myself   I dont bother with desktop/phone wallpapers but it would make a good one! I like how its all P6 in shot  

as an aside never realised the side lights have little light pipes like that to serve as an indication/corner marker? to the driver thats nifty  

[SiC]

38 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

as an aside never realised the side lights have little light pipes like that to serve as an indication/corner marker? to the driver thats nifty  

Rover did this on some of their earlier models too. 

[Zelandeth]

20 hours ago, Crackers said:

Gosh she sounds good. I do miss that noise! 

Sounds a good deal better now she's not idling pretty much entirely on one carburettor.

This morning the P6 was booked in to The Garage over in Wolverton to get the wheel alignment looked at.  First trip more than a few hundred yards from the house, of course in the rain.  Of course the wiper blades haven't made it to the top of the to do list yet, so they're still ancient.  Thankfully they do actually still have blades on them, and I was able to clean them up enough that they were functional, albeit emphatically not great.  Sufficient for dealing with three miles of light drizzle though.

We made it there in one piece - albeit having discovered that these tyres have about as much traction off the mark in the wet as industrial grade Teflon.  Wheelspin at 900rpm, no problem!  Yeah, they'll be getting changed soon.  Actually seem to handle braking just fine, but trying to pull away anything other than exceptionally gently they're not a fan of.

Guys there were their usual efficient selves, and took a lot of interest in the car.  Tracking wasn't actually anywhere near as massively out as I'd expected, though it was definitely out.  Having it sorted has definitely vastly improved the straight line stability, previously the car wanted to wander all over the shop when you were trying to drive in a straight line.  We did have one bit of near excitement on the way there, in that the temperature gauge crept up very nearly into the red on the way there before the thermostat opened and it calmed down - sitting here under normal conditions.

So I will be replacing that in case it's sticking.  That's a failure we could do without.

I took the opportunity to stop on the way home to grab a couple of photos to commemorate the car effectively being released back onto the public highway.

After we were home I changed the oil & filter again.  Aside from wanting to flush out any remains of the slime that was in there when the car arrived, having just had the heads off I was always planning to treat the first fill after the heads were off essentially as a flush to ensure there's no debris I've introduced getting stuck anywhere.

The drained oil was still a little cloudy, but nowhere near as bad as what originally came out.

Here's what was drained from the engine the day the car arrived here just for reference.

That's after it had settled out for a while too.  You can see why I was planning on doing a couple of changes one after the other.

No noticeable moisture gathering on the oil filler cap any more it looks like - this used to be literally dripping wet whenever you took it off.  This is after sitting overnight too so did represent a full heat cycle.

Later in the day I had a couple of errands to run, so took this out again.  She's officially burbled her way to a supermarket to pick up groceries now, that feels like a decent landmark for a car that's been off the road for an indeterminate period of time.

Handling was further improved by me actually checking the tyre pressures - which I thought I'd already done, but apparently not.  Especially as they all had north of 40psi in - nearside front was nearly 50!  I imagine this was done while the car was in storage to help avoid them getting flat spotted.  Which sadly hasn't worked, one of the rears is definitely out of round.  I'm really annoyed with myself for not checking that sooner though, no excuse for that.

Things I've got out of today's driving - probably 20 miles or so in all.

[] Possibly sticky thermostat when cold.

[] Reversing lights don't work.

[] Light metallic click from somewhere in the rear end driveline when coming on/off the power.  Hopefully just a UJ needing some grease.

[] Windscreen wiper blades desperately want changing.

[] Rear tyre{s} out of round which becomes very obvious if you try to exceed 50mph.

[] Kickdown cable still needs a tiny tweak - I've gone too far the other way again now and she won't drop into 3rd at all until 42mph even when coasting.  Suspect there's going to continue to be a bit of going round in circles until I get that spot on.

[] Low end acceleration even when being deliberately really gentle is such that you almost invariably find yourself being held up by modern traffic almost the moment you pull out of a junction.

[] The burble is addictive.

[] Heater does work, albeit currently sans blower.

[] I keep looking for a nearside wing mirror that doesn't exist.

Aside from the brief bit of anxiety before the thermostat opened (and it may just be like that - this is the first time she's been out of a 20mph zone really, so I would expect the engine to have warmed up a lot faster than when I'd been testing before) that's not a bad result I reckon.  Not even any maddeningly annoying squeaks or rattles in the cabin which have made themselves known yet.

[LightBulbFun]

Really Awesome to see the P6 has made it out of the neighbourhood and back again

I have really been enjoying the no-nonsense approach to this, You got the Car, you figure out the issue, took it apart, fixed the issue, buttoned it back up and back out she goes  

[Zelandeth]

My shopping list has grown a bit over the last couple of days.  This time...unlike when I did the head work...I've been deliberately waiting until I'd got a decent amount of stuff to get before pressing order, which will probably be done tomorrow.

[] Coolant hose set.

[] Thermostat.

[] Oil pump/filter housing gasket.

[] Wiper blades.

[] Fan & PAS belts.

[] Rear light cluster gaskets.

[] Front marker/indicator lamp cluster gaskets.

[] Replacement for the missing screw in the NSF Indicator lens.

[] Aerial.

[] Windscreen washer bottle - there's a big crack in the back of this one so you can't fill it more than 1/3, and the motor only works 50% of the time unless you whack it with a screwdriver.

[] Hose to re-make the brake servo vac line.

[] Full set of flexible brake lines as the front ones are starting to perish a bit.

[] Rear brake discs & pads, as these are pretty past it (not actually looked at them after today's run, but they were looking pretty past their best when originally inspected.

Possible they could be faced, I'll need to measure them to see if there's enough meat left to make it worthwhile (new discs aren't cheap).

While I've already got the rear brakes apart I'll likely just get the calipers rebuilt by Bigg Red.  They're a right faff to work on being inboard so I really just want them to work and not to have to continually mess with them.  Starting out with a known good caliper just makes sense I think.

Yes.  I have just typed that up here so I can refer back to it when I inevitably forget something!

[Zelandeth]

Had this out again briefly today before the heavens opened.  Definitely really liking how this car drives.  Really suits me.   Reminds me a lot of the XJ-S, but without the spine destroyingly low seating position and consequently feeling intimidated if a cyclist pulled up next to you as they towered above you.  They are both exceeding *easy* cars to just waft around in, with the engine barely having to get above idle around town as it's so torquey at the bottom end of the rev band.

Definitely think I've got a sticky thermostat.  Noted today that she seemed to be running warmer (like a needle's width over half) on open roads at 50 or so before dropping back when trundling around residential areas - that to me suggests it's not opening fully as I'd expect the temperature to drop if anything rather than increase with speed, especially with me still treating the car gently.

Not really a surprise given the car has been sitting around for a while and the cooling system was not looking exactly the cleanest when I started.  Definitely been some gunk washer out of it since the head work was done.  This went in clean about 40 miles ago.

Have also noticed what looks to be a pinhole in the one radiator end tank.

Looks like there have been some repairs in that area before, so might be time to think about replacing that too.  No visible actual leakage there since I've refilled the system, but it clearly HAS been leaking there.

[SiC]

Bet that leak gets worse with coolant changes. Ime they always do until they're a constant pin hole stream of hot water coming out!

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

Bet that leak gets worse with coolant changes. Ime they always do until they're a constant pin hole stream of hot water coming out!

Aye.  

I'm torn about whether to attempt repairing it or not...brazing isn't exactly rocket science...but I don't know if it's leaking there because it's too far gone or if whoever did the previous repair just didn't know what they were doing.

Looks to be due to that end tank taking a whack at some point in the past rather than due to corrosion/age.

Might do a closer inspection of the condition of the core as a whole before making a decision on whether to give it a try.  If the whole thing is looking a bit past it's best I've little to lose really, best case I buy myself a year or three.  Worst case I cough up for a new radiator a bit sooner than planned.